Sahl Hasheesh - Baron Palace Resort Hotel

Baron Palace Resort Hotel, Sahl Hasheesh

Another business that managed to open just in time for the tourist season was the Baron Palace Hotel (daahlings, “Baron” is pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable – “Baronne”). It advertises itself as “six star”, but I’m not sure how official that is. Anyway, when fully completed, it will have an extra 600 rooms available for visitors to Sahl Hasheesh, so its opening is a pretty big deal in these parts.

Since people had seen it being built over a number of years, its completion aroused quite a bit of curiosity among the residents (it’s just like living in a little village here with everyone wanting to know what’s going on where) and over the weeks a number of people have made the journey to take a look (it’s the other side of the bay from El Andalous, so you need transportation).

It is a truly beautiful hotel – with a wonderful flower display in the foyer and a huge chandelier overhead. There’s a lovely infinity pool overlooking the sea with its further multiple hues of blue. I took coffee there one day with Pam and Jac in an area shaded by something akin to a wooden gazebo; we were actually waiting to be shown round the hotel, but in the end Jac performed the tour for us since nobody arrived and she’d been several times already.

The hotel has three sections – one for families (there’s a teenagers’ bar [with computers, a pool table, a games area, and bar area] and a children’s play area [children’s pool, rooms for various age ranges, cinema rooms, library, a childrens’ bar], plus child-minding facilities available), another part houses the numerous restaurants, and the third section provides adult-only accommodation.

It houses facilities for conferences – one was actually taking place as we were there and we swiped some of the rather wonderful chocolates that had obviously been left over from the coffee break. No wonder I used to put on so much weight when I worked!

The spa, which was opening the next day, also looked and smelled magnificent. We walked along a candle-lit corridor with the scent of cinnamon floating in the air to a central area and a maze of corridors with 18 treatment rooms, a sauna, a steam room, hot slabs.

I’ll be interested to see what their daily rates are as I can feel myself planning my birthday treat in September (inshallah)!