Visiting Morocco's Secret Lake Resort

Bin el-Ouidane, Widiane Luxury Hotel and Spa

AZDEAN: [00:00:00] Welcome back to another amazing episode of Destination Morocco podcast. Welcome from Bin el-Ouidane. We are here today Widiane Luxury Hotel and Spa, and we are very fortunate to have Mr. Nabil with us as a guest, and he's going to explain everything there is to know about Hotel Wydiane Resort and Spa. [00:01:00] Mr.

Nabil, welcome to the podcast. 

NABIL: Thank you so much, my pleasure to be with you and welcome again to our beautiful resort. 

AZDEAN: Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Nabil, if you would please tell us and tell the audience, little bit of background history about the luxury hotel of Widiane Resort and Spa, please.

NABIL: So, the Widiane Resort Hotel is located on the hill side of Bin el-Ouidiane. The first part is divided by two parts. The first part is more traditional. I see. And it was opened in 2011. And the second part, which is more modern, we opened this part in 2022. 

AZDEAN: 2022. So two parts, one opened. 2011, and the second part opened in 2022.

Now, the place is massive. It's really, really huge. And, you know, we've been on the road for almost 40 days, documenting everything from southern Morocco to the north side of Morocco. This is our last stop, and I feel we have left the best for [00:02:00] last. I mean, I'm beyond Surprised in the most positive way with the hotel, with the staff, with the amenities and the location is just incredible.

Can you describe to us what's, what are we looking at behind us? I see a lake, is it a dam? I see the mountains, I see a village or villages. Would you please explain that Mr. Nabil to the audience? So, 

NABIL: here we are in the middle of The Anti Atlas. Okay. In the middle of the deep Morocco.

We have the lake. Okay. We have the mountain, we have the nature, and we have the people. That's the most part of the story of our evolve. 

AZDEAN: Absolutely. we stayed for one night and I know for a fact it's, it's really not enough. So, before I get to that question, I want to know a little bit more about you, Mr.

Nabil, if you would share your story with us and the audience, please. 

So my name is Nabil, of course, Mohamed Nabil Chagrawi. I was graduated from the High Institute of Tourism in Tangier. In Tangier. Wow. And I start working in the big group. I see. With the, with the many brands. I did [00:03:00] many opening from Accor Group.

I see. So I had the pleasure and opportunity to work in many, in many hotels. Nice. And it's a pleasure for me to participate. I would say come back to this region because I'm originally from this region. Oh, wow. So, uh, when the opportunity was here, I was very excited to come back to my region, especially if we know that we are the only five star authors in the whole region.

So yeah, it's a huge and exciting challenge that I think we're succeeding. 

Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, we came yesterday we are tired, we're exhausted, all of us, and everybody has been so good to us and we're very grateful. I want to talk about first the restaurants. When we had our dinner, when we booked the hotel, we had breakfast and dinner included.

And that's what we recommend for everybody who's staying, who's going to stay at the Wydiane Luxury Hotel and Resorts. The reason is because the food was very different. [00:04:00] The cuisine was really, really different and I did not expect it, especially at this location. This is the type of food you would expect at a five star restaurant or, you know, but at this hotel, I know it's luxury, I know it's five star, but it just, it was beyond personally my expectations.

if you can share that with us and the audience, and also if you can tell us how many restaurants do you have and what type of cuisine do you serve, please. So in total 

NABIL: we have three restaurants. Three? Yeah. Okay. We have La Veranda, which is a buffet for breakfast. And also when I have a demand for a buffet dinner, so organize that in, uh, in La Veranda, which is in the fifth floor with nice panorama view of the lake.

Okay. So, uh, you can imagine starting your 

AZDEAN: day with your coffee. You're right. You know, that's where we had our breakfast. We'll go back to dinner, but by the way, breakfast was just beyond incredible. the variety of everything that you can think of, you'll find it. It was really, really, really good. I really, I loved it.

NABIL: It's really a local breakfast [00:05:00] with the international touch, with a huge experience of our executive chef, which is, his name is Hamza Afqir. Hamza Afqir. So he bring all his experience. Ah, wow. And he share that and he's trying to train people, local people. Yes. with their touch, with local touch, local food, local local products.

Yeah. And he brings his, uh, his experience in that. So you can see the results. Oh, absolutely. 

AZDEAN: The results are very delicious. what are the restaurants you have? You said, you said you have three. So the first one is where you have breakfast on the fifth level. And I know we had dinner last night, but we had to take golf carts.

Because it looks like the rest one was actually off site. Yeah, 

NABIL: the, the restaurants, which is Bistro du Lac. Bistro du Lac. Yeah. Okay. Which is located near the lake with a beachy pool. Yes. Here we can have lunch and also dinner. it's not a fast food, but it's not So it's a quick bite.

It's a [00:06:00] quick, it's a quick bite. Buy a local touch. Also see the breed. You can see the products, the local products chef put that in the, in the menu. And people really, they love it. They, they love it to, an international food within, yeah, 

AZDEAN: within, with local touch.

Yes, we infuse it with the local touch and also the ingredients. are very fresh and very organic. So it's, it's really, really incredible. So what's the third restaurant that you have here, uh, with the, luxury resort and spa, please, Mr. Nabi? The third 

NABIL: one is Le 

AZDEAN: Saffron. Le Saffron. 

NABIL: Le 

AZDEAN: Saffron. 

NABIL: And the objective is to enhance the Moroccan food and enhance also the local ingredients, the local herbs.

in the food. So it's a nice experience. the guests will, will be really pleasant by, uh, enjoying a moment of giving pleasure to his senses. Yes. Yes. By the atmosphere, by the decoration is really Moroccan and also by people who are making difference. 

AZDEAN: Absolutely.

So basically it's a local, cuisine. Yes. Can you tell us about, um, [00:07:00] Yesterday, I had the soup. It was amazing. I had the salad. It was incredible. I had the salmon, and the salmon, it's very tricky to kind of cook it, but you cooked it in a way that it's a little different, and I've, I've never had the salmon served the way that you had it served, but it was just very delicious.

So can you tell us a little bit about that, please, Mr. Nabil? 

NABIL: What I can say is that it was co by heart and uh, people are given 

AZDEAN: thank, I can see that. Yeah, for sure. 

NABIL: people are given 100 person Yes. in the food, in their tasks. Yes. So they are doing that with huge pleasure. 

AZDEAN: Absolutely.

Absolutely. The experience was incredible. the, the next question that I have for you last night in dinner, what I noticed is there are a little bit of couple. little bit of family, you know, with the kids, little bit of everything. So, the hotel is really, is it for specific audience or specific type of people or is it just people from local or just international?

What type of clients do you have? [00:08:00] So 

NABIL: we have, uh, all type of clays. We have local ones who are discovering their country. Yes, like us. Yeah, especially after the COVID period. So there are more curious to discover. And if you are living in Casablanca or in a big city, another big city, it's a good spot to be disconnected from the world.

Absolutely. And to relax and to connect with nature as you can see. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Otherwise, we have international guests who are coming from, uh, all over the world. Recently, we have, more guests who are coming from Israel. Israel. Israel. Yes. Who are coming from Israel.

And we had the pleasure to, to have the Pesach event in hotel. Can you say the name again? Pesach, Pesach event, which is a festive, uh, special event for Jewish people, Jewish people. Yeah. Wonderful. And it was in Ramadan. Oh, wow. So it was really nice. Yes. two peoples. Yes. Each one are, are [00:09:00] living here.

Yes. And it was really a special moment for, even for our staff and for guests. Yes. So to, to continue to your question, where it's a special spot for couples. It's a romantic place. I can tell you that in opposite of other spots, where, the sunset is the best moment in the, in the day is the sunrise.

Sunrise. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Sunrise is really a special moment with the reflect of the lights. Yes. The natural, the nature. Yeah. 

AZDEAN: Yeah. 

NABIL: Absolutely. And also we receive, uh, team buildings. Oh, team building activities. Team building activities. Exactly. for corporate company, for corporate guests.

We have a ballroom with a boardroom. Yeah. I saw it. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, So 

AZDEAN: basically. The luxury hotel and spa, Wedean, is for everybody. It's for everybody. And that's what we really saw last night, late afternoon, and this morning as well. I mean, you have a swimming [00:10:00] pool just in the background behind us, and then upstairs, where the rooms are, in the suites, you have another swimming pool.

Is there a time for opening and closing swimming pool, or is it open all the time? 

NABIL: we're open to, to to the guest demand. I see. See if you ask us to open it 24 hours, we'll do watch for Oh absolutely. To serve our guests. And it's also very nice for families. Yes. 'cause we have in total three pools.

Uh, two, uh, outdoor posts and one indoor post. Indoor. Indoor and one indoor pool. In the spa. Oh, in the spa. Okay. Gotcha. I gotcha. We have also a kids club. 

AZDEAN: Kids club, private center. That's what I was gonna ask you. Uh, we, we leave that for a little bit because I want to ask you about the activities for adults, for kids packages, the posts.

So, okay. I'm going to ask since you started it. So we'll start with the activities for adults and families. what type of activities can they do? this is question number one. Question number two, how much time would you [00:11:00] recommend for somebody, whether it's a couple just coming over, you know, for the weekend or a family that's going to be staying for a few days besides the weekend, what type of activities, you would recommend? And how long, how much time do they need to spend? Two days, three days, four days. So 

NABIL: ideally, two days and more to discover. At least two days. At least two days. I got at least two days, like one day just to relax, to discover our wellbeing service in the spa, which, uh, we have Hamman.

AZDEAN: Can you tell us a little bit more about the spa please, Mr. Nabil? you said Hamman Spa, and they're a little bit different. There's the hammam by itself, and then there's the spa, which is the luxury massage. can you tell us? Yeah, of course. We have, uh, 

NABIL: like a special floor just for spa. I see.

So the whole floor? The whole floor with two levels. we have indoor pool of 25 meters indoor pool heated in the winter. 25 meters? Yeah. 

AZDEAN: Okay. That's pretty big. 

NABIL: And do we have four [00:12:00] hammams? Four hammams. Yeah. Four hammams. Four hammam cabin. We have sauna. We have massage. 

AZDEAN: Massage. Okay. So that's the well being part.

That's the well being part. Yes. What about a fitness center? Do you have a fitness center? Somebody comes, you know, they, they do want to do the spa. They want to do the hammam, but also they want to stay in shape. I know they can, there's many reasons behind this. They can stay in shape. what about a fitness center?

NABIL: Yeah, we have a fitness in the third floor, third level, third level. Okay. With a really nice view and you can imagine doing your, your daily, daily routine of jogging or sport with really nice view. So really nice and people like it and for the 24 hours. 

AZDEAN: 24 

NABIL: hours. 

AZDEAN: Oh, that's very nice.

Yes. Now let's say. I'm here with my family. We're staying, you said, minimum two days. Let's say we're staying for three days. What would you recommend for us to do? I mean, first day, you said just to chill and relax. Now on the second day, what can you suggest for us to do on day two [00:13:00] and then day three? So day two, we'll 

NABIL: discover the lake.

The lake. We can organize a boat excursion. We have also paddle, kayak, jet ski. And in the region, know the third part is the nature. So the third day will, nature. Nature. Hiking. Hiking. Oh wow. And you can discover the waterfalls. Waterfall zone. Ozo, yes. Yeah. Which is from one hour and 10 

AZDEAN: minutes from the hotel.

That's not bad. Now you said you, you have mentioned five activities already. Yeah. You definitely do need more than two days. What about the kids? What can the kids or the family that have kids can do here at the hotel please? So we have a special 

NABIL: program for our kids. We have a team for kids club. Okay So what this program is adapted of the period if it's vacancy the age as I see.

Yeah So the kids can spend all the day in the kids club with many programs, which include, also discovering the region and natural and outdoor activities. Especially if you know that there is many dinosaur [00:14:00] footsteps around the hotel and in Geopark of Azideh. So it's for, for kids, uh, they are really excited and they really like to discover this nature.

AZDEAN: That's very nice. Yeah, really 

NABIL: nice. Yeah. 

AZDEAN: That's incredible. Let's say this is now we're in day two. What about day three? 

NABIL: day three, you can do hiking, hiking, hiking in the mountain. Also we can organize lunch or, uh, like just to take a class of tea with Moroccan pastries. I see. Like a cooking class. Not cooking.

We organize cooking class, but also like a lunch in, with the Berbers, in the Berbers, in the local peoples. Okay. 

AZDEAN: Okay, wow, that's incredible. Ah, this is really, really amazing. 

NABIL: It's, all about, creating connection between guests and local people and local, culture. 

AZDEAN: Culture, yeah. Yes, the question that I have next, Mr.

Nabil, is the hiking. I know the hiking, really, when you say hiking, a lot of people, [00:15:00] they know what hiking is, but they don't understand. Is it an easy hike? Or is it a mid difficult hike or a very difficult hike? And also the length of time that you can do the experience of hiking. Is it, can it be done in one hour, two hours, three hours?

Would you please explain that to us and the audience? 

NABIL: We are open to all of them, and we adapt our activities. Depending on the guests. We can organize hiking for one hours. I see. We can organize that for one day. Oh wow. For all, for the whole day. 

AZDEAN: So basically what you're saying is the client.

Does everything on their term. Exactly. So whatever they want to do, you'll just make it happen for them. Exactly. That's called service. That's amazing. That's incredible. you know, What I want to say about this place is, for us the locals, it's almost hidden. We know Bin Louedan, we know where it is, but we don't make the trip.

Now, I know for a fact this is not going to be my first time and last. We definitely going to come back. We love the place. I feel bad we spent [00:16:00] one night. I know one night is just, it's just not enough. for sure. It's just not enough. I also want to talk about the rooms. I mean, this is the best room that we stayed in for the whole tour, the north side and the south side of Morocco, because it's, it's really massive.

Can you tell us, Mr. Nabil, how many rooms do you have? And what type of rooms do you have? And how many levels? I know you said the fourth floor is for the spa, the fifth is for the restaurant, but how many do you have? And what do you call them? Because everywhere we have been, they call them different names or suites.

So can you, can you give us a little bit of background, please? So, as 

NABIL: I said, the hotel is divided by two parts, the traditional parts, we call it La Kasbah, which it from here, from this restaurant, to the mountain, to the top of the mountain. I see. And we have there 31, units, 31 units, which are traditional rooms where we can discover the [00:17:00] art of local workers and local, local say, artisans, artisans, yes.

That's impressive. Exactly. And the second part was more modern with two views. We offer two views, the lake view. and the mountain view in the underside. And we have also seven villas. It's villas, which is very, uh, ideal for families with private pool. 

AZDEAN: Okay. So the 

NABIL: villas, 

AZDEAN: they have their own pool. Exactly. Oh, that's, that's, you have 

NABIL: many reasons to come back.

AZDEAN: For sure. Yes. You know, the room was very big. I mean, I cannot emphasize that. And The bed was big too. I mean the bed, just to give the audience, the listeners, an idea of how big the bed was. It's like the equivalent to two king size beds put together. I mean, it's just, it's, it's just overdoing it.

I mean everything we have witnessed, service, expectation, there's nothing else like it. I mean, it's just, I love the place. I mean, We have made a lot of [00:18:00] memories. We have made a lot of friends. Everybody has been very hospitable to us and we're very grateful. We're very grateful for you, the management, the owners, the staff, and also thank you for doing this because I feel like we're taking you out from your busy day.

So we're very fortunate to have you here. I know I probably will not cover everything about the hotel, but what else can you tell us in the audience, that we have not spoke about yet? Please, Mr. Nadir. 

NABIL: So, I think, uh, we spoke about the hotel, which is in total 128 units, and I think we, we didn't spoke about most important part, I think, is the people.

For sure, 100%. The people, our vision is to hire local people, train them, and to be ambassador of all the region. And to make a link between guests. local people, culture, nature, and it's all about creating this link and it's [00:19:00] all about sharing. Sharing. So each, each member of our staff is an ambassador of the region and they are so proud to be part 

AZDEAN: of this story.

And we're very proud of them for everything that they have done and you can see it. You can definitely, I mean, it's service, service, service, service. It's top notch. it's really, really amazing. I can't get over the view. And when we got to the room yesterday, I know you said you have one view, you know, looking at the Atlas Mountains and one on this side, we're glad that we got this side because I mean, it looks like I'm looking into my village.

I mean, with the water, it's just incredible. I mean, it's just beyond amazing. We love it. Um, as we're getting close to ending this episode, 

I want you to talk to us about the words.

The wood on the floor in the rooms, I mean, looks like nothing I've seen before. It's very different. What type of wood do you use in the rooms? 

NABIL: I can tell you, it's not about the type, of the wood, but, [00:20:00] uh, it's the, the experience of our housekeeping. The why I, I spoke about the staff because like for the management they come from a huge hotel with a huge experience.

Yes. Luxury. Yes. So, uh, trust me, it's not about the type of the wood. It's, uh, about the experience of. Our executive housekeeping, reporting standards and processes with the staff. 

AZDEAN: No, that's something that we really have. I mean, the service, I cannot really speak enough of it.

The service, this is a five star, but just, we've been traveling for, today will be really 50 days. but Some hotels, some places, they'll say they are five stars, but they're not really five stars. We've seen them, but this, you tell this is a five star, but you'd feel it.

You'll experience it. So it's just, I can't really say enough good things about the hotel, about the staff, especially. And I know the staff is what really make everybody, when you come here, you really feel like you're home. [00:21:00] You know, you come into your house, you come into your home, you come into.

to your family. And that's really, really the feeling that I personally have got in less than 24 hours. I know we're going to check out and we're going to leave maybe in an hour or so, but the memories will last a lifetime for us. And I can't thank you enough. And, you know, for a lot of people, they don't see the team behind the scene.

They are a bunch of crazy folks, a lot of fun to be around, and I'm definitely going to miss them. But this is what makes us, us. We go to the spots, we go to the locations, we work with you Mr. Nabil. We've made many, many reservations, we've sent you many, many clients, but what makes the difference is us coming here, doing a site visit, looking at you, seeing you on person, For me, it's really priceless.

It's really not about the place, but when I know you, I know you'll take care of me anywhere, here, at the spa, fitness center, at the restaurant behind us, for dinner, for lunch upstairs. and that's what, [00:22:00] this is what makes Morocco a very different destination because if you don't know somebody, you're not gonna go far, I promise you.

So, I know Mr. Nabil, Mr. Nabil has his own network, he'll take care of zillion things for you, so, again, for me that's really, really priceless. So anything else? You have the last words, Mr. Nabil, what would you like to let the audience know? 

NABIL: So, first of all, I want to thank all the team, you and the, all the team, uh, that are here.

It's a pleasure to meeting you because it's, as you said, I'm totally agree. It's important to, to meet physically and to know you, and also to know us and to know all, all the team a hundred percent because, uh, it's all about human and human make difference. 

AZDEAN: Yes. 

NABIL: And it's also very interesting that you discover the experience and you did the experience of Wydian Resort.

Absolutely. Absolutely. The second thing is that I want to, to say welcome to all your audience. And I want to say that when they will come, they will [00:23:00] spend a really special experience. After leaving, they will leave different. Wow. Totally different. Yes. 

AZDEAN: Yes. I know we're going to talk about Widiane Luxury Hotel and Spa for a long time.

So, thank you. 

NABIL: Thank you so much you and all the team. Thank you for your dedication because it's important for us that people know us and know that, that are, that we exist. Because that was the challenge when, uh, we opened it in 2022.

The second part, which is La Source, is that to put with a resort in the map of luxury hotels in the region.

AZDEAN: Oh, absolutely. And again, this is the only five star hotel in the region, so come and stop by, spend at least two, three days. There's a lot of things to do to see and say hello to Mr. Nave. Hello, . Thank you.

Thank you so much. This has been a lot of fun. Really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you. You Thank you. Thank you.