Hotel Marhala

A Troglodyte Hotel in Matmata

We stayed at the Hotel Marhala, one of the troglodyte hotels in Matmata. It's nicely done-up to fulfill your troglodyte sleeping experience. The rooms are very basic, but clean, with just mattresses and bedding on raised areas in the rooms. Every room is different, so it's worth checking out a couple before committing to a room. There's electricity and some rooms have outlets if you need to charge your batteries. There's no air-conditioning as the rooms stay a comfortable temperature year round. There are no windows in the rooms and some of our companions felt their rooms were a bit stuffy, so they kept their doors open at night, but we were fine.

The toilet and showering facilities are shared and may require a short walk down a corridor to reach. There are many toilets because the hotel accommodates a hearty tour group lunch crowd, but there are too few showers, just two each for men and women. I may have missed some additional showering facilities.

Many tour groups wander through the hotel during the day, so you may get people peering in if your door is open, but it quiets down significantly by late afternoon.

Breakfast is just bread and jam and coffee. Lunch was a salad, brik, couscous with beef, and date sweets for dessert. You didn't have a choice as they provide the same for large groups of tourist that pass by at lunch. For dinner we were tired of couscous, so we asked for something different and were served a salad, brik, and chicken cousha. Portions are hearty.

Overall a pleasant place to stay. Price was 16 dinars per person with dinner and breakfast, additional 2.5 dinars for a single room. It would be better if there were additional showering facilities.

• Opinion of Price: less expensive than average
• Related to: Road Trip, Backpacking, Budget Travel

Hotel Marhala Photo: courtyard around rooms

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