Movenpick Petra

I have always been fond of those novels that take place in exotic locations. Novels like Agatha Christie's “Murder in Mesopotemia” and “They came to Baghdad” or M.M.Kaye's whodunits set in equally colorful locations. For me the backdrop is as exciting as the story itself possibly because such surroundings do not exist anymore. How routine and ordinary life sometimes feels when compared to the fantastic world found inside of books.

That is why I loved staying at Movenpick Petra so much. Form the moment I walked into that beautiful hotel I felt like had wandered back in history right into the setting of one of my ever favourite novels. Admittedly the hotel staff was also one of the better trained ones that make you feel welcome from the moment you set your foot inside the building but it was the overall environment that completely won me over.

Making the experience even better, there was the daily chocolate hour at the hotel.

Delicately and beautifully crafted chocolate delights were placed in the main lobby between 4 to 5 pm every day. Any one passing through the lobby could help oneself to however many chocolates as one wished to have. Also in the lobby and unlike the chocolates, not confined to a mere one hour, but present throughout the day was the coffee guy. At least that is what I called him. He had an entire table laden with all sorts of coffee beans from which he prepared his fresh brew for anyone who cared to have it. The coffee was served as shots in tiny paper cups accompanied by dates larger in size then the coffee shot itself. Though not a particular fan of coffee shots myself, I must confess that the combination of the soft moist dates along with coffee was one of the best I have ever had.

The perks and delight offered by the hotel aside, like I said before, it was the overall ambience of the place that got me. For two days I lived inside what I felt like was a place right out of novel in some early twentieth century Arabian setting.