The Baron Hotel - Karbala

We were very happy to stay in this lovely sanctuary amongst the hustle and bustle near the haram. This is a very clean and beautiful hotel in Karbala. It's a 10 min shuttle ride to the haram of maula Hussain and Abbas. They have a 24 hour shuttle running frequently. One tip I recommend is always ask the driver where the pick up near the rozas will be as it changed multiple times when we were there. It can get very confusing if you are not familiar with the area. The rooms were very spacious and comfortable. We felt like we were coming home each time. The buffets were delicious. Unfortunately most a la carte restaurants were closed and or have limited food due to Ramadan. They have wonderful amenities too like a swimming pool, kids park and gaming place. Nice for kids to get a break after ziyarat. A big shout out to Tufeyl the sales and marketing director who set everything up for us including airport transfer and ensured we got to our next destination safely. He really became like family for us. Zain ul Abideen at front desk was very helpful too answering questions and he spoke very good English. We will definitely recommend this place to all our friends and family. Another tip- For the women coming for Ziyarat, bring a big abaya. They are super strict at the haram.

This was my first trip to Karbala and to Iraq and I was not really sure what to expect. The hotel was pretty safe, modern and clean. The grounds were nice with trees, the rooms were really clean, modern and so were the bathrooms. We had an all inclusive package and food was brilliant. They had great Pakistani food along with middle eastern options. Salads, dessert, bread, Iraqi tea were fantastic. I took out one star because to go to the mausoleum area you had to take a shuttle. While the shuttle came every 30 minutes the convenience of walking was missing. It was not a big issue but during our visit there were a few million people there and the shuttle had to drop us a significant distance away and we had to walk through the mayhem. Overall very good option to stay if you visit Karbala