We travelled to Morocco from Ireland in July - there were three of us, and all of us were really looking forward to the trip. Based on reviews from this site, we thought we were in for a treat. It turned out we really weren't. On arrival, the coach service was great, collected from airport and dropped to hotel, had a talk from tour rep en route. All was well. The hotel lobby is impressive, full height ceiling (I think the hotel is 5 stories high) in the atrium, etc. The rooms however, were a different story. I am conscious of giving a fair review so I'll keep it simple. On the first night, the full height atrium, which at first looked so attractive, proved to be a disaster in terms of noise. Our rooms were on the fourth floor and we could hear everything in the lobby as the sound travelled. That was manageble, except there was a Berber night beside the pool (the other side of our rooms) and that continued for hours, at a deafening rate. Noise aside, and bearing in mind that noise in itself is not the main issue, the problems with the hotel became apparent immediately. The beds were very well worn, the shower was broken so I requested it be fixed - three maintenance men came into my room at 11.30pm, and my very poor French was stretched to the limit asking them to leave it til tomorrow, but they continued (which was actually ok, as we all need to shower). I got up to see what the shower problem was and nearly got sick when i saw them removing what looked like huge amounts of hair from the shower head. Don't ask me how it got there, I take pride in my ignorance of Moroccan plumbing. Anyway, that was actually all ok. We moved rooms the next day due to the noise. Also due to the damp pillows and mattresses. On a positive note, breakfast is lovely, there are two fresh food stations every morning, one serving omelettes, eggs, etc and another serving doughnuts or some other freshly cooked speciality. This is on top of the usual buffet breakfast which was lovely. HOWEVER we had chosen half board, which meant dinner every night. Were we sorry. My god. I have never seen boiled onions and hard boiled eggs served as a main course. ON THE SAME PLATE. We ate out about 3 nights of the 7. It was horrendous. And we're not fussy. Well, not much. Really. Anyway, the pool was nice, but music is piped continously throughout the day so if that bothers you, don't go here. There is also a very enthusiastic pool entertainment team, who are hard to shake off. Shades on and looking the other way seemed to work though. This is very much a Muslim country, so as three females we found it difficult to be alone on the street, not in a threatening way, more in a bothersome way. We walked home from a restaurant one night (at about 8pm) and there were literally men hanging out of cars honking at us (and we're not that hot, believe me). To echo some of the other reviewers, two of us got incredibly ill. I am reluctant to place any blame on the food in the hotel, as I have heard stomach complaints are very common in Morocco due to the change in diet so I couldn't comment on that any further. I do know there is a helpful (and I reckon very profitable) pharmacist about 10 metres from the hotel and he was brilliant in recommending potions to alleviate the suffering.
We summed up the entire trip by saying none of us would return if we were given free flights, accomodation, food and spending money. But maybe that's just us.


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