My wife and I stayed for four nights in a Deluxe Junior Suite at the Naoura Barriere last week. Arriving at the hotel, the front of house and reception staff were welcoming and efficient. A charming female member of staff showed us to our room and painstakingly explained its facilities, by which time the bags had been brought up. The room itself was both well equipped and well decorated, with a large bedroom, two bathrooms, a walk in wardrobe and spacious balcony overlooking the pool. A brasserie lunch seated near the pool was good, but the service extremely slow; food, menus etc being delivered only after numerous requests. However, this was the sole occasion where service fell short and appeared to be the combined result of fewer staff on Mondays and the Manager being absent. Other than that, we found service at the Hotel to be very good throughout. We loved the pool area, which is a serene oasis surrounded by a variety of calming vegetation. The Poolboys are excellent and mostly speak good English. Equally, the girls who bring refreshments to guests laying by the pool are smiling and obliging. Our only dislike was the overloud and intrusive piped music which emanated throughout the day from the sound system which surrounds the pool. On several occasions we asked for it to be turned down as, we observed, did other guests. This proved to be effective in suppressing the continuous loop of popular songs by 'other artists', but was less successful in drowning out the 'techno-funk' reel, leaving only the repetitious, computer-generated bass note to tease the psychological limits of relaxing guests! To be churlish about it, and considering the age demographic we witnessed around the pool, it was more ClubMed than 5-star hotel. The same negative comment applies to inside the Le Fouquet Restaurant on the one night we dined in. There, we found the noise of the 'background' music so loud, we had almost to shout at one another to make basic conversation. We took breakfast on our first morning at the main buffet by the pool, and did not repeat the exercise! In both presentation and content it resembled an East German food supermarket at the height of the Cold War, with poor quality juices, tired looking fruit, pancakes and crepes which were thick and not cooked through, and eggs to order, whatever the style, mostly deep fried in oil. Tea was a disaster and coffee not much better. Thereafter, we took breakfast on our balcony. At no extra cost, it was a timely revelation and excellent in all respects. Food in Le Fouquet was well presented and beautifully cooked, catering for most tastes; we particularly liked the Moroccan specialities. The Wine List (mostly French claret) was pricey and we were surprised there appeared to be no Moroccan wines on offer. When in Rome! The Bar is large and appears to be largely underused, other than as a base from which to supply guests elsewhere. This is a shame, since the main barman makes a mean cocktail, with all the theatre of a Hollywood movie. A note here for future guests who come from countries, like the UK, where smoking is no longer permitted in public places. Expect your fellow guests to be smoking, whether by the pool or in the public rooms! Pre-arranged transfers worked well at Euros 50 each way. In sum, we thought the hotel provided just the sunny tonic (the weather was blissful) we needed after the relentless summer rain we have experienced in the UK of late. It is wonderfully central and represents good value for money. For us, without the few nagatives mentioned above, it would easily have warranted an 'Excellent' rating.
Room Tip: Second floor Junior Suite worked well for us.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
