We decided to book the 5* hotel Les Jardins de L’Agdal for a 2 night stay in Marrakech, which was the turn point in our 7 day tour to discover Morocco and also my birthday weekend.
The hotel is situated on the main Avenue Mohammed VI, we had booked a standard double room and was allocated a double room with pool view on the second floor (2248). I really liked the Moroccan theme of the hotel, there were lots of cosy seating areas around the bar and entrance to the pool terrace.
The rooms were spacious with a large double bed, separate toilet (with bidet) and bathroom with shower over the bath (toiletries provided). I particularly liked the sofa area which just made me want to kick off my shoes and relax. The balconies are very small, just big enough to fit a table and 2 chairs on.
Luckily we had a car as the Place Jamaa el Fna was 5km from the hotel, we happened upon a parking place just outside the medina walls and walked from this point. I think the hotel may run a bus service but we weren’t given any details nor saw one during our stay.
I would describe this hotel as a good value 4* there were a few things that let it down. We needed to cool our room on the first night, it was very hot and stuffy but we couldn’t get the air conditioning to blow cold. It took 3 hours, a few calls and visits to reception and a maintenance engineer before we were advised that it’s 7 degrees outside at night so the air conditioning is set to heat the rooms, if we wanted it cooler we had to switch it off. We slept with the balcony door open both nights, so we had some air movement and it was cool enough to sleep.
The television had some English channels with programmes, films and news. The WiFi service was low speed with temperamental coverage, we found the hotspot for our room was if we sat in the corridor by the toilet!
On our first evening we were drawn to the open fire which was lit in the bar area, however the service was really lacking, we had to visit the bar twice to request a drink service as the staff were otherwise occupied completing a stock check.
The large outdoor swimming pool had been drained and was undergoing maintenance, we weren’t aware prior to booking that this would be the case but it wasn’t an issue as the work didn’t disturb us.
Having enjoyed some lovely breakfasts on this trip, we were looking forward to the hotel food, we had only booked bed & breakfast, all inclusive accommodation is also available at this hotel. The breakfast is self service, however there are waiters on hand who served some guests, we were left to our own devices. Mike was disappointed at the choice of breads, the Morrocan flat breads were not included. I ordered an omelette on the first morning, and crepes on the second morning. There was a small selection of continental with one tray of cheese and another of meat. A vast array of sweet pastries and juices. The food was OK but it didn’t wow us.
We assumed that it’s a management decision that the staff remain aloof, only the cleaners offered a bonjour greeting, generally the restaurant waiters, bar staff and receptionists never broke a smile, or spoke to us spontaneously. The friendliest was a receptionist on our check out who discovered we were travelling to Rabat, his home town and offered us some local advice.
