Royal Hotel, Agadir, Morocco
Hotel Information
Recent Price: £74
Hotel Class:
Hotel Description:
The Royal Mirage Agadir Hotel is an elegant and comfortable hotel that combines the traditional Moroccan style with a touch of modern class and offers restfully guestrooms equipped with convenient services for your enjoyable stay. loading...
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Royal Hotel Reviews
The Royal Mirage is listed as a 5 star hotel and is located in the Secteur Touristique on Avenue Mohammed V and also has a rear entrance leading onto Boulevard du 20 Aout from where it is easy to reach the beach by crossing one road and to restaurants nearby.
The lobby area is splendid with plush furniture and has access to the bar with karaoke singer, a large restaurant which is smartly decorated and has access to the pool area.
Constructed in the 1960’s, this was the first tourist hotel in Agadir although originally it was called the Sheraton and later the Atlas. There are six floors to this building with one side having a sea view (south facing) and the other a sea and Kasbah view (north facing).
Adjacent to the hotel is Shems Casino, a detached building, where little activity took place; slot machines rule here and the Black Jack, Roulette and other tables were closed, a shame as I was looking forward to dressing up for the occasion.
My room was on the 5th floor facing the Kasbah, an impressive sight which is illuminated from 8pm onwards and the top of which can be reached by taxi for 80Dh to give magnificent panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean and of Agadir.
Although there was a noisy compressor just above ground level which made an annoying rumble through the night, this did not affect my sleep.
The room was nothing special and rather cluttered with writing desk and chair and an additional table with two chairs plus an LCD TV (only CNN in English) and air conditioning with heating if required. The wardrobe housed a safe, for which a daily payment is required of 20Dh, and had enough space for hanging clothes.
The bed was actually two doubles placed together but what annoys me is how bed sheets are placed across the bed rather than lengthways so there are then two overlapping sheets to get tangled up in – this was the most irritating thing about the room.
The bathroom had hairdryer, a short fixed shower head operated by mixer taps (the type you cannot adjust and get sprayed in either scalding or cold water when trying to adjust the taps), a bidet and the usual tiny bottles of shower gel and shampoo with no shortage of towels. A line to place your laundry on can be run the length of the bath.
The balcony was very spacious with table and two chairs and the views were impressive from here. The two roads on either side of the hotel were highly visible and very noisy when sitting on the balcony. Room rates are reflected in the fact you have a sea view from many rooms.
Within the grounds is a tennis court overgrown with weeds and a detached villa for the sole use of the Prince of Saudi Arabia, an outdoor pool bar, conference centre and bungalows. I was unimpressed by the latter as they had no decent views other than of the road with little visibility of the beach. The Junior Suites within the hotel were plain and ordinary and lacked any inspiration for the asking rate of 3000Dh per night.
The hotel has no ATM as claimed in their website and I was wrongly directed to Shems Casino by desk staff where on entering the casino I was shown the slot machines!
I know this was the low season but for a hotel to have so few guests was eerie; I was told there were only ten guests in the hotel (or 8 rooms out of 180 being occupied). Breakfast was a solemn affair which was reflected in the choice of fare on offer - one type one cereal, tea, coffee, orange juice, figs, grilled tomatoes, boiled eggs, pancakes, bread rolls, croissant and a few extras like ham and cheese slices which had dried up since being put out at 6am. The toaster, a conveyor type, failed to toast bread even after putting back the slice three times. I felt deep sympathy for the restaurant staff and felt they really did want to go that extra bit to help by offering to make fresh omelette, and for the general staff who were being sent home for three weeks as there was little for them to do.
Other facilities in the hotel are a gift shop, hair salon, laundry service (e.g.40Dh for shirt!) and dry cleaning, room service, car rental booking, gym, swimming pool which is a good size and also a separate splash pool for children.
The Royal Mirage has long since lost its 5 star rating but certainly deserves a 4 star rating if only for the cleanliness and helpful staff.
Advice: Agadir - Good as an introduction to Morocco
Activities: Restaurants: Ibtissam, Le Jazz, Catanzaro, Yacout. Sights: Kasbah
Good for: Beach