Argana Garden Hotel Reviews

The Argana Hotel tries it's hardest but doesn't quite get there. The outside is quite pleasing to the eye with a small immaculately manicured garden leading to the front door - manned by a doorman wearing a djellabah (or dressing gown to the rest of us! )
Rooms are adequate but basic. Corridors are tiled, echoey and very noisy. Even a mouse walking by would sound like an elephant.

Staff try but not very hard to muster the occasional smile. Furnishings are dated, sombre and uninspiring.
We had bed and breakfast only. 5/10 for food overall. Nice juice, terrible coffee, only cereal available cornflakes, chopped up pears, yoghurt, sausage of the German variety and cheese and cold tomatoes provided the typical continental breakfast. Lovely freshly made omlettes made by the only happy looking staff there.
I must mention that the cleanliness of this hotel was well above par. Even considering the poor quality of furnishings the fact that everything was spotlessly clean made up for the bargain basement effects.
The entertainment was confined to a night club, concluding each morning at 4 am, which disgorged happy and noisy revellers who kept all the residents whose rooms overlooked the back road.
Bar prices were exorbitant for a 3* hotel.

The pool area was the best. A nice pool, loads of available sunbeds, a pool attendant who immediately brought sun mattresses and pool towels as soon as you arrived by a sunbed. Great pool music, unobtrusive animation, 2 tabletennis tables and sunshine what more could you ask for!

We had been considering staying at a 4* hotel on the beach but reckoned the e150 we saved by staying in this 3* hotel would go a small way towards dinners, drinks etc. We were glad we did. The pool area alone made up for it. We spoke to some people who were staying in the aforementioned 4*hotel and they said the hunt for available ";untowelled"; sunbeds each morning was very frustrating, not so here - pool service was great.

Agadir is unusual to say the least. The lower third of the city is tourist, tourist, tourist. Venture up to the back of the resort and its like stepping back in time (although Agadir is a modern city building wise - the people appear to be very backward in their living)
We ate out every evening and had some great/awful meals as follows:
La Maurisque Restaurant - brilliant - food great, atmosphere relaxing , romantic and appealing.
Jardin d'eau - terrible blaring music, awful food and uncaring service.
Scampi - Brilliant food, excellent service and a rose for the ladies on the way out
Cafe Select this gem hides in the local part of town get a taxi there - great meal for half nothing but no alcohol served.
La Scala we had heard good reports of this expensive restaurant and decided to keep it for the last night but sadly we did not have a good evening. Meal was not hot, desserts were unappealing, servers were rushed and place was very noisy. Worst of all - despite having eaten in the cheapest of the cheap earlier in the week with no ill effects -La Scala gave me the Agadir trots. Flying home next day kept me busy if you get my drift!

So there you have it. Would I go back to Agadir again? yes
Would I stay in Argana again? yes especially for the great pool service, probably not for the rest.

We went to this hotel on recommendations from this site but what a disappointment.After two days we left and upgraded to another hotel.

Firstly on a positive front the staff were excellent, location good, pool fine and easy stroll down to excellent beach.
The rooms were reasonable but we had the smallest double bed I have seen in a hotel. If we had stayed then we would have changed to twin rooms which the children had.

The negative was the unimaginative and limited food selection.On the first night arriving at 9pm the main course for myself consisted of a few roast potatoes and cold cauliflower cheese, about four meats were available of the school dinner variety. the salad bar consisted of about a selection of 12, but unimaginative such as one of toms, one of diced carrot, one of lettuce, two of olives etc etc.I could do one better at home. A major part of our holiday is experiences extensive and exotic choices of food well presented. This was not going to happen.We promised Thomson we would try another night, the Morroccan night. Food better but still a limited choice and with a veggie daughter not for us.

We paid extra including a cancellation fee of £100 pounds and moved to the Al Medina palace(reviewed elsewhere}.

hotel was pleasant.food mediocre.beach fantastic.everything is geared on getting tips out of you waiters dont give your change backk and everybody has a sobstory to extract bigger tips

We booked this holiday at the last minute, the week before and got a very good deal with Thomas Cook.

The flight and transfers were excellent and the resort was only about 30 minutes away from the airport. Firstly, I would say when you get to the airport the baggage porters will grab your cases and all you need to give them is 1 English pound. This will convert to approx 16 Dirhams of their money which is an excellent tip.

On arriving at the hotel, it was very clean and was a very swift check in. The hotel itself is very central to everything the beach is only about a 5 minute walk. There was always a sunbed available at the pool. If you decide to go to the beach the sunbeds are about 14 Dirhams for two beds with an umbrella.

The hotel was very mixed including Russians and French. If you know French it is of very good use in Morocco as it is widely used there.

The food in the hotel was excellent I cannot fault it at all. If you do eat out you must try the chicken tangine and cous cous it is wonderful.

The rooms were very spacious and were cleaned everyday. Be wary of the toilet paper as it is very thin and goes quite quickly off the roll - even though every day the maid put two rolls in our bathroom. It just went!

I would say book trips outside of the hotel. If you come out of the hotel and turn left there are lots of companies trying to sell you trips. I would recommend going to Touradont. A fantastic day out. You will see goats in the trees and how the other half live.

When you book with the reps be prepared to pay more money.

My husband went on the camel ride with the reps which was for about 2 hours - he thought it was great and it cost about 15 English pounds. We also both went on the Berber night which is also a fun night and cost about 22 English pounds each.

I would definately say that if you are there for longer than a week go to Marakesh. We didn't do this because it was 4 hours away but we were told that it was worth it. They do have a two day trip there for approx 90 English pounds.

Be wary of being pulled into the shops - it is not as bad as Turkey, but they do like to hassle you quite a bit. It is definately worth buying silver we bought my mother in law 6 silver bracelets for 40 pounds - definately worth it.

The souks are worth going to, but be prepared to be hassled. When you get to the souk a guide will offer to show you around, we didn't do this, but if you take a guide you don't hassled so much. Be prepared to be ogled as we definately stand out from the crowd.

The weather in October is lovely it rained a couple of times in the evening but during the day it was very hot.

Overall, it was very good enjoyable holiday and I would definately go back to this hotel and this resort.

This was booked as a superdealz allocation on arrival holiday and boy were the gods looking down on us that day!!

This hotel and holiday was absolutely lovely from beginning to end. The rooms were clean and nicely decorated. The pool area was well kept and always clean too. We booked on a half board basis and the food was so good. Breakfast was eggs- cooked fresh any way you liked (cheese omelette was my preference) fruit salad, cereals, croissants and continental.

We only ate lunch a couple of times in the poolside bar but it was delicious, fresh and reasonably priced both times (recommend the freshly made pizzas)Dinner was a large soup of the day, a large selection of salads and always a freshly cooked fish/seafood ( delicious) followed by a varied selection of hot main courses all of which were lovely. Before we went we decided we would eat out in the evenings (despite being half board) based on the evening meals on previous holidays. However we both agreed we would be stupid to go out and pay extra for food when we were so impressed with what was available at the hotel.

The resort of Agadir was slightly dissapointing as the shops were really only the market stalls at the souk but we managed to find plenty to explore in our 7 days but for this reason only we were glad it wasnt 14. Stallholders could be a pain but a firm and repeated 'no thank you 'always did the trick!! and then were no worse than Tunisia and Turkey for instance.

One word of warning while we were there the weather was lovely and there was always a cool breeze blowing so it never got unbearably hot and this lead to a lot of people getting terribly sunburnt as it was so comfortable to sit/lay in it so please make sure you use your sun cream regardless.

We would recommend this hotel to everyone who is interested in going to Agadir. We bought a small carpet at the shop adjoining the hotel and got an excellent deal and the main promenade into the town area is just over the road.

The only thing we would do any differently is next time we would book it by name!!!