11-13 & 15-18/12/22 - Apartments 5109 & 5401

We three middle aged London guys were having a ten night winter break, having found a cheap new flight to Agadir where we have been before. We had booked the Apart-Hotel Agoudar for the first two nights to settle in originally (two of us having been there before and happy to return).

Our flight arrived late, so we missed the local bus from the main road roundabout outside the airport so got a taxi direct to the Agoudar. Arriving at 21:10 on a Sunday we were told at reception that we were to be transferred to their sister hotel Tagadirt just up the road owned by the same company.

We left and saw the Tagadirt just up the hill. On approaching it looked impressive and daunting. By 21.16 we were checking in.

At reception there seemed to be a mix up about the b.cm payment. Once paid by card and PIN there was then a querie about the card itself not working although the transaction cleared immediately as a notification on the bank's app. After a call to the boss with photos of the various devices it was cleared. There was no provision for contactless card use or using iphone wallet.

Whilst in the reception we hooked onto their WiFi which proved to be very fast at 90mbps.

The reception was all 70s chrome, glass, frosted glass and marble with excessive lighting (now LED bulbs) and has an air of faded glory about it so maybe Covid had hit it hard? The spectacular bar was not operating, so sad. The TA description says it is open (but maybe only high season?). The space was big with plenty of chairs and tables but empty. There was also a large empty glitzy restaurant area with a leaky ceiling.

The receptionist handed us over to Hassan the porter to take us to our room (as we only had 5kg hand luggage he did not need to help us or get a tip!).

After a torturous walk through the complex (up and down steps, this is definitely not for mobility impaired people) we arrived at our room 5109 on the ground floor. Hassan checked everything and found a towel short of the (just one) large towel each (which we are usually happy with for two nights). He left, returning quickly with the extra one.

On our approach there was quite loud music from neighbouring bar on the main road below the complex. We hoped it would stop at a reasonable hour.

After Hassan left we explored the apartment to unfortunately find a very dead Cockroach obvious on the floor in the kitchen...ooops. We disposed of it with some toilet paper into the bin provided but then tiny ants swarmed about where it was so I cleaned that up too. We found later that the tiny ants would find anything edible of left out anywhere!

The bathroom was very dim but had an electric socket so luckily I had brought my own LED switchable light. There was no soap in the dispenser.

After the journey we needed tea, making it using the standalone electric hob and a saucepan. We found a huge kettle in the cupboard later.

The WiFi was impossible for me to get on with my iPhone but both friends succeeded although speeds were so low as to be non functional.

The furniture was 70s stark mirrored black style with faded chrome and black metal chairs.

There were not enough sockets near the bed in the front room, luckily I brought extension cables and multi-adapters.

The kitchen had a basic sink, preparation surface, no under unit lights covering the work surface. Luckily again I had brought my extension with lamp! There was not enough cutlery to service three of us. Amongst the crockery was a dirty bowl, oooops. There were no washing up liquid, sponges or dishcloths supplied.

The far bedroom had a big noisy sliding door. The wardrobes were sticky and difficult to open, obviously someone thought it was a good design years ago! There was dust on the top of the wardrobe doors too, but not on top of the wardrobes themselves... maybe the rooms were rarely used?

There was an electric socket by the bed nearest door with a telephone above on the bedside shelf. It seems each room has a router but it proved useless for my iPhone. There was no electric socket on my bed side so lucky I had brought my figure of eight extension cable and euro to figure of eight lead so I could trail the mains cable under the bed to my iPhone charger.

A result of not having decent wifi was that I could not research local places to have a meal on our arrival (I did not buy a SIM card in Morocco or buy a Virgin data package). I do not really want to spend time in the lobby albeit the speeds are very fast and it is tempting to research, sort and upload my (and this) TA reviews! I did get given a free SIM card at the airport. I shall see if I take up any offers on that network.

The first night we slept well (after a snack at Snack Assalam City nearby and an hour in the lobby catching up on the internet). The single beds all had blankets and sheets fine and comfortable.

In the morning we had a bath (bringing our own plug which thankfully fitted). The water was a bit rusty coloured (probably not used for a while) but plenty of hot water gushed out of the tap (as well as the shower). The bath has a huge marble surround which was grouted to the bath. Over the years a lot of grouting has fallen off so it felt a bit tacky in the bath (design over function problems, although it must have looked lovely when new). The access port to the plumbing was a warped 16mm mdf cover which did not fit properly and looked a bit tacky. The sink water plumbing had a leak so a large bucket was underneath it. The shower curtain went all along the bath and worked fine. A single light above the big mirror above the sink was just about enough to shave in. The pressures high enough to jet water into razors to clean them out. The light switch was by the entrance to the bathroom which had a vanity curtain across it.

The adjoining lockable toilet had a bidet opposite, unused by us. One toilet roll was supplied, it lasted us the two days there thankfully. It was lit by a switchable light inside the toilet.

The swimming pool was pleasant and caught the later sun. There were also a separate children's and another toddler's swimming pool below on the next terrace. The WiFi there was very slow. There were plenty of sun loungers to relax on. There were a few trip hazards though such as broken floor tiles which were a small problem.

The reception and terrace wifi was good, and you could sit in sun to warm up and catch up on socials, all very pleasant with a partial view of the sea. The three of us caught a colourful sunset from the terrace using the chairs from the reception. Small drinks from our room were also shared there with no complaints from the management.

It was obvious that some higher up more expensive apartments also caught the sunset as people were on various roofs watching it.

Eventually from our apartment we managed to log onto neighbouring apartments' WiFis which were just about strong enough to sync apps, communicate and browse a bit.

Our second night was also peaceful once the nearby English Pub had closed down at midnight.
Overnight on our second night the power failed so going to the loo was a bit treacherous with the steps involved. My friend enquired in the morning about the power cut so engineers were sent to find the problem to find it was our electric hob which was replaced by the engineers later in the morning but delaying our breakfast for checking out. We left by 11:55.

Little did we know that we would return three days later after we spent a couple of nights in Taghazout. We thought better the devil we knew and booked the nights at Agoudar on b.c in full knowledge we would be transferred to Tagadirt on arriving. We actually found a cheaper deal than before with a sea view promised. We arrived at T at about 14:00 and despite its being quiet and the same reception staff being there we filled out the detailed tourist checkin forms ourselves (we did not do it last time). Once again Hassan took us to our room (5401) through the ups and downs of steps and along paths again and eventually ascending and ascending more stairs to get to a penthouse apartment so the booked promise was kept!

First we entered a big room with only two single beds, a coffee table and a wooden chair. Through another lockable door down some steps into an aerial 'courtyard'/terrace and then through a lockable (but key did not work) door into the kitchen/dining room.

The decor and arrangement was pretty similar to our first apartment except we were completely private.

Hassan checked the towels, only two again so another two needed. We checked the crockery and cutlery and it was better equipped than before but no corkscrew again. We asked for a corkscrew (on experience cork bottled wine is far better than the screwtop here) and asked if the cooker hob was working, "yes" was the answer.
We had to use a spare pillowcase as a dishcloth, no big deal.

Hassan left to get the towels and corkscrew and we explored and settled in more. It was time to turn on the wifi! OMG! The router was installed, fed with an ethernet cable but the electrical plug had no socket anywhere near it to be fitted into! Crazy! We had no extension leads (my euro one would not have been long enough and too bulky for hand luggage only - I have my limits with extensions, flying lights and adapters!). Any lead [from just above the (working) electric wall heater opposite] would have been a trip hazard. It was time to phone reception to order one anyway. OMG! The phone next to the router had bare leads and so rendering it completely useless! I told reception later and they said all the phones were like that!

I checked for clothes hangers in the mirrored concertina wardrobes (clean door tops this time) and found none so another request to submit to reception. It turned out it was so dark i could not see them bunched up at the end. The ordered ones appeared later so now there are plenty!

On wandering onto the balcony/courtyard we found a few weak wifi signals from adjacent flats if we stood hanging over the edge at the parapet walls (sitting down would lose the signals). Some worked at random on our four Apple devices. After a bit of neck strain and trying not to drop our devices 10m below we got some outside comms done!

We decided to walk to Agadir Commercial Centre Carrefour to the north near where we had stayed years ago (at the Hotel Sindibad) to get provisions including better Moroccan wine with corked bottles! We were staying three nights so the half hour walk each way was worth it. It turned out there was a much closer Carrefour Market to the north-east on a main road.

It was apparent that there were a variety of long hairs around the apartment. It would be useful if a dustpan and brush were provided for guests. It is too little a job for a housemaid to do (and far too many steps to climb).

The hob lead appeared to be too short to reach the plug until we realised the socket was upside down! Only one ring worked on the hob which made cooking a meal interesting and it barely managed to cook 500g of pasta.

The fridge was turned up to very cold so was a little noisy turning on and off repeatedly during the first night, I turned the dial to a moderate cold to stop it overworking, no big problem though.

The main room door got stuck regularly and had to be lifted to open most times. It needs the base shaved. Its lock was useless and did not close properly the first day.

The wobbly table was solved by jamming folded up paper bags under a foot and between the stem and table top.

A cleaner arrived during our first morning. We had not expected one and we told her we did not want cleaning (despite the hairs). We did not get an offer of room service on our first stay.

Being so high and with a sea view we could hear a noisy bar below (started a live band at 22:30 but thankfully over by midnight). On Friday night it stopped just after 01:00 although another bar kept its music going far later but not too disturbing for us; only for those local to it!

The birds in the adjacent date palm in the morning were a nice alarm call. There are also quite a few begging cats in the complex.

The solid enamel bath had better grouting under its marble surround and a plug was supplied. There was again plenty of hot water and even a view of the sea through kitchen window. There was no leaking sink this time although the floor filled up with water after a shower despite the shower curtain being fitted properly. A floor mat was useful in soaking it up, being dried outside in the sun after. Once again there was no soap in the dispenser. Two toilet rolls were supplied so we had to ask the cleaners for another one on our third morning.

One of the LED bulbs had blown by the bed so I ordered a replacement at reception. It was dropped off within minutes.

We had brunch with canned Moroccan sardines in spicy sauce on the terrace overlooking Agadir with the actual sardine canning factory in distance! Birds singing in the big date palm adjacent singing was pleasant

The second day I decided to fix the room's router mains supply issue by searching for a shop that sold electric leads, eventually finding a DIY shop where the man behind the counter gathered the ingredients and made up a 3m simple extension lead for me for 54! I returned to install it. Still no internet. Went to reception to sort. An in-house engineer was called at 20:00 to look at our router. Yes it worked. He then investigated the hub box outside to find out it had short circuited inside because of water ingress. They will try to replace it ASAP.

I just discovered at the dinner table a small nail head sticking out of top front right corner of a chair which nearly ripped my trousers. I pushed it back in with a small flysafe multi-tool. Other things I repaired with that tool is the loose handles on the large saucepan and a superfluous screw that was poking out of the base of the over sink unit.

On our last evening we decided to go out at 23:40 to see where the very noisy live band was playing. We closed the internal door and realised we were locked out as the key supplied only opened the external door at the top of the stairs. Oh dear. My friend had done the same the day earlier and got in through the flimsy locking terrace window. As we left I made sure that window was securely locked, not anticipating that my friend would lock us out again! A visit to reception got the house handyman out to have a go with the masterkey. Up and down stairs a few times to get more keys that did not fit and eventually he got through the kitchen window like a true cat burglar! I advised him to remove the internal lock altogether. We got back in at 00:20 whereupon I filled up the latch hole with a wodge of damp paper. It did not help that I had a bout of D...a as a result of whichever meal we had had earlier in the day or yesterday! It did not help that the toilets in the reception were pitch black and only had one roll of paper in one of the ladies' toilets!

At 07:46 the need shook and rumbled for a few seconds! The second earthquake whilst we had visited Agadir! The one a free days before was 4.2 which I did not feel but my friend did!

On our last day I bought bread from the small local shop (down the road and sharp left up 100m). We had breakfast, packed, chatted to the people below and ran late in leaving. We left the apartment at 12:30, to find the cleaners outside waiting for us to leave!

On looking for some spare toilet paper earlier in the pool toilets I noticed there was breakfast being served in a room by the pool. I did not realise it was available until our last morning!

I looked up this hotel on our fourth day to find some rather horrible reviews. I also found 'The Traveller' 's reviews which were honest and similar to mine [he had been here in the late 70s when it was new and it has not changed much apart from getting older, more temperamental and decayed (as we all have!)].

The hotel advertises a restaurant and it seems to have been in operation pre-Covid but it is long closed. That should be removed from the description. The management are trying hard to rebuild the complex and the staff are friendly and helpful although having communication problems.

Btw this is the longest review I've ever written!

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