{"id":20165,"date":"2024-08-03T15:29:35","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T14:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/?p=20165"},"modified":"2024-08-03T15:29:36","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T14:29:36","slug":"my-review-of-sofitel-agadir-royal-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/2024\/08\/03\/my-review-of-sofitel-agadir-royal-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"My review of Sofitel Agadir Royal Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Trip had a 50%-off sale on BA Gatwick flights a while ago and I nicked Agadir and Antalya very quickly. I have been to Morocco twice, both times unimpressed, but as Agadir is a beach destination I’m hoping the experience will be very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several international hotels in Agadir but not that many, out of which the two Sofitels next to each other are the most upmarket. I went for Royal Bay<\/a>, the cheaper option, to spend my big stash of Accor points from the Signature subscription<\/a>. If you go further north to Taghazout more options will become available, such as Fairmont, Hyatt Regency and Hilton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My \u20ac8 rideshare airport pickup became a private ride, which was a great start of this journey. Agadir has a miles-long beach strip south of the city, and the Sofitel is near the strip’s east end. The area is full of tourists and very well looked after, but not great in terms of ATM or restaurant options. The city centre is 15-20 minutes away on foot.<\/p>\n\n\n

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After entering the hotel, the first thing you’ll see is the Riad, a typical architecture style that can found everywhere in this country.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I arrived at just past 1pm and the room wasn’t ready yet, and it didn’t improve after I had lunch at the hotel restaurant. It was a bit awkward as the restaurant couldn’t charge to my room, so one of the staff came with me to the front desk and waited with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the managers was also present. He made sure my room was to be prepared promptly and invited me to a coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n

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And finally, I was told to wait 10 minutes and my room would be ready. I waited 20 minutes, just in time to bump into the cleaning lady in my room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I received a one-category upgrade to a deluxe room with pool view.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The room is alright, but probably a bit too basic for the Sofitel brand. I didn’t particularly like the hotels I stayed at in my previous Morocco visits either, but they are still much more comfortable than the local riads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m at floor 4, the highest floor of the hotel building. The sea view rooms are probably at the side wings which stretch further towards the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I’m quite surprised about not having a tub in the bathroom.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Welcome gift:<\/p>\n\n\n

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The main guestroom building is a bit like a botanic garden with plenty of light flowing in.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The lunch I mentioned earlier was at La Voile Blanche, a restaurant by the swimming pool.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A main course costs between \u00a310 and \u00a320, cheap for the European tourists but costly per local prices. I ordered paella and pizza, both of which are superb. The paella especially, has way more ingredients than the ones you would have in Spain, not authentic enough admittedly but tasted so good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breakfast is served at the restaurant Zaytoune.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The buffet spread is influenced strongly by the Arabic cuisine, of which I’m not a big fan, but the foul medames is good.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I redeemed my welcome drinks voucher for a cocktail.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Let’s check out the hotels’ ground and facilities. The swimming pool is huge, almost like a lake!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Some tables are installed above the water for those who want a romantic dinner as well. I wasn’t prepared for Agadir’s climate – it’s the end of June and Agadir is only around 25 degrees, almost not enough to get into the swimming pool. London on the other hand was approaching 30 degrees on those days.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Not far away there are villas with private pools.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Heading to the beach, there are lot of sunken pavilions on the way.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The hotel however doesn’t have direct access to the beach, in fact it is about a good 50 metres away. They’ve put a few beds on the soil by the hotel’s exit, which looks quite strange and I’ve never seen a single guest on them.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As you may have guessed, it is a public beach. To be honest I’m quite disappointed at the beach: very muddy water and a lot of waves. It’s hard enough to stay still, not to mention swim, in the sea. It seems to be quite popular with the surfers though.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I walked alongside to the north and more tourists turn up. Hotels here are nearer the beach so more ideal for the residents. There’s an all-inclusive Iberostar resort, partner with IHG, which appears to be really busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to the Sofitel, my stay coincided with the brand’s 60-year anniversary, and I was invited to join their celebrations.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Here I had a chat with the reservation manager. It turns out this Sofitel was closed in 2020 during the pandemic and only re-opened this May after a major refurbishment. It explains the lower rate and occupancy to some extent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summary, Sofitel Agadir Royal Bay is a good hotel with professional staff and decent dining options. It can hardly pass as a great resort though in my opinion – distance to the beach is one thing, and they don’t have any other recreational facility besides the pool. No sauna, no jacuzzi, and the Hamman spa is payable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then moved to a local hotel Timoulay<\/a> to continue my trip, and paid only \u00a3130 for two nights in a suite. It was a satisfying stay: as an Expedia Gold<\/a> member I got a fruit plate and 30% off any spa service, which I happily took for a full Hamman experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast to my very scammy experience in Fes and Casablanca the locals in Agadir are quite friendly and I never had to worry about paying extortionate price for anything. The city however isn’t attractive enough in my view, and I’d rather fly one more hour to Egypt or Turkey next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trip had a 50%-off sale on BA Gatwick flights a while ago and I nicked Agadir and Antalya very quickly. I have been to Morocco twice,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,42],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-20165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accor-all-limitless","category-africa","tag-hotel-review"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20165"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20250,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20165\/revisions\/20250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}