Labranda Targa Club Aqua Parc — Attraction in Marrakesh Prefecture

Honest review (a little long but informative)||Obviously it’s a closed currency, the hotel has an ATM with great exchange rates and only charge to your accounts rates. ||Food:|Breakfast: was all ok if you like eggs and pancakes with a salad on the side, I had omelette freshly cooked daily which was fine by me. They do have a selection of cold meats, breads and cereals also. |Lunch: was hit and miss, all other meats but chicken was very chewy, daily have chips, freshly cooked pizza to order and pasta dishes. Again have salads, colds meats, other dishes and breads etc. |Dinner: only ate dinner once there, in my opinion, it wasn’t great. The dish I had was a turkey dish and it was very chewy so it put me off eating any meat. (Basically turned into a vegetarian on the hols and had a dodgy stomach the following day)|Drinks: the cocktails weren’t to my taste, very sweet and machine made and also very limited choice unless you’re willing to pay for the better cocktails (same cocktails as the all inclusive just freshly made). They do have a selection of vodka, gin, rum, beer, wine whiskey etc. Pepsi, Pepsi max, lemonade and the standard mixers. If you fancy a shot, they only have tequila which you have to pay for. We booked through On The Beach and it stated that the bar closed at 23:30, however the bar and entertainment closed at 23:00. |We used the sports room with better selection of cocktails etc, they were delicious! (At a cost)|Bottled water, included in the all inclusive but not supplied in the rooms on arrival, make sure you request for some at reception if you’re a late arrival. |They only have a snack bar in the second bar which is open 16:00-19:00 and very limited options. The foods are not kept refrigerated which is a bit of a concern as there are meats left out. They do offer ice cream.|Bar staff and waiters, 10/10, super friendly, made sure we tipped them often. ||Coffee from the machines were lovely, also have different selection of hot drinks. ||Entertainment: |The entertainment staff, couldn’t fault them, they tried their absolute best. It could be massively improved as it was very repetitive and not much for the adults. I didn’t go with children but could see the children having fun. The last full night we had was a ‘dress white party’ which was very much hyped up but in my opinion wasn’t all that. ||Reception area on arrival looked stunning and immaculate, friendly and informative staff. They tell you a lot of information about food, drinks, entertainment etc but you will need to memorise this as there is no information leaflets in your room. They do supply price lists of the spa and extra paid services though. ||Bedrooms: we had a twin bedroom, paid extra to have a pool room view with balcony/terrace. If you don’t pay the extra for the rooms you will only have a window with no access to the outside unless you go out of your room and walk down the hallway. We had a room that backed onto the adult pool, no complaints as there was peace and quiet from the main pool/children. |The beds in my option were like bricks (ok if you like very firm beds), we struggled massively with back/hip pain (coming from a 30 & 32 YO - only thing that fixed that was the aqua Zumba on a daily in the main pool). Rooms are well cleaned on a daily basis. Showers are super powerful, no complaints there and come with complimentary toiletries. |There’s a mini fridge in the room, which is very handy when stocking up on water. Super friendly cleaners! The rooms could do with some maintenance, the sliding doors on the wardrobe weren’t fixed right and fell off and the back door had a gap in once locked. In our room the air con wasn’t the greatest so did get hot through the night, used Chat GPT to figure out how to use the controls as there was no instructions in the room. Our room often had an odd smell to it, fixed by opening the door for a few minutes to air it out. |There are safes in the room and long mirrors for those who love a selfie!|(Use bottled water to brush your teeth as Morocco have a big problem with their tap water). |Hair dryers supplied, no kettle or iron. Also very limited plug sockets so bring an extension lead! (Especially next to the beds)!||If you’re a smoker, they sell cigarettes at reception if you’re a late arrival and do sell them in the shop (cheap). The shop is very expensive, for a Nivea factor 50 sun lotion, I paid £20+. other people told me they paid £15+ for pool floats and when I had a look around the shop, the accessories and gifts were far to expensive. shops open 10AM - 1800 (other information provided that the shop opened at 9AM). ||The Thursday market they set up on a weekly basis is quite expensive. Instead, use the free shuttle bus (book at reception the morning before you plan to go) to go to the Souks. Be prepared to haggle and make sure you’re firm with them as well as the taxi drivers. (Would highly recommend the markets though!)||We chose to book through Trip Advisor for the Agafay Desert Experience (under £50 for two people). It included being picked up from the hotel, 20 minute camel ride, 1 hour quad ride, taken to a traditional Argon Oil making area with a tour, tea and options to purchase different products then taken to dinner in the desert with an incredible show! Couldn’t recommend this enough!||The pools were cold on the first day but due to the hot weather it was made comfortable for the rest of our time, very refreshing! The slides where decent and the adult pool was top tier if you wanted piece and quite from the children/liveliness of the main pool area. ||Highly recommend popping by the Nobu Rooftop Bar of a nighttime, the views are immaculate! We bumped into an old school English DJ which was a bit of a shell shock!||There is an app called Glovo that you can download that you can order takeaways such as Burger King, McDonald’s and many other places as well as supermarkets. Very cheap and will deliver to reception where you can collect from (tracking map on the app). ||The grounds/pool area are well kept with even a peacock on site!||In my opinion, I wouldn’t rate this a 4* hotel as I’ve stayed in many 4+. It’s more of a 3/3.5. We came for a week and that was absolutely more than enough. Lots of improvements need to be made to replicate their star rating. I’d say this is great for a quick holiday with kids...

The best bits

The bar staff and entertainment team were brilliant. The evening entertainment was really enjoyable. Hats off to the two chaps who played live music every evening. The pools were super clean and loads of seating. I didn’t need to get up at 6am to put the towels out. Even at 11am there was plenty of choice. The venue overall was very clean and tidy. The water slides are a nice addition. Kids and adults were fluming all day long. There were four to choose from. Nothing is more than a 30 second walk. Unlike many resorts there are no big blocks of rooms. There are several small blocks with maybe 20 rooms each. On arrival we asked if we could have a room with a balcony or terrace and they happily obliged. The Moroccan themed evening was great fun. A wide choice of dishes in the restaurant. We were even treated with tablecloths and proper napkins. This was followed by a variety of live music. Such a good evening. This happens every Thursday. The house keeping staff were top notch. Our room was cleaned daily. The resort is about 8km from the city centre which takes around 25 mins in the taxi.

Room for improvement

If you want a glass of wine with dinner, be sure to take your glass to the bar. No glass no drink. I ordered a taxi through the hotel and it cost 200 MAD. We booked privately for the rest of the week, some on the meter and some fixed price, but all not more than 150 MAD. So my advice is not to use the hotel for your taxi needs. Went to their sports bar which is outside the all inclusive package. Ordered two cocktails and they said they didn’t have the ingredients to make them. So no cocktails. I then ordered port, and then had none. Then brandy… nope. Don’t expect a showcase of cocktails, shaken or stirred. There are only five on offer, all of which are a spirit base and topped up with variations of juice from a machine. I understand speed is of the essence so I get why cocktails are made this way, it’s efficient. I just expected a little more from a 4* resort. Notwithstanding my comment on the Moroccan themed evening, the buffet is generally quite dull, limited and repetitive. The quality is OK. They have a microwave so you can heat your food. The dessert menu is probably the best. I’d argue that most meat dishes were the cheapest cuts of meat and almost every day was with the bone. They have a dedicated pasta/pizza station where food is made to order. The pizza - very good even if the pepperoni only includes four small pieces of meat. The freshness makes up for it though. Forget the pasta. The chicken/ham is slimy and rubbery processed meat. Try it once and see what I mean. If you are trying to showcase an authentic Moroccan restaurant, you failed. All you needed to do was present the food in a fake tagine and we’d not have known. The set menu was disappointing to say the least and was essentially left overs from the themed event last night. The main course was a piece of chicken sat on a bed of plain couscous with some carrots. This was the saddest moment of our holiday. Essentially, don’t bother with this set menu. The dining area in the ‘Moroccan restaurant’ was nice but to sit comfortably you need to be about 4ft tall. Finally, I think the hotel needs to enforce a no shirt, no shoes, no service policy.

Overall - would we go back? Probably not and this is purely based on the quality of food. The resort is beautiful, the location is perfect and the staff are brilliant. But, the food was just boring and the cocktails were...

Food You defintily get the taste of morrocco staying here. Lots of choice. You get breakfast served 7 til 10am and lots of choice. Then your lunch is served 12.30 til 2.30pm. They usually do one bbq item too outside. The snack is served in the cosy bar 4 til 5 I think and you get a good selection. Dinner is served at 7pm til 9.30pm. When we were there there was the majority of French guests compared to British so most food was morrocon or French. There is always pizzas and pasta being made fresh too. The ques weren't long at all. In the morning there are fresh omelettes and fried eggs. Staff were amazing and attentive. Couldn't fault them. The chefs work so hard and never stop

Kids club/jumbo entertainment We discovered the kids club next to the children's pool with slides. They has morning and afternoon slots till 5pm when they closed and then would do the disco etc at night. The staff were amazing and were so good at getting my little boy involved.

Trips In the hotel lobby there are tour reps from two companies. We used Muhammed from W2W and he was amazing. He knew all the answers we needed and the trip to ourika Valley was brilliant and we even climbed the mountain to the waterfall with a 2 year old and 4 year old with help from the amazing guides.

Spa Before coming it was so hard to get any information about the spa. In the room there are leaflets with prices but if you go to Muhammed in the foyer he can sort out a deal for £30 which includes a hamam treatment which was oil's and exfoliation then you have a massage and then spend time in the pool. It was lovely.

Rooms Rooms were lovely. We had a garden room which was great for the children to have space to run about. The rooms were clean. You can hire a kettle if you would like for a £20 deposit which you get back on return. There are handing rails and coat hangers. A powerful shower.

Staff The staff are so welcoming and couldn't do more for you. They are so helpful and bilingual. They are great with children too.

Free shuttle bus There is a free shuttle coach that takes you to the old town. It runs 9am to the medina and picks for return at 12.30pm and then 3pm till 6.30pm. When you get off you will be asked if you want a guide. We had one and it was great as we got to see all the souks etc and told about the culture. It is very busy and it was useful having the guide as we would have got lost. If you don't want a guide and don't mind mooching then when you get off the coach walk with the medina tower on your right towards thw horses and follow the road where the horses are and you'll find the main square there where the snakes, monkeys,market and souks are at the back. There are roof top bars too.

Shop on site There is a onside shop that looks like a boutique but when you have a closer look it sells everything from nail clippers,pool toys, ice cream, phone chargers and snacks etc.

Internet Internet is brill. Really fast and strong WiFi

Currency exchange They exchange money at a good rate at the hotel and its really easy and quick to do.

Thursday market They have a market on near the pool to the foyer which is really useful and good for gifts to take home or a kaftan for the pool etc

Thursday 3pm cooking lesson There are classes with jumbo entertainment which I was gutted we missed due out arrival and departure times. But worth...