Dakhla Kitesurf World — Hotel in caïdat de El Argoub قيادة العركوب

Pros: ||Rooms are clean, good wifi, A/C was useful some days||||Cons: ||||Of the ~60 other people there during our stay, there was only 1 kitesurfer, the rest were moroccan families that stayed in their rooms the whole time, zero stoke, no ambience||||Only 1 person on staff knows anything about kitesurfing, he teaches lessons, mans the rescue boat, runs the rental shop, which in general means that you cannot find him when you need to rent a kite or get rescued because he is teaching some newb how to body drag||||Hotel is 10 minute walk from the beach, most other hotels were much closer to the beach, there is no one from the hotel to land your kite at the end of the day so you either need to eject or walk about 1km back to the hotel with your kite in the air||||food is very very bad, same breakfast every day (bread, jam, butter, fake cheese), and there are about 4 meals they rotate for breakfast lunch and dinner. Tastes like low quality costco frozen foods.||||Bathroom water has a terrible sulphur smell, its ok if you keep the door closed, but its overpowering if you take a shower, smells horrible||||None of the staff wants to help you do anything, very difficult to buy a snack at the hut (no alcohol at the hotel at all btw), or get an excursion set up||||We did 2 excursions, to other hotels (ocean vagabond and dakhla attitude). It was terrible seeing how good the other hotels were compared to this one. It felt like we were being...

Pros: ||Rooms are clean, good wifi, A/C was useful some days||||Cons: ||||Of the ~60 other people there during our stay, there was only 1 kitesurfer, the rest were moroccan families that stayed in their rooms the whole time, zero stoke, no ambience||||Only 1 person on staff knows anything about kitesurfing, he teaches lessons, mans the rescue boat, runs the rental shop, which in general means that you cannot find him when you need to rent a kite or get rescued because he is teaching some newb how to body drag||||Hotel is 10 minute walk from the beach, most other hotels were much closer to the beach, there is no one from the hotel to land your kite at the end of the day so you either need to eject or walk about 1km back to the hotel with your kite in the air||||food is very very bad, same breakfast every day (bread, jam, butter, fake cheese), and there are about 4 meals they rotate for breakfast lunch and dinner. Tastes like low quality costco frozen foods.||||Bathroom water has a terrible sulphur smell, its ok if you keep the door closed, but its overpowering if you take a shower, smells horrible||||None of the staff wants to help you do anything, very difficult to buy a snack at the hut (no alcohol at the hotel at all btw), or get an excursion set up||||We did 2 excursions, to other hotels (ocean vagabond and dakhla attitude). It was terrible seeing how good the other hotels were compared to this one. It felt like we were being...

Having come to Dakhla to kitesurf among others, I soon found out that most of the hotels catering to this audience is located 20 km or so from the city center, close to where most of the kitesurfing is done. Many hotels include an all-inclusive deal (food and accomodation) which is quite neat given the remote location and since you are there to kitesurf and not for fine dining. Please however note that the hotel does not offer an opportunity to buy wine or beer like nearby hotels. That said, food is good. ||When there is no wind the hotel offers trips to various attractions nearby and, if you are a solo traveller like me, helps you group up with other people when going to these sights. Please note that these trips include little or no guidance as to what you see (in particular if you do not speak Arabic or French), so you have to read about these place beforehand by yourself. Also, please, if there is a delay or misunderstanding (such as having to wait one hour for your guide to pick you up!), you have to pay for the full tour anyhow. No mercy on that one! ||Lastly, on their webpage it is indicated that you can buy different packages (eg including sunset walk, oyster tasting…), however none of this will happen if you do not pay for it. So as such it is not really a package deal. Therefore, you might as well buy your stay through Hotels.com og similar.||If coming back to Dakhla again, I will find...