Riad Taroudant Palmiers

18-20/12/22 - Room 8, far end left corner We three middle aged guys from London were at the end of nine nights in Morocco planning to get to the airport direct from Taroudant on our last day. We booked this Riad from Agadir despite the negative reviews as it was very cheap at only £25 a night for the en suite room for three (despite reports of no water, although better than having to share with strangers a waterless shower, sink and/or toilet!) Previous reviews, repeatedly quoted the lack of water in rooms and buckets being used. We were not perturbed having spent time in similar places around Morocco (and even Romania!) before. We arrived at the riad complex from the massive road gate and it was not obvious where to go to the accommodation entrance. Someone from the quite busy 'bar', in the far right corner, saw our confusion and came over to show us the entrance to the left (marked 'Prive'!). Once inside a receptionist called Nordin took our passport details down at 15:20. Meanwhile there was an event at the far end of the courtyard with lots of women in a big room. As Nordine processed the passports he told me that the women were part of a women's community group that were affiliated with the convent next door and an orphanage. That would account for the larger number of young men and boys around the bar area. As I was chatting with Nordine the women's group started performing music loudly and dancing in the end room. It was all very atmospheric, local and free live entertainment! The courtyard was not as verdant in the advertised pictures having been cobbled over and there was a derelict fountain and pond with a few inches of very stagnant water and lemons, which was a potential hazard for harbouring mosquitoes. Nordine offered us room eight at the far left hand corner which had a high ceiling and was airy but the light in shower-room did not seem to work so N showed me room 12 near reception with a working light inside the shower-room. It was, however, slightly smaller, by a potentially busy reception entrance and had a window onto the front yard by the road where potential smokers may have been outside with noise from the tea drinking bar and road (including those infernal exhaustless motorbikes). We discovered the room 8 shower-room light was switchable from within so decided that that original room offered was the best of the two. The room itself was very clean and traditional, with a single bed and a real double bed (as opposed to two singles pushed together) with sheets and blankets covering them. A mirrored shelf and a metal frame clothes rack with shelves was useful for a few of our clothes as only three clothes hangers were available. Both beds had a bedside table. The tiled shower room was modern, tiled, clean, very echoey, with large buckets of water and ladles to scoop water out of. A large water dispenser was by the toilet with a jet of water aiming into the toilet pan. As usual the light over the mirror over the

Lorsque nous sommes arrivés au riad, l'accueil était plutôt froid ! En entrant dans la chambre le réceptionniste nous annonce qu'il n'y a pas d'eau. Nous demandons alors le remboursement de nos 2 chambres qui avaient été payées à la réservation. Au bout de 40 minutes nous avons capitulé devant le refut absolu du propriétaire qui voulait mettre à notre disposition un bidon d'eau et une cuvette dans la chambre... C'est à l'hôtel TIOUT, tout près du riad Palmiers, que nous avons passé une excellente nuit. L'accueil était chaleureux, le petit déjeuner copieux et il y avait même un parking privé pour un prix, à 1 euro près, identique à ce que nous avions déboursé pour dormir au riad. Nous n'y reviendrons pas !