No threads on this so thought I would start one, given my recent stay. This is a recently opened property (2021), about 30 minutes north of Agadir in Morocco, on a long sandy beach being developed for luxury hotels. There's a Fairmont, Hyatt and Radisson Blu already, and a Marriott under (very slow) construction. The Hilton has a spa and conference centre. Being west facing, it gets lovely sunsets:




This section of coast is well known for its surfing, and aside from this strip of hotels, to the extent the rest of the coast is developed (which isn't much), it's mainly geared around young backpackers and surfers. The Hilton sits in the middle of the luxury hotel strip. At the southern end, about a 30 minute walk away on a new paved and lit beach boardwalk, a collection of restaurant shacks catering for surfers, that looked like they were about to be bulldozed for new development. At the north end of the strip, again about a 30 minute walk away, is the village of Taghazout itself, which provides budget surfer accommodation and restaurants and facilities ranging from 20 dirham ($2) tagine to 100 dhiram pizza restaurants. There's a new development of cafes and (hopefully soon) a supermarket about a 5 minute walk up the boardwalk. So you're not trapped in the hotel for food.

The hotel is arranged in a U shape on three floors, around the four unheated outdoor pools. There's also a heated indoor pool in the spa. Rooms were modern and smart, all with balconies (depending on which way your room faces will determine whether that is in the shade or sun), and a quality bathroom with a separate toilet cubicle and large walk-in shower with rainfall head. Toiletries were Crabtree & Evelyn. As Gold I was upgraded from the standard redemption room to a "partial ocean view", which almost all of the rooms have anyway, I guess it's just how close you are to the beach. Suite quantities looked low from the floorplan.



room view (ocean to right)

The welcome was friendly, recognising my Gold status with a welcome letter offering a number of benefits: free buffet breakfast, free access to spa (basically the indoor pool), and a welcome drink (the voucher said no alcoholic drinks, the welcome letter said alcohol was included, as it was we got two tasty cocktails from the excellent barman). There was a welcome platter of local pastries and fruit in the room. Wifi didn't work using the usual room/surname combination, requiring a different code that the front desk supplied.

Our stay was during very low season, with less than 10% of rooms occupied, couples or the occasional couple with a very young child, which resulted in a very quiet and relaxed stay, which we loved. Towards the end of our stay it got busier, especially with families with kids, and as we try and occupy a child-free zone that made it a good time for us to leave. I could imagine in high season with a lot of families staying it would not be suitable for a couples break - for example there is no designated adults-only pool.

Many things in Morocco look beautiful, but on closer inspection are broken or damaged. The quality of construction and maintenance is a continual challenge. We stayed at one Riad (traditional hotel) that had a feature bathtub in the room. But the hot water supply was a weak, sulphurous trickle that would have gone cold before it had even quarter filled the bath. Here at the Hilton, they were taking advantage of low occupancy to keep on top of maintenance. Doors were being painted, leaks fixed, railings painted. Nobody seemed to bother putting up "wet paint" signs though, which meant whenever you smelled paint you had to be careful what you touched! The pool is losing tiles from the bottom, two years after opening. This is all just to set expectations - nothing in Morocco quite works properly, and while the Hilton is far better than most other places in the country and working hard to keep its facilities in good condition, it can still be a challenge.

The hotel uses the low-rent "towel card" system for pool towels, although the week we were there they had a photographer in taking promotional shots so most days there were plenty of towels out on the sunloungers. There were friendly staff around the pool to assist with parasols etc. There's a beach club next door which appears to be owned by the hotel, occasionally you would hear the thump-thump of the bass from their sound system. They appeared to have almost zero clientele, so presumably once they realised it was not attracting customers it stopped not long after!

There's three restaurants - one just for breakfast, a Moroccan and a Mediterranean. Breakfast was a substantial and wide range of both western and local items, and with stations for omlettes, Moroccan doughnuts (!!), and juices. When breakfast was busy, we noticed things didn't always get restocked. There were plenty of staff clearing and assisting - the bean-to-cup coffee machine dispensed sugary milk into coffee which my OH did not like, from the second day onwards they remembered this and proactively brought her a separate pot of hot milk each day.

We ate at the Mediterranean restaurant one evening, which was reasonably priced for a hotel - 400 dirhams / $40 for 2 mains - and the quality was high - I had a seafood paella which had generous amounts of fish in it. Alcohol is expensive - you do not come to Morocco for a cheap boozy holiday - with beers 50-60 dh, wine 70-80 a glass. If you don't mind not drinking, the local restaurants up and down the beach will do food for half the price.

Overall a great, relaxing stay - that we were there one of the lowest occupancy weeks of the year probably helped a lot, your experience during European school holidays may be different! Hope this is helpful, happy to answer any questions.