My Agadir Review

[Jakanne1]

My Agadir Review

 

Probably a bit late as Majesty is now in the Med but this may be useful for anyone visiting Agadir next season. We, 3 retired ladies, arrived in Agadir expecting some hot sunshine but unfortunately the hills on shore were covered in mist and during the night I had heard fog horns sounding! We left the ship after the numerous excursion coaches had gone and headed towards the line of taxis. There was a notice between the ship and the taxis advising taxi prices to various destinations. Agadir beach was £6 or €8 so we had our £5 note plus £1 coin ready. We waited in line as one man was directing people to taxis but we saw a newish shiny looking red taxi to one side so we ignored the queue and went over to the newish taxi and offered him the £6 to go to the beach and he agreed. It was a long ride I would definitely not recommend walking through the port as it is boring walk amongst containers and vehicles are speeding about and even outside the port gates it is still a long walk along unattractive surroundings.

 

The taxi driver did try to sell us a tour around Agadir but we said we wanted to go to the beach. He said it is too cold for the beach but we (laughingly) said it is much warmer than England and we wanted to go swimming, (total lie but it stopped him trying to sell us his tour). He also wanted to meet us after 2 hours at that drop off to return us to the ship but we knew we would be able to get a taxi elsewhere along the beach so said no thanks.

 

The beach and promenade are lovely and soon the sun soon came out. There were only a few people selling things along the promenade.....kaftans and geode rocks. I bought 2 geodes. I couldn't decide between a purple or rose coloured quartz and because I was slow to make up my mind he kept dropping the price from €40 and I paid €10 which I was happy with. However, when I got them home I thought I would wash them and when I put one under running water purple die came running out!! It is still pretty with a lighter purple with gold specks inside though. I am the one with MUG written along my forehead!!

 

We walked along as far as McDonalds and Burger King which are in a kind of wide open square and walked away from the beach and towards the right towards the Bird Zoo and Park. There are quite a few clearly marked maps along the beach to help you. Just outside the Bird Park we got on the tourist train, €2 each for 40 minutes. There was no commentary but it gave us a flavour of part of Agadir and the area of 4/5 star hotels. It did not go on the promenade though.

 

After that we went to the zoo/park. It was free and frankly not very good as the animals were rather crowded together but most seemed healthy enough. The park was sheltered from the wind which was building up. Bet it would be smelly on a hot day!

 

We then returned to walk along the promenade. Near McDonalds there were some nice looking restaurants and souvenir shops. It was too windy by then to go on the beach so we headed back and got a taxi from the square near McDonalds. We just offered the driver with the best looking red car £6 and asked for the cruise port...no trouble at all. He was very polite and tried to tell us what the different places were. He did not speak English but we were able to understand with our school French.

 

For anyone who has not been to Agadir, I would suggest that a walk along the promenade, a ride on the tourist train and a quick walk around the zoo is perfectly safe. There was no hassle in the tourist shops at all. We learned that just a polite "No thank you" and no eye contact was all that was needed to stop the street traders harassing you. The shop keepers in Bodrun and Kudadasi were much more rude and harassing!!

 

Sorry it is a bit long......! :rolleyes:

[kruzseeka]

A very helpful and informative review of Agadir - and extremely useful for anyone going in the future. Glad it all worked out well for you. :)

 

Funnily enough I've just found the card of the guy who kept the shop in Kusadasi where you don't get hassled (chilly again here so doing a bit of clearing-out). I've not many minutes ago posted on another thread the details. I know what you mean about being bothered as you walk along in Kusadasi so for anyone who did want to browse but was put off by the general pressure if you stop I thought it might be helpful to know where it's possible to go without the hassle - but for mainly souvenir type goods.

[Jakanne1]

A very helpful and informative review of Agadir - and extremely useful for anyone going in the future. Glad it all worked out well for you. :)

 

Funnily enough I've just found the card of the guy who kept the shop in Kusadasi where you don't get hassled (chilly again here so doing a bit of clearing-out). I've not many minutes ago posted on another thread the details. I know what you mean about being bothered as you walk along in Kusadasi so for anyone who did want to browse but was put off by the general pressure if you stop I thought it might be helpful to know where it's possible to go without the hassle - but for mainly souvenir type goods.

 

Hi Kruzseeka, thank you. Just typed it out and haven't time to précis it! I just read your bit about Kusadasi. It was inside the port shopping centre that I got the hassle and got overcharged for an ice cream. After walking around the fantastic Ephesus I could not find the energy to walk up the hill but I know exactly where you mean.

[happy v]

Thanks that's very good.:)

I've never been to Agadir but I'd like to one day.

[alex1980]

I've been to Agadir , welcoming people and great city , i visited Agadir and Taroudant and i thnk being to agadir without visiting Taroudant is a waste of time .

[dingadong]

Thanks for this, been looking for a review of Agadir - off on the Celebration end of Feb. This is perfect, giving us a real good idea about what to expect do! Thanks again!:)

[alex1980]

Welcome ,

 

if you are in Agadir don't hesitate to buy the original Argan oil , from Agadir Berber market or in Taroudant city , the prices are great and the Argan is 100/100 original , personally i booked the tour with a local travel company , pick up and drop off from the the cruise ship gate was in time , and the tour was amazing .

 

please note that people who don't book theirs activities in advance find so much problems in theirs arrival to Agadir , that there is so much touting (taxies + illegal companies ) trying to sell tourists theirs activities , if you book with them , you will not enjoy at all .

[Jakanne1]

Thanks for this, been looking for a review of Agadir - off on the Celebration end of Feb. This is perfect, giving us a real good idea about what to expect do! Thanks again!:)

 

You're welcome, dingadong. The alternatives to what we did in Agadir seemed to be to stay on the ship and relax (but there was an awful stink that day from emptying something from a ship nearby) or going on the Thomson organised tours which were very popular by the huge number of coaches waiting on the dock side.

[jimb98]

I've been to Agadir , welcoming people and great city , i visited Agadir and Taroudant and i thnk being to agadir without visiting Taroudant is a waste of time .

 

Alex,

We go to Agadir in February. Would you mind telling me who you booked your tour through?

 

Jim

[alex1980]

sorry about the late reply , i was quiet busy this week

 

the company name was Ecolodge Adventures

 

my friends booked with Sud Aventures Tours and they said it was amazing , they went to the paradise valley by the way .

 

any informations about prices im here to help you

 

regards

[Isis2]

I hate to rain on anyones parade, but we went to Agadir ooo must be about 7 years ago, for a two week holiday, never ever again, rip off city big time and I can speak a little Arabic as well and still got ripped off big time. So please please take care there

[alex1980]

Isis sorry to hear about your story , unfortunately so much travellers choose the bad people to organise theirs vacations ... i'm happy that we got lovely time in Agadir , and i wish you a good luck in your future holidays .

Edited December 26, 2013 by alex1980

[hammers]

Visited Agadir twice, stayed on the ship on the second visit. Don't really know why Thomson keep this port of call. I can only assume it's reputation as a port ensures full tour coaches :rolleyes:

[Jakanne1]

Bumped up for Linda. Spent ages reading old posts....like looking at old photos! Then found the Search panel. Doh! :D

[CRUISIN LINDA]

Thanks Jackie, promise to print it off this time :o

[Bla bla]

Hi Jakanne1. I read your review before our cruise and just returned from a 7 night cruise with the Thomson Majesty. Even before we boarded the majesty I decided on a different way of doing this and we had a fabulous day, too.

 

We are a family of 5. We don't like tours as we like to keep our independence. So instead of haggling the price down for a drive to the beach I asked the taxi driver (name was Jama) what he would charge for a whole day showing us around Agadir. He said €60 and I agreed and chose not to haggle knowing it would probably be a good price for him and we would get a good service.

 

This turned out to be excellent. Rather than taking us to the touristy Souk in Agadir Jama took us to a Berber Souk outside Agadir. This was an amazing experience. Because of this Berber man we got a lot of insight into society in Marocco, but also were taken to cheap, original and lovely places. For example we went to a tea house and had Moroccan tea (a real celebration of tea making with mint) and lunch with chicken, bread and a vegetable dip and only paid €4.60. I wanted to buy a leather belt and he haggled for us and I paid €4 for a beautiful belt.

 

He also acted as our "body guard". My wife had a short skirt, but because of Jama's presence we never had any problems at all. And nobody tried any selling on us all.

 

After the tea house we went to an Argan oil factory outlet and then we went to the beach were he left us to ourselves (due to our request) for 2 hours (and the selling started right away). He then collected us again and brought us back to our ship.

 

So, if you don't count the pennies, this is another way it can also be done. I guess we were a bit lucky though, because this man was a gem! He never stopped talking and his English (besides German, French, Arab and Berber dialect) was excellent.

 

So my advice: Take a risk, ask for the taxi drivers time, negotiate what he can do for you, don't haggle too much and then enjoy your day!

 

However, if you only want to go to the beach: In our case the price to the beach was published on a price list at the ship (£6 / €8).

Edited February 23, 2015 by Bla bla
some minor errors / improvements