Labranda Rose Aqua Parc

This is mine and my sisters third time staying at this hotel. Everywhere like Jmaa el fnaa, the Menara Mall and the airport are all a 5-10 minute taxi away and it’s incredibly local to everywhere. The shops inside the hotel are all very affordable and I found that the buffet staff and the bar staff are exceptionally kind. The best aspect of this hotel are the animation team because they’re so incredibly involved with everyone and they all make an effort to get to know each client individually. They’re fantastic entertainers and during the daytime you can learn about cooking tajine, archery, darts, different styles of dancing and more. A massive thank you to everyone at Rose Aqua Parc for making our stay feel incredible!

This hotel is the best, it is only a 10 minute journey from the town and other places. The staff, especially the animation team, are so so good and really make the experience the best. They have different entertainment every night and there is always something to do in the daytime whether that be darts, archery or a cooking lesson, etc. The atmosphere is always at a high, the rooms are kept clean and the food is also really good. It is a lovely place to come especially for the price and the amazing team.

This is our 5th trip to Marrakech, so I want to stress that the issues aren’t simply a case of “that’s Morocco”. We’ve stayed in other similar hotels here that have been brilliant.

The biggest context for this review is the price. This was a cheap booking- everything else comparable was double the price.

If I’d paid double for this holiday, however, I would have been very angry and disappointed.

There is simply no way this is a 4-star hotel. It’s 3-star at best and generally feels tired and dated.

The good

The location is excellent. Mall, restaurants and fast food within walking distance, plus a nice area to wander around in the evenings.

The entertainment team were the absolute stars of the hotel. Younes and his team were brilliant. Friendly, energetic and fun without being overbearing. They deserve a huge amount of credit.

Reception, porters and cleaning staff were also lovely. Our room was more spacious than we expected, comfortable and kept really clean.

The aircon was pretty pathetic and in 46°C heat we were really concerned as it doesn’t belt out ice cold air like most places do, but it somehow just about kept the room bearable! It was like it was on a very low/eco mode- pumping out the absolute bare minimum to stop it being hot.

The pools were ok. Bit murky. Sometimes had hair in them which was a bit gross. Unlike others, we actually enjoyed the loud music all day, was good vibes!

The bad: MEALTIMES!

This was by far our biggest issue. Chaotic, overcrowded and stressful.

We sometimes queued 30+ minutes for lunch, then got inside to find popular food had gone and wasn’t being replenished. People were piling plates with things like melon because everyone knew it would disappear.

One day they actually ran out of plates. There must have been 50+ people standing around in a boiling hot restaurant, sweating and waiting for a plate just so they could get some food. It was crazy and really summed up how oversubscribed the hotel was.

The food itself wasn’t all bad. My vegetarian partner enjoyed the tagines and potatoes, and I loved the lunchtime outdoor BBQ station with different style chicken every day But with only one BBQ station, waits of 20+ minutes were common. My daughter, admittedly is fussy, but struggled to find much she wanted to eat.

Breakfast was OK, but again things constantly ran out and weren’t replenished. Fruit disappeared quickly and my daughter regularly couldn’t get milk for her cereal because the dispenser was empty.

We also found some of the cooking staff, particularly at breakfast, really quite miserable and unfriendly. I genuinely tried hard with them. Lots of smiling, being extra friendly and even attempting my very bad Arabic, but getting a smile back sometimes felt like hard work!

The restaurant manager also came across as cold and unfriendly towards guests. I did see him smiling and chatting with staff, so it didn’t seem to simply be his natural demeanour.

Dinner we eventually stopped bothering with. No aircon + Marrakech summer heat + huge queues = not enjoyable. We ate out or ordered in instead. Reception staff gave me details of Deliveroo equivalent and we ordered in McDonald’s twice- not something I’ve ever done while staying all-inclusive before but needs must.

So the food itself wasn’t necessarily terrible. The organisation and atmosphere were the bigger problem. Just hot, chaotic, carnage.

The alcoholic drinks also seemed completely watered down to us, to the point I eventually gave up drinking them. Although a tip helped improve this. The slushies, however, were brilliant in the heat!

We found some of the bar and restaurant staff quite unfriendly initially too, although a tip went a VERY long way. Once we’d tipped, they were suddenly our best friends and looked after us brilliantly!

Worth mentioning for English families

There were very few English families staying here. That didn’t bother us whatsoever. We’re in Morocco after all! But the hotel didn’t feel particularly geared towards English guests, which might matter to some families when booking. Sometimes they would do English translations, sometimes not- it was hit or miss.

One thing we did love was the pool party at night- never stayed anywhere that has done this before, they usually do them in the daytime, so a pool party in the dark was a real novelty and highlight for us. Loud fun music that everyone knows and the ent team made it so much fun- definitely a stand out memory.

Overall- a real mixed bag.

My 8 year old daughter had a great time as she made a friend and they loved it.

It’s tired, dated, chaotic at mealtimes and 3-star at best, definitely not 4-star. But it also has a great location, a decent room, some genuinely fantastic staff and a brilliant entertainment team.

Ultimately, you get what you pay for. We paid almost half what other holidays were costing, and when I judge it through that lens, we still had a decent holiday.

Go with realistic expectations, don’t expect a 4-star experience, and maybe have the McDonald’s app ready. 😂