Day Trip to Lagzira and Tiznit

Lagzira is amazing, but tour operator has issues

I decided to go to Agadir because I saw Lagzira and was fascinated by it. It seemed to be still off the beaten trap and not inundated with foreign tourists. I booked this tour with Viator. The booking notes indicated a maximum of 15 people and noted that it could not operate unless there was a minimum number of people, but never specified what the minimum number was. I usually see 2 or 4, but no number was specified. I have never seen that before, so I did not actually think there was a minimum as there are some tours that do not have a minimum. I booked the tour in English. There was another tour, but it did show a minimum number of people, so I was concerned about not getting on that tour. I booked the tour and received an immediate confirmation. After that, I booked my hotel in Agadir since my tour to Lagzira was confirmed. Either the night before I left for Agadir or when I was in transit to Agadir, I got a WhatsApp message asking me if I could do the tour on another day because I was the only person booked. I was saddened and said I really wanted to do this trip. To the tour operators credit, they made it happen by asking other people to switch their day. I am very grateful that I got to go and thanked them for making it happen. The driver arrived. He was nice, but did not speak any English. He spoke French. I speak French, so I was able to do the tour, but it was tiring to speak French the whole day. If I did not speak French, I would have been livid. The other people spoke German and he was able to speak to them in their language of choice. The van was comfortable. The information given in general about Morocco was in line with what I heard from other tour guides during my two weeks in Morocco and I learned new info about Agadir as that was my first day there. The tour stated that there would be: We stopped on a bridge for 5 to 10 minutes to take pictures of pink flamingos. Not part of the itin, but a welcome surprised addition. 1. A 15 minute stop in Tifnit at a pottery store. This ended up being a 30 to 45 minute stop mainly because the other passengers enjoyed their shopping. 2. Massa - pass by - this was indeed a drive through, passby 3. Tiznit -45 minute stop- Visit to a small town of Tiznit - visit medina - this was supposed to be a stop with a visit to a silver factory. This stop never happened. We only drove through the town and the medina was pointed out as we were driving. Instead, our tour guide had to add money to his phone and took a detour into a town. This was about 15 minutes minimum. He apologized, but it took time away from the tour and is unprofessional. We had a "technical stop" on the way to Lagzira...tour guide had to relieve himself on the side of the road. 4. Lagzira beach - free time to swim and relax - lunch on the beach - 3 hours - The waves are very rough and it is hard to swim here. Surfing might even be a challenge. The rock formations themselves were fantastic. You need a good 45 mins to an hour on the beach to take it all in and photos. Wow! It is otherworldly and I was extremely grateful that I got to go on this trip. I loved this and it is a gem and rock collectors dream. So many igneous and other rocks in the sand. This is what I came for and I was stoked. We spent about 1.5 hours. Lunch was advertised as included. There was no lunch on the beach and we were told that lunch would be at the tour guide's home. Huh? Lunch - we drove into the tour guide's city. He stopped off to buy bread. He said that the silver store in Tiznit was likely closed since it was a Friday, so we wouldn't be going there. That was somewhat disappointing because when he mentioned that we would be stopping there in the morning, it sounded very interesting. We indeed had lunch at his home. His home was nice and the lunch was tasty. It's obvious that this is what is likely normally done on this tour. I am a germaphobe, so I did not like the fact that he wanted us to eat "Berber style" with our hands. I ate in another Berber home on my earlier trip, and there were always serving spoons. Since there was no where else to eat lunch, I had no choice. I used my fork and took one portion of food from the tagine and the couscous. He tossed the bread out of the bag on the table. His wife did a great job. He had a clean toilet, but the toilet did not have a seat. A few toilets are like that in Africa and Asia, but when you have mainly Western clients on your tour, please put a seat. Apart from the pottery place, there was no where else to sit on a toilet. It was uncomfortable since this was a 10 hour tour. He announced that he had to take a shower and pray, so we could make ourselves comfortable and relax. We spent about 20 to 30 minutes after eating to wait on him. None of this was on the itinerary, so it was confusing then delaying. We went "off roading" to the dessert. He said it was not part of the Sahara. There was a managed looking camel and two other camels that were there for photo purposes. Maybe a very tiny person could ride one of them. I went to the Sahara, so this was a bit of a joke to me and even the other couple who had not been to the desert yet did not seem to care. We went to another impromptu stop and saw a dam. The view was great and I did appreciate having the opportunity to see this. We saw the Corniche and Midfelt Beach on the way to and from Lagzira. There was another "technical stop" before we got to Agadir. I tipped the tour guide because it was a long tour and I think he did try to make up for missing Tiznit with the other stops. After the tour, the operator reached out to me and asked me to review the tour. I did that, then I was harassed about my comments and they asked me to increase my rating from a 3 to a 4. They told me that if they knew I would have given them a bad review, they would have cancelled the tour. I had to block them on Whatapp and I was told by Viator that they would speak to them since it was unacceptable to be this rude to a customer. Viator maintained the 3 star rating, but removed my comments I am guessing at the request of the tour operator. The tour itself was good, but it missed one key stop in omitting Tiznit. I was grateful because I got to go, but if I am not being offered a tour that I paid for in the language of my choice and it is omitting one of the highlights, and I can't use a complete toilet for 10 hours, I think a 3 star review is reasonable. I hope they do not treat other customers who point out concerns about their tour this way in the future.

via Tripadvisor