Hotel Lagon 2

Hôtel bien situé. Décoration type « bateau » assez atypique mais qui a son charme. Personnel très accueillant.

Its location by a cliff on the Corniche Est, close to the water and with great views from all rooms over the ocean, is quite special. One morning we had the pleasure of having a Black Heron (Egretta ardesiaca), which only lives in Africa, sitting for quite some time on the railing of our balcony. The room itself was fine. I mainly missed a light by the writing desk and the wardrobe was rather small with not much storage space for two. At least there was enough of it by the washbasin in the bathroom. The doors to the rooms are as on a ship. One of the best points here - maybe we were just lucky - was the fact that our room got serviced every day, when we had breakfast. Less happy we were with the other staff, with the food and with the bar. At reception they never looked up, when one entered, usually being busy with their chewing gum. The waiter in the restaurant reserved according to my wish a table for us, but this was not difficult, since hardly anybody ever had dinner here (unlike the restaurant 'Lagon 1' next door, by the same French-Senegalese owner). The waiter then came to take the orders with a toothpick in his mouth. The barman was unfriendly with a touch of arrogance. Most of the dishes in the menu card at the restaurant, as well as drinks from the card in the bar were not available. There were several beers mentioned, also some draught beers, but all they had was one kind of local bottled beer. Also except for the big TV screen and the area behind the counter the whole bar was dark, since apparently there was a problem with electricity. My wife gave back on the first evening at the restaurant the 'Boeuf grillé', ordered à point, since it was too tough to chew. At least she got instead a fish dish with 'thiof' (white grouper). The next day I was alone there, since my wife preferred not to eat. Thus I had first a 'Carpaccio de Poisson', which was good, and then a very dry 'Poulet grillé', accompanied by Gratin Dauphinois. Salt and pepper I had to get myself from other tables, since the waiter was absent. For breakfast there is a buffet with items not getting replaced, when all is used up, so it is better to show up early. Positive was the choice of soft French cheeses, even pork ham was to be had. Coffee came from a machine, which could not be used in self service, but had to be asked from a waitress. Until they got to know us the wrong type of coffee was given, but then we always had an excellent 'Café crème'.

I’m in two minds about this hotel - there’s a lot of great aspects but equally a lot of improvements needed. In the days leading up to my stay I tried to reach out for assistance with transport from the hotel, but unfortunately there was no response to email and difficulty with English over the phone. Fortunately taxis are easy enough to source at the airport but allow at least an hour, and my return took two hours in peak traffic. Checking in was an easy process with staff on hand to help with luggage despite it being an early hour of the morning. Staff were friendly and quickly explained the facilities and although it felt a basic affair it was quick. My room was on the same level as reception and was listed as a Superior Single room. Fortunately this didn’t equate to only having a single bed and the room was pretty spacious. With a tiled floor throughout and effective air-conditioning it was a cool room despite the hot weather and with a separated living area by a step it would be a comfortable space for an extended stay. There was a large desk with kettle but only a single coffee sachet provided, which felt tight despite the single occupancy. There was a large bottle of mineral water however. The TV was wall mounted opposite the bed, a decent enough size for the room but with rather poor picture quality and only a single channel in English from the US. The selling point for the hotel rooms has to be the sea facing views though, along with the balconies. This is a nice space with the seats and the sound of waves crashing on the rocks below a great feature, although I’m not sure I’d feel so relaxed during stormy weather! The bathroom was an okay space with plenty of storage space around the sink. Again, only a single item of each toiletry was provided, and none of them seemed to match, but there were enough towels of decent enough quality. Bizarrely the toilet seat was too small for the actual toilet and there was no form of door or curtain on the shower which made it feel a bit of work-in-progress area. The shower head was good, but with very sensitive temperature control and inconsistent heat, but at least a large unit. Overall it was a comfortable enough room. There were some bugs which could be found, small within the lower living room area, some larger hiding in the gaps around the wardrobe, but not something which couldn’t be put to the back of the mind. A lot of the decor appeared to be water damaged and was really due a touch up, both within the bathroom and main bedroom ceiling. Housekeeping weren’t always the quietest in the morning, but they always observed the privacy sign and there was zero noise from the adjacent rooms. On the lower level is the restaurant, and below that the bar. Both overlook the ocean but have very limited seating outdoors. The air-conditioning inside is very effective and the staff all very friendly, but somewhat limited with English. With the lights off during the day it didn’t always feel the most cosy