Unlike the pitiful domestic lounge in Casablanca, the Royal Air Maroc L’Oasis VIP Lounge in Marrakech (RAK) was very pleasant, with friendly service and a nice selection of food and drinks.
Royal Air Maroc L’Oasis VIP Lounge Review – Marrakech (RAK)
After a save from the Park Hyatt Marrakech, I made it to the lounge about 20 minutes before boarding my flight to Paris Orly.
Access + Hours + Location
This lounge is located in Terminal 2 near gate A3. There are no published lounge hours: the lounge opens one hour before the first flight of the day and closes after the last flight boards.
Access is reserved for oneworld sapphire and emerald status holders (including Safar Flyer Gold or Platinum card holders) or business class passengers traveling on Royal Air Maroc (there are no other oneworld carriers that offer domestic flights within Morocco). You are permitted one guest if entering via status or no guests if entering via ticket class of service.
Seating
The layout of this lounge is “inspired by the famous Jamaa El Fna square” located in the heart of Marrakesh’s medina quarter (photo essay here). Frankly, I did not see the resemblance, but did appreciate that the seats were comfortable (including a cluster of daybeds) and I did like the semi-skylights and greenery in the lounge, though I find the hard fluorescent lights far too industrial. Plugs are also few and far between, though I found one. Wi-Fi worked reasonably well, with moderate but stable speeds.
Food + Drink
I didn’t eat, so I can only comment on the selection rather than the flavors of the food, but a buffet area included hot dishes like chicken, beef, vegetables, and rice (that looked decent) and even pizza and cold dishes included a salad bar with all sorts of delicious looking salads, fresh fruit, desserts, and even a wide selection of dates.
An adjacent bar offered a small selection of beer, wine, and soft drinks…lower-shelf stuff.
Barista-made coffee was available and I had a nice cappuccino…
I had to try the coffee (and it was not bad), though I probably should have had my last Moroccan mint tea before leaving Morocco.
Restrooms + Showers
Restrooms are available in the lounge and were clean, but there were no showers.
Service
I appreciated the service in this lounge. The guys were very friendly and hospitable…they wanted me to eat! They kept urging me to try the food. You can see the lounge was not very crowded and they seemed almost disappointed when I said I was not hungry (though they were very happy to make a coffee).
CONCLUSION
I quite liked this lounge and found it a good value-add for the Royal Air Maroc flights (which were almost double the price of flying on Transavia or EasyJet on the same route, though still only $125). The lounge staff were very hospitable and the coffee was quite acceptable.
Really nice.
A complete contrast to the Casablanca lounge which is an absolute dump.
It’s crazy how different that is to CMN. No alcohol in CMN, pitiful food, stench of smoke everywhere, people sitting on the floor, disgusting bathrooms. Strange they would be so different.
The international lounge in CMN is also an absolute disaster, not just the domestic one. I don’t get how CMN can be so much worse than RAK considering that CMN is the hub for long-haul flights. What is Royal Air Maroc thinking?
Based on these comments it sounds like there must be multiple lounges at CMN? The one I went to was at the very end of the newer looking side of the terminal and was pleasant, two floors, decent food options, and the elusive beer.
There are two, a domestic and international lounge. It appears the international lounge is far better. I haven’t been in it since it was remodeled:
https://liveandletsfly.com/review-royal-air-maroc-casablanca-lounge-cmn/