The Piano Bar is the indoor bar of Le Mirage, the cliff top hotel at Achakar on the Route des Grottes d'Hercule, about 14 km west of Tangier. It has not been changed since the hotel opened: deep red tapestries and striped wallpaper, wood panelling, a working fireplace, gilt framed prints and a white grand piano. Oldies and jazz standards drift from the piano through the late afternoon and into the evening.
Why people go
The Piano Bar at Le Mirage is the indoor bar of the cliff top hotel at Achakar, on the Route des Grottes d'Hercule about 14 km west of Tangier.
Nothing in the room has been changed since the hotel opened, which is the point of it.
It keeps a Belle Epoque look: deep red tapestries and striped wallpaper, wood panelling, gilt framed prints and a working fireplace.
A white grand piano sits at one end, and oldies and jazz standards play from late afternoon into the evening.
It is the indoor half of Le Mirage's drinking rooms, the other being the Sunset Terrace on the cliff edge.
Music & vibe
Live piano: oldies and jazz standards from a white grand at one end of the room
Red velvet sofas and buttoned armchairs, a patterned red carpet and low lamplight
A fireplace that is lit in winter, which makes this the room to use when the terrace is too cold
Quiet and adult, closer to a country house drawing room than a hotel bar
Getting in
Open to visitors who are not staying at Le Mirage, like the terrace
Call the hotel ahead, particularly at weekends and in high season
Roughly 20 minutes by car or taxi west of Tangier city centre on the Cap Spartel road
The Caves of Hercules are two minutes on foot from the door
Good to know
Le Mirage publishes the Piano Bar drinks menu on its own site
Winter and shoulder season are when this room comes into its own, with the fire lit
The site was a fish restaurant called Café Restaurant Les Grottes d'Hercule from 1982 to 1989 before the hotel
Paul Bowles is quoted on the hotel's own history page about the view from here
The Piano Bar is inside Le Mirage, Route des Grottes d'Hercule, Achakar, Tangier, Morocco. The hotel is on the cliff about 14 km west of the city centre, two minutes on foot from the Caves of Hercules.
Yes. A white grand piano stands at one end of the Piano Bar at Le Mirage, and oldies and jazz standards are played on it through the late afternoon and into the evening. There is no DJ and no dance floor.
The Piano Bar at Le Mirage keeps a Belle Epoque interior: deep red tapestries and striped wallpaper, wood panelling, gilt framed prints, red velvet sofas on a patterned red carpet, and a working fireplace. The hotel states that nothing in the room has changed since it opened.
Yes. The Piano Bar at Le Mirage takes visitors who are not hotel guests, as does the Sunset Terrace outside. Calling the hotel ahead is sensible at weekends and in high season.
Winter and the shoulder seasons, when the Atlantic wind makes the cliff terrace cold, are when the Piano Bar at Le Mirage is the better room. The fireplace is lit and the piano runs through the evening, while the Sunset Terrace outside is the summer choice.