Marrakech - money

[Barquentine]

How much should one pay a guide down in the Ourika Valley/Toubkal area south of Marrakech? Our guide asked the two of us for �10 each for approx 1 hour. He was very helpful and informative etc and �10 each seemed reasonable by the standards of our economy but someone reckons we gave him about a week's pay. Does anyone know what would have been reasonable and by which standards should you judge reasonable, our economy or theirs?

[choccygirl]

hi, we have just returned from Marrakech and on our visit we had a trip into the mountains and gave our guide $30
as we had only brought US money - he was more than happy with it. I would be interested know know what u thought of the country and your trip - i felt a litle let down - i think i was expecting too much?!

[Barquentine]

Thanks Choccygirl,

We really enjoyed it largely thanks to the 'Riad Karmela' which was an oasis of peace and friendliness amidst the chaos and bustle of the 'streets'.

We booked in a hurry and didn't do our homework before we went so we didn't know beforehand how much you can reduce prices by haggling or that the average daily wage is �4! We met another British couple who got 1/3 of the original asking price! I've since discovered you can get prices down to 1/5 and even 1/7th the original quote. A carpet seller in Imlim (location of Kasbah Toubkal) quoted 1,800 dirham to start with. I heard the trick is to tell them your lowest price and walk away if they don't accept. He chased after me saying he'd accept my 300 dirham!

We were frequently hassled by 14-15 year old boys offering to show us the way to 'le place' and demanding money. Very tiresome but I've since found out it's a criminal offence there to ask for money in this way.

We were only there four days - but saw quite a few sights in Marrakech. We took the tour bus too which was a good way to see a lot quite quickly (only an hour on each of the two routes).

My best memory was paying the shoe-shine guy �10 for a very good job he did shining mine and my girlfriend's shoes. He didn't name a price and just said we should give him whatever we thought was fair. We couldn't believe how happy it made him; I think �10 was probably more than two days' money for him.

It's just these random things that you can't plan that make a trip memorable and a bit of luck getting a fantastic 'hotel' - the Riad Karmela; Philippe (the owner) and Nadia were so helpful and kind to us. It is down one of the filthy, dusty 'derbs' (alleyways) and on the way I asked my girlfriend who booked it "What have you done?" - but it turned out to be so beautiful on the inside.

You can just never tell how these trips will turn out so I hope you