If you came to me and asked how were the prices in
Morocco I’d need to answer „It depends”. I wouldn’t be lying and I wouldn’t be avoiding your question. Because it really does depend on a lot of factors. When in other just a bit more civilized countries there are usually just more expensive towns and less expensive towns, more expensive restaurants and less expensive restaurants then in
Morocco there are more variables. If you’re from United States you can expect to pay a lot more for the simple reason that the locals think you are the easiest to rip off and so they do.
When putting your origin aside, the prices often depend on your face, your personality and other factors as well. And your negotiation skills. And then come the specific restaurants, cafes, hotels and cities. They all matter as well in terms of price of course.
Before going to more specific prices, the local currency is Dirham and 1 Dirham equals around 10.80 Dirhams. One dollar....considering the massively changing exchange rates for dollar in the money markets at the present time then 1 Dollar equals anywhere between 6 - 8.5 Dirhams.
Hotels
It applies to pretty much any country but in
Morocco you can find dirt-cheap hotels as well as very expensive ones. You can find hotels for 50 Dirhams a person if you’d really look for that price – the quality of those hotels comes with the price – these hotels might not be clean (meaning, instead of using their sheets you’d probably prefer your sleeping bag), they might not have a bathroom or have a crappy bathroom in the corridor.
You can also find hotels for $1000 if you really wanted.
We stayed in places which cost Dh 150- Dh 250 for a room for two. And this price includes usually a pretty clean room with bathroom and TV, often in the center of the town. Independent of the town you’re in – Marrakech, Agadir, Western Sahara (Laayoune) or any other for that matter.
Note that in cases these prices might be just a bit higher as we were there in the end of November which was sort of off-season. But even in many hotels the prices are actually negotiable.
Food
Tajin/Tagine – Dh 20-50
Sandwich – Dh 5-20
Fish plate – Dh 17 – 50
Spaghetti Bolognese – Dh 30-100
Pizza – Dh 30-100
Three-course Menu – Dh 25-65
Breakfast – Dh 15-40
Note that in case of any prices you can always find more expensive places, if you wanted to.
Drinks
Coffee – Dh 4-20 (usually you shouldn’t pay more than Dh 10)
Mint Tea – Dh 4-10
Fresh Orange juice – Dh 6-15
Small beer from shop (0.2l) – Dh 6+
Average (local) beer from a bar (0.3) – Dh 10-25
Average foreign beer from a bar – Dh 20-70
Cigarettes
The local brand Marquese is the cheapest one – 17.5 Dh, Fortuna 20 Dh and Marlboro Lights 32 Dh.
Transportation
All in one, transportation doesn’t cost too much in Morocco. Then again, considering the other prices it might be just a bit higher. For example a bus from Marrakech to Agadir cost about Dh 90 + about Dh 5 for baggage. Or if you take the wrong bus you might pay 90 for the bus, 20 for the guy insisting he’d show you the ticket office and bus location, 20 for baggage.
Bus from Agadir to Laayoune, Western Sahara – Dh 170-210 plus baggage (5 Dh).
In
Morocco there are two types of taxis – small taxis (Petit taxi) and big taxis (Grand taxi ). If you need to travel within the city limits, always use the small taxi which accommodates about 3 people. You should always ask the driver to put the taxi meter running (usually though, they might not even do it if you ask them to) and if they do, it costs just about 1.5 Dirhams for a km. If you can’t get them to start the meter, make sure you know the amount before you start the trip. And if the offered price is too high, try to negotiate or find another taxi.
Grand taxis are old Mercedes cars. Due to the laws, in most of the world you wouldn’t put more than 4 passengers there. However, in
Morocco they usually don’t start the trip before they have 6 people in the car, in addition to the driver that is. Four in the back seat and 2 in the front passenger seat. For smaller distances like 10-40 km you usually shouldn’t pay more than 5-10 Dirhams a face and this is usually a fixed fee.
You can also use Grand taxis to travel between towns but this tends to cost more per person than bus. And again, there will need to be 6 people in the car. If there’s not enough you could pay for the missing people too but this case it would get too expensive.
Clothes
I can’t tell you anything about this commodity as I didn’t look around for clothes too much. But they fall into the cheaper scale and I should get yourself jeans for 100-300, shirt for 50-150 and so on.
Drugs
In Agadir, you can see drug salesmen in every corner, without even searching for them. Or just ask pretty much any person selling you anything else. I don’t know about the prices, it’s definitely quite negotiable again and for tourists the initial prices are probably 5-10 times higher than for the locals. But a local guy in Western Sahara said that pot for locals costs just half the price of a pack of cigarettes.
A few more words about prices
Most of the locals, in Agadir and in other places, seem to think that Agadir, being a tourist place and all, is the most expensive city out there. I don’t agree. For me Agadir seemed quite cheap, definitely with better prices than Marrakech. But then again, maybe it’s just an impression.
