Budgeting for Morooco trip

Hi,

I did a search on this subject, but couldn't find an up-to-date
response. Sorry if this subject has been covered recently - any good
web links that address this issue would be welcome.

A friend of mine is spending 8 days in Moroccan "desert" and 2 days
in Marrakech.

How much does my friend budget? I guess there isn't much to spend
one's money on in the desert and when she hits the market - well the
sky's the limit I guess. But money for lunches and tourist
entertainment in Marakesh for example. How is it best to carry money?
As Dirhams converted in-country - or do market sellers accept credit
cards (don't laugh - CCs seem to be everywhere)? Do Moroccan cash
dispensers accept UK debit cards or should one take travellers cheques?
The usual "money" questions in fact.


Thanks

Clive

Le 19 Oct 2005 03:57:21 -0700, Clive a écrit :

Hi,

I did a search on this subject, but couldn't find an up-to-date
response. Sorry if this subject has been covered recently - any good
web links that address this issue would be welcome.

A friend of mine is spending 8 days in Moroccan "desert" and 2 days
in Marrakech.

How much does my friend budget? I guess there isn't much to spend
one's money on in the desert and when she hits the market - well the
sky's the limit I guess. But money for lunches and tourist
entertainment in Marakesh for example. How is it best to carry money?
As Dirhams converted in-country - or do market sellers accept credit
cards (don't laugh - CCs seem to be everywhere)? Do Moroccan cash
dispensers accept UK debit cards or should one take travellers cheques?
The usual "money" questions in fact.


Thanks

Clive

No problem to use ATM ni large cities, and even in middle size cities. Be
careful that exchange counters have limited opening hours....

There is an official exchange rate, wich will be the one practised with 1
or 2% differences by all banks. When shops and hotel take foreign
currencies, they apply a lower. For example, with euro, they make it 1 euro
= 10 drh, when in fact it's more 10,7

You can exchange at the airport it's not too much expensice. You'll have to
change all your dirhams back, so I usually change a little bit at a time.

In the desert itself, you don't have much to spend, but you have to count
water (7 to 10 dirham a bottle, 2 to 3 bottle a day, depending on your
activities) and other drinks which are usually not included by the
operators. So if you want to drink alcohol, that's expensive. A soda is
between 7 and 15 drh a bottle, a coffee or a tea is 5 drhs.

But the cost of the trip in the desert can be estimated to 100 euro / day
(that includes hotels, cars, guides, ....)

Lunches in Marrakesh can be anything from really cheap and good, to heavily
expensive. You can count something like 50 drh for a good meal in a local
restaurant, 25 drh for a very good breakfast, and you can go up to 400 drh
a meal in "posh restaurants".

Touristic entairtainment ? Usually, museums and so on cost 10 to 20 drh the
visit. A horse carraige tour can be up to 100 drh. A "little taxi" costs
around 5 to 10 drh.

You can mail me if you want more details...

--
Marie-Aude
www.trassagere.com
www.oasisdemezgarne.com
www.ayour.org

Excellent.

Thank-you.

Clive