Hi,

I just got back from Marrakech on Monday early morning and I just thought I'd try to give people as much info as possible and hopefully help them in any way I can as I looked through this forum for ages to find some stuff. Obviously all of this stuff is specific to me and my mates experiences and it will be different to other people. 5 of us went for 7 nights from 13-20th July.

1) Temperature

I know people said its really unbearably hot in Marrakech etc and I was a bit worried before I went. Whilst there, we hit temperatures of mid 30s and even 40 on 1 of the days and I gotta admit, it was pretty hot, but I wouldnt say it was unbearably hot especially as me and my mates were out during the day !! It was really nice temperatures and we obviously got a bit of a tan and personally I think its good for your health getting that amount of sunlight/heat especially as we dont get it very often over here in the UK.

2) Riad

I definitely think if you go to Marrakech, you've got to go tradition n book in a Riad. I booked at Riad Aubrac and you can see my review in there. Sufficient to say that I did not leave very happy and am a bit surprised they have been rated as the 2nd best B&B in Marrakech, but again, thats no reflection on Riads in generaly, just this specific Riad

3) Souks

The souks was a really good experience, I enjoyed it a lot, you can almost get lost in there but wherever you are, just go to a shopkeeper and just ask them where Jama El Fna is and theyll direct you to it. I generally bartered with them quite well I'd say. Generally speaking, you wanna be paying about 1/3 - 1/2 of the original price they 1st ask for. They obviously give you a high price in the 1st place as they expect you to bargain. I think they key is that you start with a price, roughly about 30%, then keep on getting them to lower their price a fair bit and you just raise your price a tiny bit. When they start coming down in price steeply, then start to stick to your price a bit more or only raise it a tiny bit. Make sure that when you do raise you price, its in steps of like 10 !!

And yeh the shopkeepers do bother you and they try to get your attention to convince you to come to their shop but just say 'non merci' and ignore them and theyll go onto the next person.....As long as your prepared and mentally you know theyll bother you, youll get used to them quite quickly

4) Shopping items

Ok, I'll just give you some prices I paid for products, I'm sure other people will have got it cheaper elsewhere but I don't think youll get it much cheaper so as a guideline price, I don't think its too bad (bearing in mind I consulted some of the locals as to what would be a good price) and all of these wre from the souks

They'v got some wicked fake replica football shirts, make sure you check out the quality first before you buy and that the correct number/spelling of the player is at the back. For a good quality Spain/Barca/Portugal/Chelsea shirt (what me and mates bought between us), we paid 90 Dhs each. Don't pay more than that. I think I could've got it down to 85 as we were buying a few of em. There was an extremely good quality Brazil shirt which my mate paid 125Dhs for. These were all "One-fit-all" adult sizes. We paid 100Dhs for a 12yr old kids size Spain(Torres, 9) shirt WITH shorts

I also bought this long robe from them called a jalaba which was for women. The decent quality one which was cotton, had a bit of a design, I paid 80Dhs for (local moroccan woman told me I should be paying 80-90 for it). The good quality jabbas which had better design and better material etc, I paid around the 300Dhs for (Was told that was also a good price to pay)

My mates bought fake purses/jeans which were pretty good quality at about 100Dhs each but again the bad quality/smaller items were cheaper EG a kids purse, we paid about 35Dhs for.

We did buy other souvenirs but they didnt really need much bargaining as they were low-ish prices in the first place so going down from 70 to 50Dhs etc, that kind of thing really

5) Food

I did originally intend to eat from the stall but to be honest, we didnt find the food very appetising so we decided against it. We did head outside of the Medina into the new town (Gueliz) which had a McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut a couple of times. You dont wanna pay more than 3Dhs for a glass of orange juice, its really nice n cold as well

6) Taxis

The grand Mercedes taxis (which can seat 5-6 people + driver) cost us about 50Dhs total for general trips from Jama-el-Fna to the new town or places like that. We didnt really haggle with them at all so if you get the time, it might be worth a try I'd say. The petits taxis which seats 3 people + driver cost a total of 20Dhs. It was only near the end that we realised that getting 2 petits taxis was cheaper + more comfortable for us than a grand taxi

7) Moroccans

Generally, the people are really friendly, and they have a laugh and in the souks, they come out with stuff like "Asda Price", or "Primark Price" or "No Money, No Honey" etc

8) Daytrips

We spent about 4 days in Marrakech (which was 1 day too much I would say). 3 days is more than enough, 1/1.5days to check out attractions within Medina and the 2 gardens outside of Medina. We'd also spend a lot of our evenings in Jama-El-Fna chilling out, sampling the atmosphere as it really was buzzing at night, ESPECIALLY saturday night ! And also we'd go to the souks to do some shopping as well.

We did 3 daytrips, and all 3 were very enjoyable but I dont wanna go too much into prices as I think our riad (Riad Aubrac) charged us a bit excessively......

i. Ourika Valley/Asni Valley/Imlil - The driver just drove us past Asni valley/Imlil and then dropped us off and Ourika Valley where we had to hire a separate English speaking guide. We did a 3hr trek where we saw 5 out of the 7 waterfalls. The waterfalls looked really nice and you do need to have a bit of fitness to get up to see some of the waterfalls (1st 3 are easy though).

ii. Essouira - The beach was really nice n windy and you can hire bicycles out to ride on the road outside the beach which was really nice. The temperatures + windiness was perfect !! Really chilled out, definitely worth it

iii. Cascade D'Ouzoud - 1.5 hour trek where you start from the top of the waterfall, get some pics and the guide will take you to the bottom of the waterfalls and then back up. Some really good photo opportunities and definitely recommended

9) Airport Pastries

I read about being able to get some pastries from the airport and the pastries were quite nice, ended up costing about 6Dhs per piece (size of pastry is lyk 1 big bite/2 small bites). I did notice that the Moroccon customs etc didnt check hand luggage for food so it might not be a bad idea to get some pastries etc from the souks or near there and take em with you, it makes for a good present and itll work out to be cheaper

Thats my 1st post on here, I can't think of anything else to comment on at the moment but I hope I've been helpful to anyone wanting info on Marrakech