Visiting Marrakech – What you should know before you go - Part 10

Shopping and Eating

Haggling is essential in the souks. If you don’t haggle, you will pay vastly more than you should have. It all revolves around the considerable difference between the price offered by the seller and the price that he will actually accept if pushed. As so many of the items are almost identical you should shop around. Get a few different quotes on identical items before the game begins in earnest.

You will invariably be offered tea as part of the bargaining process. Accepting places you under no obligation to buy. It does, however, allow the seller more time to draw your attention to other potential sales. If you aren’t that interested in what he has to offer in the first place, then definitely decline the tea. The sales pitches of the souk traders are well honed on all the previous customers. So if you are not interested then just walk on, don’t respond and don’t catch anybody’s eye. None of them want to waste time on somebody who is not going to purchase goods. A souk can quickly draw you in with items that may seem like a good a deal. What you need to is stop to consider how well it will fit with your furniture at home. Would you actually wear the canary yellow slippers to work or to do the weekly shopping when back at home?

There are two types of restaurant in Marrakech: those that offer Moroccan food and those that offer international food. The Moroccan restaurants either feature an à la carte or set menu. The set menu meal is something you do once and never repeat. In the cheaper restaurants, a set meal consists of a starter, followed by a main dish and finishing with a dessert. At the more expensive restaurants, such a meal involves more courses than could ever be eaten. Your next evening’s meal could probably be Moroccan à la carte, and if you’re around a third night, you may want to dine at one of the restaurants that serves excellent international cuisine. Many restaurants open only for dinner, typically from around 7:30pm until 10:30 or 11pm. You may find it difficult to find a place for lunch away from Jemaa El Fna or the New City. As always it’s best to get a reservation for popular restaurants, but your hotel or riad can help here. Most restaurants frequented by Western tourists have a license to serve alcohol. The Moroccan rosé wines are well worth trying. Be aware that in Ramadan some restaurants that normally serve alcohol stop selling it.

It is possible to eat well for not very much. However, many of the more popular and fashionable restaurants in Marrakech now charge European prices. The prices that are given on menus usually include all taxes, but check if the service is included.

Continued in part 11