8-day road trip starting from Agadir (page 2 of 2)

The opportunity was too good to pass up 😇

I’ll try to answer as kindly as possible...... I’ll probably fail.

No, no, you didn’t fail. 🙂 Clarity, sadness, anger... disillusionment... Facing the world as it is... sometimes? More and more often?

Roaming the planet is no longer an extraordinary adventure. While our eyes seek and embrace the change of scenery, our suitcases—perhaps unknowingly, perhaps because we’re too well-informed?—carry everything needed to keep our habits, our way of doing or being, from being disrupted by those of these foreign places we seem so eager to experience.

Hi, I understand your "anger"—I was shocked myself when I saw how stingy some people can be! I traveled with friends, and some just don’t get that 10 DH is one euro! The issue for them is also not knowing the prices! In France, you have price tags, and usually, you don’t haggle! But in Morocco, people call out to you, tell you it’s cheap, and you negotiate—it’s not in our habits! When you say no and the seller insists, it can get annoying sometimes! I remember once spending 2 hours with a rug seller—the patience he had, all the tea we drank, the chit-chat, the laughs... I didn’t buy anything and left with big smiles! But that’s not the case everywhere! That’s why I don’t go to Marrakech anymore! For car rentals, I paid 30 € per day, the same price as 8 years ago, so very reasonable! Argan oil was 80 € in cooperatives (even where there are no argan trees), and I said no! I found some for 45 € in Tafraout at a friend’s shop, but 60 € on the roadside is still expensive! Even though the drought has destroyed many argan trees between Agadir and Essaouira! After all, it’s a choice, like all luxury products! In 2018, I paid 20 € per liter! Plus, it’s no longer women cracking the nuts but machines! Behind all this trade, there are people stuffing their pockets—often not even Moroccans! I stayed in the south of the Atlas and found very decent accommodations at low prices! I would never have helped myself to the fridge! But I wasn’t in guesthouses! Overall, it was a very positive trip for me—the rain had just fallen abundantly, nature was turning green, which was great for some but tragic for others who lost family (near Tata) or their homes (in Amtoudi), for example! To make up for others’ stinginess, I had a nice fund to help people in villages above Taroudant who received no aid! A lot of supplies meant to help got stuck in the lower valleys, taken by corrupt Moroccans! Nothing is all bad or all good, unfortunately! Have a great day! francia

Since you’re asking me directly, I’ll answer you 🙂

I’ve been to Morocco about fifteen times, and you don’t know who I am or how I travel, so I don’t recognize myself in the portraits you paint—those of the "cheapskate" travelers you encounter. I know what 10 MAD represents, and I’m aware of the hourly minimum wage in Morocco. If a guesthouse in the middle of nowhere went from 15 € a night in 2020 to 25 € in 2024, I find that completely normal. But a coffee for 20 MAD in the Marrakech medina, a fish dish for 20 € in Essaouira, a car rental for 45 €, or houses being sold at "French" prices—those are practices that aren’t necessarily moving in the right direction.

I was simply pointing out a fact, often an abuse. But excessive price hikes due to overtourism end up penalizing Moroccans themselves.

By the way, the price of olive oil has skyrocketed! Nearly 150 MAD per liter. I still know where to find it cheaper—I won’t share the address, though.

I see you’re also looking for "great tips." It’s only human 😕

After COVID, tourist prices skyrocketed pretty much everywhere in the world, especially for car rentals. It’s not unique to Morocco.

Since then, prices have been slowly coming down.

What *is* unique to Morocco—but it’s kind of the same in other developing countries—is that the cost of renting a car there can actually be more expensive than in developed countries.

I guess vehicles cost a lot more to buy when there are fewer potential buyers.

For the rest, French travelers are used to everything being clearly priced.

If the kitchen is free-access with products, they assume it’s like in Airbnbs where oil, etc., are provided. You have to tell them that’s not the case.

There are also some thoughtless people...

As for baggage porters, I hate that. Either it requires a lot of effort and it’s fair to give something (but how much??? That’s the question the person asks themselves. Without an answer, they’d rather sweat blood than give too much or too little.) Or it’s just going up a flight of stairs, and I can do that myself—I don’t need slaves...

On the side of the road, people sometimes pretend to have a breakdown and wave you down. Don’t stop.

Personally, I’d really hope someone would stop if I was *actually* broken down. If you do stop and it’s a "scam," what’s the worst that could happen? Getting offered tea and makrouds? That’s exactly what happened to me once—the "good Samaritan" offered me tea, I had seconds, and even asked for more makrouds!

Getting tea and makrouds offered to you?

Yeah, served in a shop 😉

Right at the carpet dealer’s... He had his work cut out for him—I always wanted to see the one buried at the bottom of the pile 😏

My kitchen is separate. On my floor. I can't be any clearer.

So your guests are boorish, have no manners, and you have to lock the private part of your accommodation. (Or padlock the fridge...)

I would never go snooping around someone's place.

At my place, it’s not a staircase you have to climb. I’m a 5- to 10-minute walk away, with a path that’s not easy to find.

Yeah, that’s often the case in Morocco.

After that, if the place is properly listed on Google Maps or you provide GPS coordinates, people should be able to find it.

(And your guests, who seem rather young, should be able to carry their own stuff...)

If it’s really impossible to find, I don’t think the guest should have to suffer the consequences.

My guesthouse is full, pretty much every day—the only reason is the low price. My neighbor, who rents apartments for 70 euros a night, is empty.

If your neighbor’s value for money was good, he’d have guests too. There are clients for every budget. Not everyone is looking for the same thing.

But if his apartments don’t offer any added value compared to what you’re offering...

What? No hairdryer? Damn, I have to go buy one... What? No heating? I tell everyone about it. What? Can’t we get couscous at midnight? What? There’s no nightclub in Ourika? Well, no—look at the stars, spin around, sing, and there’s your nightclub!

I wonder if raising your prices might help you avoid the cheapskates and regain some peace of mind!

How much do you want to pay for your coffee?

Globalization can work against Morocco. Some people aren’t looking to visit a country but just to go on vacation as cheaply as possible.

Albania is competition, Portugal could be too (less than one euro for a coffee there...), and other Eastern European countries.

I’m not saying it’s a good thing. It’s just an observation.

Hello, Well no, it's not normal to wait until midnight! You should just warn your clients. I rented out my place on AIRBNB for 4 years, and I never accepted that. Anyway, I wanted to stay with you during a future trip... so I'll go elsewhere since I've been on this forum since 2006. You may be upset, but It's up to you to set boundaries with your clients. Just to clarify, I was married to a Moroccan man and lived in Morocco. So I know it pretty well. Have a good evening, Francia

I think you should ask the managers of this site to remove your recent posts because they’re really giving you some bad publicity. Even if it might have felt good to get everything off your chest.