How much would I need for Morocco?

Afroshack

Myself and my beau are going backpacking around Morocco for a month this summer - hoping to hit Tangier, Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir and maybe a few other spots. However, we are young and poor and bad with money so we need to budget quite carefully. How much would people recommend we need? Main expense is hostels and trains/buses across the country. After that we just need a bit of food money and maybe the odd souvenir. Any help appreciated

two wheels good

It's a few years since since I visited and I had my own transport. Accommodation can be found for 100D (10 Euro) and less per night but standards vary a lot!.
Meals are good value even at the budget end and don't be worried about eating in the cheap roadside cafes. Follow the locals. Drinking the tap water is fine too. Ask in the hotel to have them fill your water bottle rather than fill in your room
Maybe Lonely Planet will give you an accurate estimate of costs.

What really prompts me to reply is to say skip Casablanca - and though I've not visited or arrived via Tangiers I've never heard anything that would encourage me to visit. Meknes and Fes are much more interesting. Essaoiera sounds nice too.
If you like a bit of hiking investigate routes in the Atlas mountains or the Jebel Sahro to the south. Enjoy some of the small rural Berber towns and villages. Very friendly places.

Oh and July and August will be scorching hot! Maybe Sept. too

sarkozy

I guess you're hitting the south, getting into more desert. Perhaps one time I'll get into the country's interior. For our trip, we stayed north, flying to Malaga and overnighting in Tarifa to get the ferry to Tangier. That saved some cash. The best part of the trip for us was taking buses to Fez and then to Chefchaouen, a beautiful Berber town in the north.

I'm not saying you should change your itinerary, just that I agree with the above that to get into the quieter Moroccan towns is where the magic is.

Moneywise, we weren't slumming it, but watching the cash all the same. I think we got by comfortably on €15/20 a night each on accomodation (private double rooms) except in Tangier and a very lovely and affordable riad in Fez (€35/40 each per night). It *was* our honeymoon afterall.

And do search out real Moroccan food.

Afroshack

Would you both recommend Fez then?

sarkozy

I'd recommend Fez, but then, I haven't been to Meknes or Marrakech. Basically, we didn't have time to venture south. Of course, Marrakech is probably the bigger and better and possibly more touristic of the major cities. I'm sure it's amazing, but we were satiated with Fez, whose medina (old city) is very much alive with living history. Again, we also very much enjoyed getting out of Tangier's and Fez's frenetic pace and into the Rif mountains to enjoy the more sedate air of Chefchaouen, which hasn't much architecturally to wow you, but it's an ancient walled Berber town in a beautiful location.

You might, however, prefer to go south because from there, perhaps you'd be more interested in exploring the outskirts of the Sahara desert and Atlas mountains. But I can't offer advice on that one.

Regarding getting around, buses are generally fine. IIRC, in Tangier (and possibly also Fes and some other towns), there are the main bus stations and 'posh' bus stations where newer, more comfortable coaches come and go. It was much of a muchness to us.

As for Tangier, we only stayed there because we entered Morocco via Tarifa in Spain. Tarifa is pleasant itself (2 hours bus ride from Málaga). Tangier *is* interesting, especially in the medina and, in particular, the quieter, higher parts of it. As a former colonial city, it has quite a bit more accretion of architectural periods and a bit more choice in terms of food. But the new part of the city is quite unremarkable, yet everything is always worth exploring when on holidays, and I wouldn't if there aren't real culinary and cultural gems hidden all about.

Afroshack

sarkozy wrote: »

I'd recommend Fez, but then, I haven't been to Meknes or Marrakech. Basically, we didn't have time to venture south. Of course, Marrakech is probably the bigger and better and possibly more touristic of the major cities. I'm sure it's amazing, but we were satiated with Fez, whose medina (old city) is very much alive with living history. Again, we also very much enjoyed getting out of Tangier's and Fez's frenetic pace and into the Rif mountains to enjoy the more sedate air of Chefchaouen, which hasn't much architecturally to wow you, but it's an ancient walled Berber town in a beautiful location.

You might, however, prefer to go south because from there, perhaps you'd be more interested in exploring the outskirts of the Sahara desert and Atlas mountains. But I can't offer advice on that one.

Regarding getting around, buses are generally fine. IIRC, in Tangier (and possibly also Fes and some other towns), there are the main bus stations and 'posh' bus stations where newer, more comfortable coaches come and go. It was much of a muchness to us.

As for Tangier, we only stayed there because we entered Morocco via Tarifa in Spain. Tarifa is pleasant itself (2 hours bus ride from Málaga). Tangier *is* interesting, especially in the medina and, in particular, the quieter, higher parts of it. As a former colonial city, it has quite a bit more accretion of architectural periods and a bit more choice in terms of food. But the new part of the city is quite unremarkable, yet everything is always worth exploring when on holidays, and I wouldn't if there aren't real culinary and cultural gems hidden all about.

Cheers, that's really helpful