How much did we spend during a week in Marrakech, Morocco?

When you want to travel, money is likely to be a big consideration for you, unless you’re lucky enough to have plenty. We don’t, so we are conscious of spending and we keep track, roughly, choosing to do some lower cost things and stay in less expensive accommodation in cheaper countries. So, how much does a week in Morocco cost?

For once, I’ve kept track of every single penny we spent on this trip so I could write this post, and here’s what we spent on a week in Marrakech, Morocco, in December 2024.

I will start this by explaining that I didn’t pay for flights or accommodation myself. This trip was a present from J to me for my birthday, so he paid for my share of the flights and accommodation on this occasion.

He justified the much higher than normal birthday gift spend because we had a flight delay refund from a previous trip, so his 350 euros went towards this trip.

I also, because it was around my birthday and near Christmas, chose to do some extra things that my parents paid for for me/us for my birthday/our Christmas presents. With that said, let’s get into how much we actually spent.

Flights, airport parking and airport transfer

When visiting Morocco, we flew from Liverpool airport with Ryanair, and our flight out was £39.98 for both of us. We paid £20 for an extra cabin bag and £15 each to reserve extra leg room seats for the 3 hour 40 minute flight, as J is tall and we wanted to sit together. Our flight home was with Easyjet, and it cost £45.30 for the two of us.

We didn’t pay to reserve seats on this one because Easyjet sits you together, but we did book a hold bag for £30. I knew I’d need space for souvenirs! Airport parking was £59.99 for the week, just across a carpark from the terminal.

We paid £10.47 for our airport transfer, for a taxi waiting for us with a named sign. It turns out this would have been about half the price if we’d grabbed a taxi ourselves, however for the ease of not queuing, it was still worth it for us, and we’d do the same again.

Total: £225.27

Accommodation cost for a week in Morocco

We stayed in a Riad in the medina for our first two nights, and this had breakfast included. We paid £68.93 for this and, on leaving, a city tax of 110 dirhams, about £8.80

We then moved to a ‘luxury’ apartment, which cost £231.99 for five nights. We’d chosen this on purpose as it looked quite nice and we liked the idea of something a little fancier, with a pool for the building (which we didn’t end up using!) and so we could do washing and cook some of our own meals.

I think we could have gone for a cheaper, less fancy place, and saved a little bit here.

Total: £309.72

Food cost for a week in Morocco

Our riad had breakfast for the first two days included, and we ate breakfast at our apartment for all but two of the days. We cooked three meals here (pasta, chicken and veg) and had a Moroccan takeaway a fourth day. We ate out the rest of the time: one breakfast, one brunch, four lunches, two teas.

We did a supermarket shop for cereal, ingredients for our three teas, fruit juice, lots of water, fruit and yoghurt, at a cost of £56. We had ice cream out a couple of times and a few fresh juices from the main square.

We did leave a tip of around 10% after most of our meals, and this is factored into the total too.

Total: £253.20

Transport for a week in Morocco

We got taxis a few times, but these were so, so cheap. I wouldn’t hesitate to get taxis here whenever needed, although we did walk a lot as we wanted to get our steps in, but taxis will not break the bank if you need or want them.

Total: £11.20 and airport taxi on Sunday

Tips (non food)

We left a tip at our Hammam of 100 dirhams, and the night we arrived we tipped the man who showed us to our riad 20 dirham. Later that night we went for a walk and someone insisted on showing us the way to the main square, but took us a long, convaluted way and then left us not yet at the square anyway.

We were going to tip him 20 dirham too (you’ll be hassled if you don’t tip someone who has shown you the way) but another man appeared and they tried to say we should be tipping him 200 as 20 was ‘for a small boy’. To avoid hassle, we gave him 70 dirham in the end, and this was absolutely a bit of a scam. We didn’t let anyone else show us the way to anywhere.

Total: 170 dirham (£13.52)

Pre-booked experiences in Morocco

This was a large part of the trip cost for us, honestly. We always do a ‘date night’ on the 21st of each month, as that’s when our first date was. This month was J’s turn and he paid for a hammam for us both, at £90.32. This was a 45 minute full body massage (which was very good!) and then a wash with black soap, a full body scrub and a good rinse. We were there for two hours and I came out feeling like a new woman, so it was worth it!

During our week in Marrakech, I also paid £40 for a photoshoot with a local photographer, £28 for a three hour souk tour for both of us, and £38 for a trip into the Agafay Desert, with quad biking, a camel ride, a short show and a meal too.

None of these things HAVE to be done, and certainly I’d say if you’re on a real budget you could skip the souk tour and photoshoot, and the hammam experience can be done in a shared, same sex room, a bit more self service, for a much lower cost.

As I said earlier in this post, my parents paid for my photoshoot for my birthday present, and the desert experience for our joint Christmas present. My Grandma paid for the souk tour for both of us. We may not have done all three of these if they’d not been gifts.

Total: £196.32

Entry fees during a week in Morocco

We did quite a few things during our week in Morocco-Le Jardin Secret, Le Jardin Majorelle, House of Photography, El Badhi Palace and Ben Youseff Madrasa. I enjoyed them all but we could definitely have skipped one of the gardens, as whilst both beautiful, they were similar.

Le Jardin Majorelle is the iconic one with the YSL blue house, Le Jardin Secret is an oasis inside the Medina. I’ve also counted the Henna I had done in this section, which cost me £8.

Total: £64.00

Souvenirs I bought in Morocco

Now, this is absolutely where most of my money went, I’ll be honest. I knew I’d want to buy lots from here and budgeted for it, using some of my bonus from work and some of my birthday money towards my haul.

I chose items I’d use (two pairs of leather sandals and a leather bag) and items for the house (two prints from House of Photography, some postcards, a little wooden camel, two silver hamza hands in varying sizes) as well as a few bits of jewellery and a couple of fabric pouches.

I didn’t scrimp, but I also browsed on the first day and thought about what I actually wanted to buy, doing a final trip to the souk on our second to last day. I knew I’d buy more if I impulse bought so I made a list!

I also bought a bottle of Argan oil, a cream to help my psoriasis, some spices, a pack of menthol you reuse and breathe in when ill, and a couple of solid perfume bars.

We were robbed earlier this year and my jewellery box was amongst the items stolen, so I was given a cash payout from the insurance company to replace my jewellery. All the jewellery I bought here came out of that-although I’ve counted it in the total for ease. I also had a beloved pair of sandals break on our last trip, and replacing them here was cheaper, so I’m counting that as an essential.

Total: £208.62

The total cost…

In total, this trip cost £1281.85. Taking out the things that were paid for for us or bought with my birthday money, along with my replacement for my broken shoes and my jewellery from the insurance pot, we spent £1080.85 between us.

Honestly, we could have done it cheaper-if you were on a real budget, you don’t need to do the experiences we did or buy any souvenirs, so that’s a saving of £400 on what we spent.

We could have also saved £50 on our food budget at least, by not buying my birthday cake, or a large tray of Moroccan pastries, or things like the yoghurts that we added to our shop.