Morocco is definitely a country to experience, especially if you’re a budget traveller! We spent 2 weeks in Morocco exploring Marrakech, Fes, Chefchaouen, Tangier and the Sahara Desert.
Now we’re here to help you plan your trip with recent travel costs from our Morocco trip, plus plenty of budget tips.
It’s safe to say that Morocco is a budget-friendly destination to visit and whether you’re a backpacker or a luxurious traveller on a budget, there’s something for everyone in the country!
We tracked all of our Morocco travel costs on TravelSpend – a budget-tracking app! Surprisingly this was our first time using a budget app, as we used a Google Sheet to track all of our purchases before this!
We travelled Morocco on a low-mid range budget as a couple from the UK. We stayed in budget accommodation, took buses or shared taxi’s when we needed and ate a few cheap meals, but sometimes spent more than average on food.
One major part of our travel costs was the tour to the Sahara Desert which speaks for itself! We’ll show you how to travel to Morocco on a budget based on everything we’ve learnt while exploring the country.
Morocco is absolutely incredible and there’s nowhere else that we can compare it to! We’d love to visit Morocco again in the future to travel the East Coast and see places such as Essaouira and Taghazout! Now we know how much to budget for future trips.
So now we’ll share an overview of how much we spent in Morocco on a budget and a few tips about each topic.
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Morocco Travel Costs & Budget Guide
We’ll cut right the overall cost of our Morocco trip from when we arrived in the country to the moment we left. We haven’t included flights or pre-travel expenses such as clothes or vaccinations. As we’re from the UK we didn’t need a visa to enter Morocco.
Overall spend £957.21 (£478.60 per person)
Daily Average (14 days): £68.37 (£34.18 per person)
This is the total amount for 2 people spending 2 weeks in Morocco. We are budget travellers but we chose to spend a little more on restaurants and also went on a 3 day tour to the Sahara Desert from Marrakech to Fes. This tour is popular amongst travellers but it’s quite costly if you’re on a budget!
After spending lots of time in Southeast Asia, Canada, the UK and the Balkans, we think the prices in Morocco are similar to the Balkans and not as cheap as countries like Thailand.
Generally, your biggest cost when spending 2 weeks in Morocco will be accommodation, possibly food and any tours such as the Sahara Desert Tour.
Need travel insurance? Check out SafetyWing – Find out more here!
Activities in Morocco on a budget
There are a variety of amazing activities to do in Morocco, especially if you’re on a budget. If you’re staying in Marrakech you can go quad biking in the Agafay Desert from 300 dirham (£25) or simply browse around the medinas for free!
We spent 4330 dirham (£346 for two people) during our 2 weeks in Morocco which is on the pricey side due to our tour to the Sahara Desert! Although this sounds expensive, we could have spent way more on activities during our trip, so we would consider this number budget-friendly in Morocco if you’re planning to visit the Sahara Desert.
Here’s a breakdown of the activities we booked whilst exploring Marrakech, Fes and Chefchaouen:
Madrasa Ben Youssef: 50 dirham each (100 dirham, £8)
Cooking Class (partly sponsored): Booked via GetYourGuide £33.80
Cooking Class Tip: 50 dirham (£4)
Bahia Palace: 70 dirham each (140 dirham, £11.07)
El Badi Palace: 70 dirham each (140 dirham, £11.07)
Ait Ben Haddou Tour Guide: 30 dirham (60 dirham, £4.75)
Tip for the Tingir Guide: 40 dirham (£3.20)
Al Attarine Madrasa: 20 dirham (40 dirham, £3.20)
3 Day Sahara Desert Tour (Marrakech to Fes): £264.22 for two people. We booked this tour via GetYourGuide and there was a discount at the time! This tour included 2 dinners, 2 breakfasts, accommodation for 2 nights and all of our transportation. We still had to pay for lunches, drinks, snacks, one tour guide and tips ourselves.
We also used our Instagram to get a discount on our cooking class in Marrakech in exchange for a reel and image post. This is something we were going to book anyway, so we took the opportunity to save some extra money! The cooking class would have cost £64 for two people.
Activities that we skipped that you may want to visit during your Morocco trip are the Jardin Majorelle (165 dirham, £13), more museums from around 20 – 50 dirham and a hot air balloon for 1600 – 2500 dirham.
We also have a 2 Week Morocco Itinerary if you need help planning your trip!
We used GetYourGuide to book our cooking class and Sahara Desert Tour but the palaces are best purchased in person on arrival.
A few more great activities that let you explore Morocco are a day trip to Ouarzazate and Ait Benhaddou and this Essaouira Full-Day Trip.
A cheaper alternative to visit the Sahara Desert is to return back to Marrakech as those tours are a lot cheaper! Here’s a Sahara Desert Tour that returns to Marrakech (around £100). We paid £133 to go from Marakesh to Fes via the Sahara Desert. Alternatively, you can also visit the Agafay Desert from Marrakech for a fraction of the price.
➤ Thinking about renting a car in Morocco? Compare prices on DiscoverCars.
Accommodation in Morocco on a budget
When looking for accommodation in Morocco on a budget, you’re in luck! Morocco is quite an affordable country. We spent £205 (two people) for 11 nights in Morocco, we also had 2 nights included in our Sahara Desert Tour as we spent two weeks in the country.
This means we averagely spent £18.60 per night in Morocco which is under £10 per person! We stayed in private double rooms but sometimes shared a bathroom with other travellers. Two of our riads included breakfast which helped keep the costs lower!
- Marrakech: 4 nights – £85.48 (£21.37 per night)
- Fes: 3 nights – £54.40 (£18.13 per night)
- Chefchaouen: 3 nights – £49 (£16.33 per night)
- Tangier: 1 night – £16 per night
Where to stay in Marrakech on a budget: Riad 112 – this is where we stayed for 4 nights in Marrakech right near the main square. It’s a private room and very affordable – Find on Booking.com here!
Where to stay in Fes on a budget: Dar Mfaddel – we booked this hotel for 3 nights in Fes and it’s such a good price! perfect location too – Find on Booking.com here!
Where to stay in Chefchaouen on a budget: Riad Mauritania – we stayed here for 3 nights and it ticked all the boxes, although we had a shared bathroom. Free breakfast, great location and comfy rooms – Find on Booking.com here!
Where to stay in Tangier on a budget: Diafa – Although a little outside the main strip, this place was lovely to stay in for 1 night – Find on Booking.com here!
It’s definitely worth staying in a riad or dar during your Morocco trip and honestly most of the budget options you’ll find will be riads! They’re incredibly beautiful with mosaic tiles and Moroccan architecture.
If you want to spend more money on accommodation you’ll likely be paying for comfort, a better breakfast or a swimming pool. The swimming pools in riads are usually pretty cold if that helps you stick to a budget!
Visiting Marrakech? Here’s our 3 day Marrakech Itinerary!
Transportation Costs in Morocco
Our biggest transportation costs are included in our Sahara Tour trip as we drove from Marrakech to Fes via the Merzouga. So our transportation costs for Morocco are quite low! We took two long-distance bus journeys and a few taxis.
The total cost of our transportation in Morocco for two people was 660 dirham (£53).
- Taxis: 245 dirham (£19.37)
- CTM Buses: 350 dirham (£27.68)
- Marrakech Airport Bus: 30 dirhams per ticket (£4.77 for two people)
We visited Marrakech, the Sahara Desert, Fes, Chefchaouen, day trip to Akchour and Tangier. We spent 60 dirham (£4.77) on two Airport Bus Tickets from Marrakech Airport to the Medina. Here’s a better breakdown of how much transportation can cost when travelling the country:
- 2 x Fes to Chefchaouen CTM Bus: 110 per ticket (220 dirham, £17.40)
- 2 x Chefchaouen to Tangier CTM Bus: 65 per ticket (130 dirham, £10.28)
- 2 Luggage Fees on CTM Bus: 5 dirham (£0.40)
- Taxi from Fes Old Town to New Town CTM Bus station: 25 dirham (£2)
- Taxi from Tangier CTM Bus Station to Accommodation: 50 dirham (£4)
- Taxi from Tangier to the airport 60 dirham £4.74 (using InDrive)
2 x Grand Taxi Tickets to Akchour from Chefchaouen: 60 dirham (£4.75)
2 x Grand Taxi Tickets back to Chefchaouen: 50 dirham (£3.96)
Grand Taxi’s have 6 seats to fill and they will leave when they get 150 dirham for a ride, on our way to Akchour there were 2 couples and a solo traveller, so we had to leave with 5 unless we waited for 1 person to join which can take a while.
Whilst in Morocco we were so worried about being ripped off by taxi drivers. They often refuse to use the meter and they’ll charge a crazy rate for a ride which should cost a 1/10th of the price.
After doing a lot of research we found out about InDrive, a ride-sharing app. We were previously told that Uber doesn’t exist in Morocco so we were quite relieved to find an alternative.
As sustainable travellers, we know that it’s great to support the local community, but InDrive lets us see an accurate price to tell taxi drivers on the road or even order a taxi on the app itself.
If you’re not taking a Sahara Desert Tour, you can get a train from Marrakech to Fes for 200 – 300 by train.
You can also pre-book your Marrakech Airport pick up if you’re a larger group!
➤ Browse transportation options in Morocco.
Morroco Travel Costs at Restaurants
We spent a total of 3200 dirham (£255) on restaurants and food during our 2 weeks in Morocco. We also have a groceries and drinks category below, so the total cost for food is a little higher than this!
Generally, food in Morocco is quite inexpensive unless you eat at western restaurants (like we did). As we’re vegan, we chose to spend more money so we could have a variety of food instead of the same vegetable tagine or couscous over and over again.
If you don’t have any dietary restrictions your food budget can be lower, but we were often surprised how expensive some of the restaurants can be for Moroccan standard.
We recorded all of our travel costs for food so here’s a breakdown of what you can expect during your trip to Morocco. We didn’t drink any alcohol on this trip.
Eating at mid-range restaurants in Morocco:
- Broc the Kasbah: 2 mains and 1 dessert 187 dirham, £14.78
- Henna Art Cafe & Tip: 2 big starter dishes, 2 lentil crepes, 1 drink and 1 desert 190 dirham, £15
- Culture Box & Tip: 2 meals & 2 drinks 170 dirham £13.47
- Bilmos & Tip: 2 meals & 2 smoothies 230 dirham (£18.22)
- Syrian Restaurant & Tip: a huge feast of food plus a drink 190 dirham £15
Travel costs for cheap restaurants in Morocco:
- Niam Restaurant & Tip (1 Vegetable Couscous tagine, 2 starter dishes and 1 cinnamon orange for desert) 90 dirham, £7.11
- Sakaya Restaurant & Tip: 2 vegetable tagines with zalouk & orange juice: 125 dirham (£10)
- Bissara Soup & Tip: 20 dirham (£1.60) this was our cheapest meal by far
- Hermanos: 2 meals 110 dirham £8.80
- Syrian Restaurant & Tip: 2 falafel plates 90 dirham £7.12
We also grabbed a few street snacks such as buriat, although there’s not many vegan friendly street snacks anyway so we usually dined at slightly more expensive restaurants compared to street food. We also have a vegan guide to travelling in Morocco!
This was a learning curve for us as we love local food, but eating plant-based is so much more important to us.
During our 3 Day Sahara Desert Tour, we were taken to expensive tourist restaurants with low quality food. This is super annoying, especially if you love food and you’re on a budget.
We had to buy 3 lunches during our tour and they were all 100 – 120 dirham each. So together we paid 560 dirham for lunches (as we shared one on the last day) which is quite pricey for the value of the food you get. Paying 120 dirham each was by far our most expensive meal out and wasn’t completely our choice as we were on a guided tour.
Cost of Groceries in Morocco on a budget
Snacks are a must when travelling to any country. We spent £28 on groceries in Morocco which is a little higher than usual due to the peanut butter we purchased to keep us fueled!
Although we didn’t cook lunch or dinner in Morocco we were always on the hunt for fruit, vegan-friendly biscuits or bread! We bought two jars of peanut butter in Morocco to make breakfasts a bit more filling in the morning (they cost around £5.53 for two).
There were also a few times when we packed a banana and peanut butter sandwich for the road, which really did help our budget!
Only one of the accommodations we booked had access to a fridge and that was our very last night in Morocco. It’s quite affordable to eat at restaurants in Morocco although we did go to mid-range restaurants due to our diet choice.
We bought cookies, bananas and general snacks and we wrote down the price of every snack we bought. Here’s a few of our Morocco travel costs:
- Khobz are 1 dirham each equivalent to 8p
- A pack of wafers at a tourist stop 20 dirham (£1.58)
- 250 grams of almonds 25 dirham (£2)
- 5 Bananas 13 dirham (£1.04)
- Little Loquat fruits 7 dirham (£0.56)
- Peanut Butter 29 dirham (£2.32)
- Corn from a Street Stall 5 dirham (£0.40)
- Chocolate Bar (vegan of course) 1 dirham (£0.08)
- Fried Donut 1 dirham (£0.08)
- Crisps and dates for the bus journey 10 dirham (£0.80)
Travel Costs for Water & Juices in Morocco
We’ve made water and juice their own category to track how much we were spending on drinks. We didn’t drink alcohol on this trip, but you’re going to have to add a lot of extra money if you plan to drink. Drinking alcohol in public is strictly forbidden, but there are plenty of bars you can visit for a drink!
For two people spending 2 weeks in Morocco, we spent 233 dirham (£18.42) on water and 105 dirham (£8.30) on juices with a total spend of 335 dirham (£26.72).
As the water is not drinkable in Morocco, you’ll need to buy your own water or use a water filter. We usually travel with our Life Straw, but didn’t have it with us for this trip as we added it to the end of another trip, so we had to buy water and it broke our hearts to be using so much plastic.
We always made sure to recycle any plastic we used and never bought small single-use bottles. Check out our eco friendly travel products guide on more ways to reduce plastic when travelling.
Bring a reusable water bottle to Morocco and buy a big 5L bottle of water then simply fill up your reusable bottle.
Water can vary in price but the going rate for a 1.5 litre bottle is 6 dirham. If you’re on a budget in Morocco, never buy water from restaurants as they will always be double the price. Buy a 5L bottle from stalls in the medina for 13 dirham and fill up a reusable bottle.
We’ve seen 1.5 litre water bottles for 20 dirham in restaurants which is quite expensive. We usually drink our own water when the staff isn’t looking or just wait till we leave the restaurant.
The price for fresh juices in Morocco can vary between 10 dirham and 25 dirham. Street stalls usually charge 10-15 whilst restaurants will charge 15-30 depending on the juice. We usually paid 10 dirham for a fresh Orange Juice.
Other Travel Costs in Morocco
We spent 375 dirham (£30) on general items in Morocco. This includes one sim card, toilet fees, tips for our accommodation, cat food and tissues. Here’s the prices for each of them:
- Sim Card: £20 for 1 Month 20GB (Marrakech airport only accepted Euro, Dollars or Pounds)
- Toilets: 30 dirhams on paid toilets (£2.37)
- General Tips: 60 dirhams (£4.74)
- Other: Cat Food and Tissues – 36 dirham (£2.90)
There’s so many street cats in Morocco, most of them look like they’re fed by the locals but when a cat seemed hungry we wanted to buy some food. A tin of cat food is 6 dirham and we also bought a box of cat biscuits.
We also had to pay a fee to use the toilet in some places throughout Morocco. It was almost impossible to avoid these fees during our 3 day Desert Tour and at the CTM Bus Station. Even the cleaners in the airport were hinting for tips.
Toilets should be around 2 dirham. During our tour, the people sat outside the toilets and tried their luck with tourists and Dan got caught out and had to pay 10 dirham. Stand your ground and pay them 2 dirham before or after. The most annoying thing is that you’ll always need change (1, 2 or 5 dirham coins) to pay for these toilets.
➤ Get your Morrocan E-sim in advance here!
The cost of Laundry in Morocco
Laundry is very confusing in Morocco and I still don’t know if we were ripped off or not. Whenever we travel, we usually bring enough clothes for 1 week – 10 days, as our Morocco trip was 2 weeks we needed to do a wash halfway through.
In Fes, we asked our Riad host if they did laundry and as it was a cloudy day he said our clothes wouldn’t dry but we could visit a local ‘laundrette’ nearby.
Laundrettes don’t really exist in Morocco, or at least they didn’t in the places we visited. So laundrettes are called Pressers and they can clean, wash, dry or iron your clothes.
After doing some research on laundry in Morocco, it was hard to get a clear answer on how much it should cost.
The Presser charged us 150 dirham (£11.89) which seems really expensive for Morocco. Sadly, they charge by item and individual socks count as an item. Our clothes ended up being 2 washes with 56 items, yes including our socks.
It took 1.5 days for our clothes to be ready and our Riad host helped us to collect them. Honestly, I’m not 100% sure this is the best way to do laundry in Morocco but at the time we needed clothes urgently and there were almost no other options around.
In the future, I would want to have our clothes washed by our Riad as I’m sure it would be a lot cheaper. We’ve never paid per item, it’s usually done by weight.
➤ Here’s our 2 Week Morocco Itinerary so you can plan your trip!
Shopping travel costs in Morocco
We didn’t do much shopping in Morocco as we didn’t need anything! We only bought postcards and a magnet as a souvenir for ourselves. Our total cost of shopping was 20 dirham (£1.60).
It’s really popular for travellers to buy items for houses as it’s everywhere in the medina.
Our number one tip when shopping in Morocco is to haggle! Most items (especially in the medina) don’t have a price on them. It’s best to cut the price in half and try get it as low as you comfortably can.
If you’re after big items, ask your riad how much they should be before making a big purchase. You may need to resist shopping if you’re trying to keep your travel costs in Morocco low.
Breakdown of our Travel Costs in Morocco
All of our travel costs are written in pounds. Currently, £1 is €1.16 and $1.25, but you can use XE Currency Converter to compare to your home country. This breakdown is for 2 people spending 2 weeks in Morocco on a budget.
- Activities: £346
- Accommodation: £205
- Transportation: £53
- Restaurants: £255
- Groceries: £28
- Water & Juices: £26.72
- Laundry: £11.89
- Sim Card: £20
- Toilets & Other Tips: £10
- Shopping: £1.60
£957.21 (£478.60 per person)
➤ Find riads to stay in Morocco here.
Pre Travel Expenses for Morocco
Our Morocco travel budget only covers costs for when you’re travelling within the country. We want to touch on pre-travel expenses as this can hike up the cost of any trip!
Flights: £100-£800 (use Skyscanner and book direct on the airlines website)
Travel Insurance: SafetyWing is a great nomad insurance if you’re travelling for a month or more, otherwise we use Compare the Market to browse for options.
Getting to the airport from your previous destination: Taxi, bus or parking costs
Other items may include clothes, shoes, luggage, toiletries, vaccinations and visas for some countries.
Don’t forget to include these when planning your Morocco travel costs, they can vary for everyone!
➤ Heading to Chefchaouen? Here’s our 2 Day Chefchaouen Itinerary!
How to travel Morocco on a budget
Eat Local – Moroccan cuisine is incredible and full of spices! You can find soups from 8 dirham and vegetable tagines for 30 dirham. If there’s western food on the menu, prices are usually inflated to 50-70 dirham for Moroccan food. Eat the street food and copy other locals!
Haggle – It’s not rude to ask for a lower price on most things in Morocco, in fact, it’s the culture! You’ll need to negotiate your shopping in the medina, taxis, bananas at the market and sometimes guides.
Avoid Luxury Hotels – When looking on Booking.com it can be easy to get carried away with the expensive hotels, especially in Marrakech. A riad near the medina will be perfect if you’re travelling on a budget in Morocco.
Watch out for scams – As lovely as Moroccans are, it’s good to be wary of anyone who approaches you trying to force you into something. Photos are never free, some locals act as fake tour guides and items can be fake. It’s good to be hesitant and double-check before spending your money!
Get Breakfast Included or make your own – we bought Khobz for 1 dirham a day when breakfast wasn’t included in our riads. We only had to make our own breakfast a few times, but we managed to find cheap food to fuel us for the day.
Budget Guide for Morocco
Here’s a Morocco travel budget guide that you can use to work out how much you’re going to spend for any amount of time in the country. We generally find when we’re staying somewhere for 3 days, we will have a higher daily spend as you can’t spread out the costs as much.
Our average daily spend per person was 430 dirham (£34.20), so you can expect to spend between 375 – 500 dirham (£30-£40) if you’re travelling Morocco on a budget.
- Local bus: 4 dirham
- Taxis: around 20 dirham (they will always try to charge more)
- Long Distance bus: 60 – 150 dirham
- Hostel dorm: 100 – 150 dirham
- Double room: 200 – 500
- Local Food: 30 – 60 dirham
- Western Food: 50 – 140 dirham
- 1.5L Water: 6 – 10 dirham
- Coffee / Juice: 10 – 30 dirham
- Museums: 20 – 70 dirham
- Basic Sahara Desert Tour: 1200 – 1600 dirham (varies a lot)
- Data Package: 100 – 200 dirham
That’s the end of our Morocco travel budget guide and travel costs! Overall Morocco is cheaper than when we travelled to South Korea on a budget and Japan on a budget. when we were watching. Check out our other Morocco travel guides!
- 3 Days in Marrakech: The Perfect Itinerary
- 2 Week Morocco Itinerary (2024)
- How to Save Money for Travelling
- What to Expect on a Sahara Desert Tour
- 2 Day Chefchaouen Itinerary
- 2 Day Fes Itinerary
- Vegan in Morocco Travel Guide
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