Hi!

I would say it depends on how much you pay per room per night. Excursions can be easily organized while in Marrakech usuay with 24 hrs advance notice. A car and a driver to the waterfalls on the ourika valley in the Atlas mountains would cost you about 800 dirhams ( roughly £60). Your 'driver' would speak reasonable French but often very little English, they would however be very familiar with the route and stop at places of interest etc. Hiring a guide would cost another £60 to £80 which is not really

necessary.

You will also have the choice of joining a minibus excursion with others at about £20 per person for the day.

At the Waterfalls there are plenty of generally very good English speaking guides who will walk up with you for about £10. The best way of getting a good one is just to talk to them and make sure you feel comfortable before setting off.

Excursions can be booked in a number of locations around town, there is a concentration of them just south of the main square.

Hope you have a nice stay in Marrakech

I think it is down to personal preference.....myself, I always do my research and book the excursions before I leave, this way I know how much it is going to cost and what to expect of the excursions. I try to use the same English speaking driver everytime as I know how good he is and what to expect from him (send me a message if you want his contact details).

If you book when you are there, then you don't really know the reputation of the company and you may end up with a driver who is not that good (No English, stopping at all the shops so they can get commission, driving like a racing driver......the list is endless). If you do have to book any excursions whilst you are in Marrakech, then do it through your riad, the chances are they have a reliable driver or company that they use all the time (and they are less likely to send you out with one of the "nightmare" drivers).

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Thanks for all the useful information. It sounds as if there's a lot of choice and from looking into it further I can see that I probably wouldn't save much money by pre-booking the trip.

I'm sorry that we'll only be in Marrakech for 3.5 days so can only really do a day trip to the Mountains - the idea of trekking sounds great. Maybe we'll do that on another visit!

Whilst looking at all the companies that offer excursions I have discovered the 1/2 day quad biking trips. Wow! Think that's what we may go for :) Would you recommend?

I would prefer to goto the Atlas Mountains for the day over quad biking, you can go to either the Ourika Valley or Imlil and have a nice day out. In the Ourika Valley you can climb some rocks to see the waterfalls and in Imlil you can go for a short walk (a few hours), you dont need any climbing experience for either activity (although the Ourika Valley climb can be a bit hard in places).

If you really want to do the quad biking then my recommendation would be to go to Essaouira for the day, you can do a half day quad biking there (on the beach, right next to the Atlantic Ocean), I have done this twice and it is great fun (the company I used was called Palmaquad), you can also have a good look arouind the Medina area and Portugese Fort in Essaouira, then return back to Marrakech late evening. You would have to hire a driver for the day costing a total of around £90 (this would be a driver in a 7 seater type minibus).

Thanks MIB15 - I'd already seen your information about quad biking in Essaouira and that's something I'll definitely think about - it looks great. Maybe do that for 1 day and a half day trip to Ourika Valley.

All your advice is really helpful!

Hi;

Try to pre-book your Excursions in Advance before arriving Marrakech, sometimes you can leave it as a last minute during the low season with no problems as you will find the best with all suits your pocket and your interests.

Use the Things to do Tab for Tours, for every location example Marrakech here, or the The Top asked Question on the right side of this forum Tour companies, and for Drivers you can use the Search box for shared information about reliable and trusted Drivers.

so when you have no idea you can ask your riad to Manage it for you through a Local Tour company.

I agree with MIB15 in advice for the Quad Biking to be done in Essaouira as the best location to enjoy it by the coast line, as you can do it in Marrakech too at the palmerie, for the Best Day Trips to make from Marrakech would highly recommend High atlas Mountains to Imlil, and take a look at Toubkal Kasbah, read helpful threads using the search box for previous Topics about anything concerning your travel needs.