Street Peeper Zimbabwe Street Peeper September 2017 | Page 85

strong opinions
about paying full
price for the sake
of “charity”, but
selling is like their
national sport and
haggling is an in-
tegral part of
their culture.
More likely than
not, they will still
4. Keep Cor-
rect Change
with You
Moroccan
cab drivers
rarely “have
change”
when you
need it. To
avoid over-
paying, keep
your coins.
Most of our
cab rides within the city were
roughly 30 Dirhams. The di-
lemma with keeping change
though is that you will not be
able to exchange it back
when leaving the country.
You want to keep correct
change while you’re in the
country, but you also want to
spend it all before leaving.
DH.
If they demand more, our
guide told us to hand them
the money and walk away.
Luckily, that didn’t happen to
us, because we always firmly
set a price before the ride. If
you’re looking to buy a car-
pet or anything with a higher
price tag, do your research
before you head to Morocco.
People get tricked into buy-
ing them as “an investment”
to sell la ter all the time. Don’t
fall for their sales tactics and
the local guide’s added pres-
sure to buy.
6. Tipping
Have some change ready for
tips. A good general rule of
thumb is 1 DH at a local place
and 3-5 DH at nicer places.
7. Be Wary of Local Guides.
It’s definitely great to hire a
local guide to help you get an
inside perspective on the
get the better deal, but keep
country and navigate through
in mind if you are willing to
the maze of the medinas (old
spend the time, you can get
towns), but be sure you
items for at least 25-50% of
know what you’re getting
the starting price.
yourself into. The local
Know what you’re willing to guides have built relation-
pay before you start the hag- ships with many different
gling process and walk out if stores, and they are most
likely getting a cut of the
you can’t get the price you
want. They may call you back sales. Don’t be fooled when
5. Learn to Haggle.
they say they are trying to
in multiple times. Also, you
help you haggle to get the
If you’re shopping in the mar- may want to bargain with
kets or medinas, you will
your cab drivers before you best price. We were able to
get better prices without
have to learn to haggle. I
get in the cab. Most of our
know some people have
rides within the city were 30 them.