We hired a local guide to take us around the old city for some history and the souks for some "unhassled" shopping. We usually explore on our own but this time we took the advice from other travelers online. We were lucky as our guide, Mr. Abdallah Amghar, is a director of a national travel agency who is very knowledgeable of Morocco. We enjoyed every minute of his company. Abdallah showed us a local bakery, the "real" souks for locals (not by the square), and beautiful buildings that tourists don't go to. If any of you are thinking of a guided tour in Marrakesh, let us know as we have Abdallah's contact information. :)
For people who think of us as hard-to-please customers (ex. Joe :p), we purchased quite a bit in the souks. We enjoyed Moroccan dishes so much that we bought 35 spices for tajine-cooking, mint tea leaves, saffron (per Syd's request), and 2 beautiful pashmina shawls. Abdallah helped us... well, he was THE one negotiated price on the shawls (50% off and a done deal in 5 minutes) since Syd and I both were useless in this trade. I'm pretty sure if we didn't have a local person with us, we would have to spend lots of time refusing and negotiating offers instead of walking and taking pictures leisurely in the souks.
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