Carpets, Marrakesh

2 more images

Dar Nejjarine Carpets was near the Riad Omar Hotel. The building is several stories and on the lower floor there is a room for viewing carpets. You are offered the traditional mint tea or soft drink before the presentation begins. Someone will explain to you the different textures and patterns which you will find Morocco, then staff will magically appear to toss around in front of you all sizes, colours and patterns of rugs in the hope to tempt you.

3 more images

Au Minaret de Mouassine:Owner Hassan Errijaji is English-speaking and has years of experience.

What to buy: Unless you have plenty of floor space to cover, it’s a good idea to have a clear idea about what you really want before you start a session in a hot carpet bazaar. Souk Semmarine has some big carpet emporia.

What to pay: Try several to get an idea of the goods and the prices. A good dealer will be able to arrange for shipping of larger items. Be sure to check about customs arrangements at your end.

4 more images

As you are walking any of the main tourist areas, a young boy will come up to you and invite you to his Uncle’s carpet shop with promises of a good price. Once you are led through anonymous alleyways you will enter a large cavernous room full of an incredible amount of carpets from floor to ceiling. Your young guide will have vanished, as he has now earned his small commission. And now the show begins! If you really want to buy a carpet, you need an amazing amount of intestinal fortitude. Sellers always seem to start at $1000 and tell you all about how the carpet was made. Just to make you feel guilty, they will open and display 50-60 carpets for your perusal.

You can buy a good, large carpet for $50-100, but probably not in Marrekesh. I have seen some absurd opening prices from sellers for things like bags of tea starting at $30 that locals can buy for 1-2 u.s. cents. You will not win unless you have hours of spare time. If you really have your mind set on a carpet, get a reputable guide/driver to take you to a village. You will save money and get what you really want even with the added trouble. If you like arguing though, the carpet shop is the place for you!

What to pay: No more than $200.

Souk mean market place in Moroccan, souks is a lot of shops in a small streets near jamaa el fna place,

buy carpet, lamps clothes antique deco veil nuts anything.

What to buy: buy carpet, lamps clothes antique deco veil nuts anything.

very interesting

What to pay: carfull, tourist have a special prices so Bargain you re not in Us or europe...Bargain

2 more images

There are thousands of carpet stores in Marrakech, selling Berber carpets and kelims, mainly to tourists. The salesmen here are some of the sharpest in the world and will manage to squeeze every last dirham out of you. Most customers later find out too late that they paid far too much for purchases that they had no intention of buying before they were lured in by a smooth-talking salesman. I bought a yellow, Berber kelim for a fraction of the original asking price, but stilll paid double the amount a local would have paid.

My advice is completely ignore the initial asking price as it will probably be anything from five to ten times the value of the carpet. Pay no more than half of what you would expect to pay for a similar carpet in your own country. The salesman will still have made a handsome profit and you won't feel that you have been cheated.

Souk Zrabia is the traditional carpet souk, where the Berbers come in every week to sell their carpets at auction, so it is probably the best place to look.

Be careful what you buy - I bought some fabulous rugs and no doubt I got an excellent price. Plus they wrapped them up beautifully and got a 10ft x 12 ft carpet into a tiny package.....but once I got to the airport..... it was heavy and over my 1 suitcase allowance and too big for a carry-on.... so it cost me $264.00 to get it to London from Marrakech on British Air!