Marrakesh city tour with private driver

Quite possibly the worst tour I have ever had. We paid $110 for a 4 hour driving tour of old Marrakech. Our guide/driver was Mohamed. He did communicate to us on Whatsapp the day before our trip and showed up on time. It all went downhill from there. First, he asked us if we had bought tickets to the Secret Garden the day before. I said I didn't know I needed to do that. He told us you have to buy them the day before or you can't go. So he said maybe the next time you come to Marrakech you can do it. Of course I wanted to know why he didn't tell me in our whatsapp conversations the day before. Also, I found out that was a lie. you can buy tickets the day of your visit at the garden which I confirmed on the garden website and with our hotel. Next, he took us to the Bahai Palace and dropped us off telling us he would be back in an hour and that he couldn't take us in the palace and not to hire a guide once we were inside. Having no idea what the palace was about we wound up hiring a guide inside, his name was Faod, and for 16 Euros it was well worth it as he explained the entire palace to us and took photos of us. Next, Mohamed took us to a spice shop and left us there (he didn't come in with us.) It started off with a heavy sales pitch from a 'spice merchant' wearing a lab coat to make him seem like a doctor. He pitched us every kind of herb and spice for every ailment imaginable. In the end, I offered to buy two small bars of soap and what I thought was a small piece of sandalwood. The asked for 60 Euros for those 3 items. I was thinking maybe 3. What a rip off, I can't believe our guide took us to such a place. Next, Mohamed drove us to what was supposed to be a royal cemetery. But he dropped us off so far from the entrance telling us he couldn't go near it or he would be arrested and thrown in jail for 2-3 months (he actually told us this). So we wandered around trying to find the cemetery, but because of the 2023 earthquake that hit Marrakech there were lots of temporary fences and we couldn't find the cemetery. We asked a local merchant where it was and he told us it was closed on Friday. We messaged Mohamed to pick us up and move on to the next location. He said he was sure it was open and drove us to the exit where he found a guard who said it was open. But again, he refused to walk us anywhere near the entrance so we asked a garrab (a water seller with a unique red outfit) to walk us to the entrance - which just proved that our guide would not have been in trouble for just showing us where to go. Next, Mohamed took us to a furniture store. Really? Like we could haul a bunch of furniture back to the states or was that a reason for us to even go to Marrakech. We immediately walked out and told him to move on. Because he wouldn't take us to the secret garden he said he would take us to the public garden outside the wall and drop us off (again, not walking with us). Unfortunately it was 99 degrees at that point and my wife was overheating. I asked if she could sit in the car while I walked around the garden and he said no, it would cost him too much money to run the car for 15 minutes with the air on. Wow! probably would have cost 50 cents in gas, but okay, better to have your customers pass out I guess. At that point we had had it with Mohamed and asked him to cut the tour short by an hour, we were ready to be done with this horrible experience. Later at our hotel, they told us they could have gotten us a driver for 4 hours for 40 Euros to do the same thing. I believe it.

Our driver was great, but noone told us we needed online tickets to get into the botanic gardens. We tried on the day but it was full so never got there. The queue to one of castles was 30 mins so we never got there either. So the tour was never completed .

This tour was just transport. We were led to believe that there is a tour involved which meant an explanation. However, we simply were driven to different destinations to see and were responsible to inform ourselves of each main monument. Additionally, we were promised a driver that spoke English and French. Although our driver spoke very few words in either language. Disappointed with this purchase. On the bright side if you are looking to only be driven at each point of interest, this is the the tour for you.