Cash to pay guide-how??
 

I am hiring a highly regarded private guide and will need to pay his fee in cash. I am wary of carrying that much cash into the country of Morocco but he doesn't take plastic. I realize there are ATM's but this will certainly be "over my limit"! Any suggestions?

Does he want to be paid in US$, Euros or dirhams? If dirhams you can not get them outside of Morocco so you will need to wait until you get there anyway. ATMs only give out dirhams, so if he wants to be paid in USD$ or Euros, you couldn't get them out of the ATM anyway.

I would suggest asking him if you could wire some money (say 1/2) to his back account about a week before you left, then pay the remainder in cash when you are with him that way you wouldn't have to carry around so much cash. If he is that expensive and that highly regarded he ought to have some ways to work with you.

oops! Should say "to his BANK account".

He wants to be paid in dirhams, I think. (Does anyone want US $ anymore??!!) Thanks for suggestion..will check with him and maybe this will work!

When we traveled to Morocco in May this year, I arranged with the local American Express travel office to order some dirhams for me so I could arrive with a small amount of local currency in hand. It was no problem - just took a week or so for the currency to arrive. There was a special handling fee, which made the exchange rate a bit less than desirable but I was glad to have the cash as we did not get a chance to use the ATM until a couple days after arrival. We only had one experience where the local ATM did not function (in Marrakech). We simply waited until the next day and tried another location, which was successful.

We opened an extra bank account at a local bank just for an extra ATM card and we got cash out using 3 cards each day we were in Marrakech before the guide picked us up for the overland to Fes. My husband had a neck pouch as I don't believe we had a safe in the room.

Thanks for the great suggestions! Fodors people always come through!