In this blog, I highlight the practical travel tips to see Morocco from Marrakesh to Fes, crossing the Sahara Desert and making a trip to the Instagram pretty Chefchaouen, and coastal city of Casablanca. We spent winter break in the North Western Country of Africa for 10 days. Except for the desert, we did not take any guided tour, planned major part of the trip DYI and had a smooth and affordable experience. Overall, I loved Morocco, her chaotic Medinas, ancient architecture, glimpses of the Berber culture from deep desert, flavors from the coastal towns .
I credit much of the pleasant experience to the extensive research I had done before visiting. I list all the travel tips in this Morocco blog post hoping this helps you plan how to visit Morocco by your own within budget.
Recent reports suggests that Morocco has overtaken Egypt in terms of tourists arrival in North Africa. Having been to both the countries, I can see why! Compared to what both the destination has on offer, Morocco might seem lackluster.
Neither the great Pyramids of yesteryears nor the massive rive Nile, Morocco’s answer to Egypt is centered on the mysterious caravan route of ancient Sahara, and a massive swath of flat desert land. Occasional appearances of Erg (the dunes, locals call then sea of sand) brings hoards of tourists in the winter months. Many are blinded by the beauty of those perfectly symmetrical indigo tyles studded on the walls of the Riads of Morocco’s imperial cities.
It is the people of Morocco that made the destination super special for me. The further you go off the Moroccan cities, you discover the warmth of the locals, who are more than eager to host you. The locals of Berber village were kind, welcoming and curious. The vibe of the country retains the elusive mystic from the heart of Mama Africa. You will never know all of it, yet she will enamor you and leave you longing for more! The quintessential feeling that Africa imbibes, that she is endless and she expands further deep in your heart than you were prepared for.
By the end of our 10 days trips, I left with a longing in my heart, that I need more of Morocco. I loved the cities of the North more than Southwest. I absolutely loved the Sahara desert. Although some of the overtly flirtatious men of the country occasionally created nuisance, I remember the many curious women who came out of their shell when I approached alone. Women who laughed with me, fed me the perfect tagine infused with the goodness of cumin powder, brought in mint tea before I could ask for, showed me their children.
Having lived in the USA for couple of years, I know travel experience as a POC and a white westerner can be very different. We were continuously asked if we are from the UK. It seemed many Europeans holiday in Morocco, especially during the winter break.
The Monarchy that Morocco is
Morocco is a Monarchy, one of the last handful of monarchies of world, if not just Africa. The King works closely with France, one of the many European countries that had colonial claws over Morocco for the larger part of previous century.
Moroccans learn to speak French in School, alongside Arabic. English, not so much. Some speak fluent Spanish as well.
It has been interesting conversation with few locals with whom we shared no common tongue. Especially the one medicine seller who sold us pills for road sickness for the long journey through Atlas mountains. We showed him some ripples and acted as is we were going to faint, pointing at the mountains. He understood us, much to our surprise!
Safety in Morocco is paramount, especially for Tourists
We sticked to our Indian identity. At times, we may have said we are from the USA, but there is a chance of getting ripped off, if I present myself as a resident from one of the western countries. We planned a DIY trip for the most part of Morocco and it is very much possible, let me tell you that. Morocco is a safe country overall. The riads reports your arrival to the Police. The police keeps an eye on the road and often patrols the highway, stops the car for routine checks.
Scams and haggling are part of the experience in Morocco, especially in Marrakesh. However I am from India and I have been to Egypt before. I find these are prevalent in some parts of these countries. I can navigate well with these by now. Catcalling women or shopkeepers being extra touchy is a thing that you should be aware of when traveling in Morocco.
Overall, it was safe to be traveling in Morocco.
In a stark contrast to the neighboring countries, like Algeria and Tunisia, Morocco has been immune to terrorist activities. The police is very active. Your riads will fill up a form that states your arrival and departure. Our guide stated, if an Israeli tourist arrives, police takes extra care, and even takes a note of the planned route. We did see a few Israeli tourists. The common people of Morocco has sided with Palestine during the ongoing war. I have seen Free Palestine cards on display in the souks of Marrakesh.
Should you book a private tour in Morocco
Like any popular destination, booking a private guided tour in Morocco will give you a more seamless, curated activity, can help save some time, but may cost you a premium price. However we used that for the desert leg of the trip, and I can not tell you I am 100% satisfied.
Except for the desert, we navigated the cities by our own and had no difficulty. It came to be cost effective too. Having been to a bunch of countries, it did not come with a steep learning curve either. However if Morocco is your first introduction to a Sub-Saharan Country, a little guidance would not hurt. Although it is rather easy to nook a taxi in the tourist cities like Marrakesh or Fes.
As Islamic country, Morocco is a land of devout and friendly Muslim population. There are calls to Namaz 5 times a day. During Ramadan, a day long fasting period is observed with a communal feast during sunset, although it does not impact much for the visiting tourists.
Choose the best time to visit Morocco
Timing is the key to experience the best of travel of Morocco! Best time to visit Morocco is the drier moths from end September to mid April.
We visited Morocco during the winter months, which also brings rain, and thanks to global warming snow in some parts leading to the desert along the Atlas route these days.
It was overall a pleasant experience. I had to layer up a bit but temperature hovered around 15 degree Celsius with further drop at night. The beach towns of Agadir or Essaouira had a warmer, more favorable swimming temperature.
If you visit Morocco in the warm summer months, you might find the city to yourself, and prices would be very affordable. However be prepared to face the wrath of a Sahara summer! If I am to suggest you, I would not recommend a visit to Morocco in the summer months from May end to the beginning of September.
Having said that, our driver/guide Mouchine told us that Merzouga can be visited even in the warm summer month when temperature hovers around 50C. Many locals visit and indulge in a specific ceremony called sandbathing,
For me, Morocco trip remains memorable, and much more comfortable than Egypt solely due to the fact I timed my visit during winter. The days are shorter, with sun rising at 8 am and setting by 6 pm. But I would trade that for a pleasant weather.
The shoulder season could be even better when tourists footfall would die down and prices come down.
Sahara Desert will blow your mind
We spent 3 days exploring Sahara. The dunes of Erg Chebbi. The cluster of earthen houses and Kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou. That was the best part of this trip to Morocco. We crossed Georges and kasbah and rivers and mountains and snow clad slippery roads to reach to the Dune. Took us two nights, you can rush and drive continuously and spend a night enroute but that might tire you out!
Morocco is your safest bet to see Sahara. There are dunes and untouched pristine nature in neighboring Mali, Chad, Sudan, Algeria and Tunis. Except for Tunisia, all are kind of red flagged when it comes to tourist safety. Good luck getting a visa for them as well.
Morocco on the other hand has a very reliable and active tourist infrastructure to see the desert. Not just seeing it, you can experience it in its prime!
The camel rides, the desert tents, the sunset and sunrise trip, the 4X4 rides maneuvering the dunes. You name it you get it in the desert.
There are a bunch of tours offered by Get your guide for a very affordable price. I found tour experts in TripAdvisor being curt about them and calling the tourist buses as Sardin Vans. Well, may be but you can’t punish someone for being stingy about money can you? A private tour may charge you more, a lot more but it adds to the overall experience. It’s smooth and tries to give you the best accommodation.
We booked with Desert Majesty and it was seamless only with the exception they gave me only one night in the desert.
This is my only complain with the company. I had spoken with Holiday Morocco tour as well and they gave me a better price and offered two nights in the desert. Yet I chose to go with Desert Majesty. They could not fulfill my dream to see Sahara to my heart’s extent! Everyone I had spoken in Morocco said why I did not spend two nights in the desert as we opted for a 3 night long private tour. I had trusted Desert majesty and they failed me with the travel planning part!
That there is a learning! Do your research and settle for what you want! Not just trust these tour companies with great reviews on travel portals!
The Desert gets Cold at Night
No-one warned me but the desert gets really really cold at night. Subzero temperature is what you should look at during winter months. Add to that the road to Sahara often entails you cross the Mid Atlas mountains which gets snowed in. Until recently it was a rare occurrence, but it does get snowed in. Stay warm. Pack properly.
Flying to the Desert!
If you are really pressed for time, instead of the road trip you can also fly to Moulay Ali Cherif Airport (ERH) and then drive to Merzouga. Many flights from Europe come here including Pegasus airlines. It’s a small airport, till now. You can skip Marrakesh. Is it worth skipping Marrakesh? May be, if you visit Fes, you can consider skipping Marrakesh.
Marrakesh did not do it for me.
Everyone romanticizes about Marrakesh. I can see why. May be I had experienced Cairo before, or souks if Western Asia, which is why Marrakesh fell flat. May be it’s some of the men who touched me when I went alone to the shops in contrast to the times S would tag along. Yes, they do behave different with women, depending on whether they are alone or are accompanied by a man.
I can see why Marrakesh is perfect for a winter Sun holiday, or a girl’s gate away to an enchanting city with plenty of cultural activities. It’s safe, affordable, offers relaxing weather and bunch of interesting activities. People are kind and very welcoming of tourists.
However, if your interest lies in exploring the caravan routes of ancient Sahara, make way for the desert as soon as possible!
But Fes did! And how!
Fes is better than Marrakesh
The White walled city has an old Medina that lives untouched despite heavy tourist congregation.
I liked Marrakesh but it fell flat on the barrage of appreciation it received online before I landed. May be I had experienced the similar chaos and sensory overload of the Medina in parts of Cairo. May be I was exhausted from a red eye flight? may be the shopkeepers were to eager to touch my arm whenever I visited the shops alone? was I bargaining too much?
Fes was easy come, easy go. Despite the touts and the pushy people.
We woke up early, drove past the royal palace and ended up at one other gates of Fes which was not Blue Gate, meaning we skipped the most touristy part of the medina.
Fes has the largest medina of the region. Much of it remains exclusively for the locals, authentic. So, we walked past the maze that Fes Medina is, the overlapping balconies, the dilapidated houses, the fish markets setting up at the break of the day, plenty of school going children and locals curiously looking at us, two clueless Indians trying to find a way to the touristic hub of the Imperial city!
We finally found it. The adverts, the hotels, the tourist groups started to appear. I knew I am in for a treat!
They call it the “Athens of Africa”, for reasons ranging from the it’s religious and archeological heritage.
Fes was a surprise in Morocco. i wish I could spend at least couple of more days here, instead of Marrakesh. Many people come here from tangier or Casablanca, especially those visiting Morocco from Europe.
Chechaouen is Instagram pretty and more!
I had spent some time researching online if Chechaouen is worth the detour since Instagram spots don’t appeal to me much. In case you are visiting Morocco with longer time, you should definitely add the city to your list of places to visit in Morocco.
I took a day trip from Fes to Chechaouen for USD 30 that included a guided tour for an hour and few hours to explore by our own. I traveled for 8 hours to get to the city and be back. I liked this trip. The Blue Pearl of Morocco had more to offer than just Instagram spot with a rich history and thriving medina and I am glad that I did the trip despite it was a bit hectic.
Morocco for a Cultural traveler
Morocco is a treasure trove for those travelers who love to explore the culture of a country. their is a beautiful juxtaposition of the Arabic or Ancient Berber culture. Both are starkly different than each other yet they live happily with each other!
Cycling in the Atlas is a thing
At first I read the blog by Shivya from Shooting star about cycling across the Atlas mountain in Morocco.
While crossing the Dades gorge we saw a couple of tourists, our driver Mouchine suggested may be French, crossing the mountain on two cycles. They had a camper van parked at a hotel. Mouchine sounded disgruntled, “They try to find hotels for less than one USD!”
No matter what Mouchine said, I feel cycling around Morocco is a rather unique way to see the country, getting closer to the locals and of course it offsets your carbon footprint. If you have the time to do it, I encourage you to do it. Although I did not find cities with dedicated cycle tracks.
The tourist routes did not have heavy congestion on traffic. I believe it is possible to see the country on a cycle, in an intimate way.
How to dress in Morocco
I dressed conversative in Morocco, with dresses or jeans or saree that covered me from neck to toe. Partly because that is how locals dress anyway (and still some of them looked stylish). I also want to acknowledge it was pretty cold, so I preferred to cover myself.
Some of the fancy restaurants I have been to, I saw women flaunt heir legs through the LBD, especially on the Christmas eve at the big neighborhoods of Casablanca.
Overall, is it a conversative Islamic society. The desert demands you to dress up in covered stuff, or else you will be sun burnt. The men is the desert even hid their face, exposing the eyes only.
Slow down in Morocco
Except for Casablanca I found Morocco to be a rather slow place. How I liked it! It is a perfect spot to slow down, unwind for a while and soak in the sunshine. I love the beach towns of Morocco, namely Essaouira, Agadir, Asilah, Tangier and a rather beautiful and lesser known Nador.
Be flexible about changes that may impact on your set itinerary. Leaving some window to make space for unplanned activities may surprise you dearly!
Tajine is overrated, but Moroccan food was amazing!
Moroccan staple is Tajine. It’s a slow cooked meat with spices in an earthenware that looks like a pyramid. Some days, I loved Tajine. The cumin infused warm sauce reminded me of the comfort of the home. Some days, it was a bit much! You will be Tajined out & I suggest you try some other dish in Morocco like the Pastillo, the goat curry and the Berber Omelet. I will list down a bunch of places where we are and absolutely loved the food!
Food in Morocco is overall decent and varied. Strangely, I found ample seafood at Chauhan, crossing the Rif mountain. Casablanca had a bunch of good places to eat too.
Don’t forget to buy a Tajine pot when in Marrakesh.
Morocco is not very well connected with other countries in Africa but flying to Europe is very easy and affordable.
You can see Europe from Morocco. Or better still, take the ferry to cross a continent! The ferry from Tangier to Algeciras help you cross the Gibraltar strait and you reached Spain in less than few hours. And you get a view of both the continents from the body of the water which is great!
Tourist traps you should avoid in Morocco
The touts and scammers galore inside the Medina, the Imperial cities of Morocco, no matter where you visit. Marrakesh, Fes, Rabat, Meknes.
Be aware of the usual scams and save yourself some time and money!
Medinas are overstimulating with myriad soundscape and can get pretty loud.
The snake charmers of Marrakesh medina and the Jemaa el fna square can get pretty overwhelming.
People in Morocco do not like to get snapped without permission. In most cases, permission entails a small tipping.
The usual scams involve you taking one of the guided tours and the students making a stop at every carper seller and cooperatives and crystal seller who double as fossils & wait for it, the shops mushrooming around the famed tannery of Fes. Your guide may just forget the way/want to take a break for prayer/washroom leaving you for a feast to the scamsters. All you need to do is to say no.
That said, we really liked the leather shop near the Fes Tannery but the prices skyrocketed. They asked us where are we from and I said UK. Not sure how that could have helped us but I could only mutter a land faraway which is not NYC! If at all you choose to buy some products, bargain and bargain a lot. Like start from 25% or so and you will get there. I bought a wooden art work from a man who was working at his workshop and actually used his paint brush to tell me the price. I found that pretty cute and bought it. It looked a lot like one of those window panels from Rajasthan India but I am happy with the purchase.
Euro is the King!
Moroccans tend to quote price in Euro to tourists, and more often than not if you ask in USD, they will say the say number. I often corrected them, that you are loosing out if you quote USD.
However bargaining in Morocco is a thing. You should not agree to the price quoted initially as it tends to have a heavy mark up with an assumption that tourists will try to bring it down.
Morocco is a pretty affordable destination unless you plan to visit the interiors of Sahara. Sahara is amazing until the private tours start to charge you an arm and a leg. We paid USD 1500 for 3 nights tour with Desert Majesty and we spent only one day in the desert. I would not recommend their planning. They service was good but they should have suggested a couple of days in the desert for sure. We wasted a day.
For Casablanca, Chef, Fes and Marrakesh, everything was very affordable . All the cities are very walkable. Food is cheap and varied and great. No complains there.
Tipping in Morocco
Tipping is not necessary but is encouraged.
I researched a bit and found USD 10 per person per day is a decent amount for the drivers or guides who accompany you to places. For the porters who help you with luggage in medina, a few dollars is a good starting point.
Locals in Morocco heavily depend on Tourism as a source of income. Many people I interacted with suggested they wanted a way out of the country, to visit USA or Europe and work for a while to be able to sustain their family back home. The migration route is getting stringent all over the world with heavy military presence and borders closing in. We discuss all of these and come to conclusion that trying to invest in tourism in Morocco is the best possible way to make money at this point.
Tipping ensures their spirit is high up, for those associated with the hospitality industry.
Driving in Morocco
Self Driving is possible while visiting Morocco.
Self driving is possible in Morocco especially if you are planning to hire a car to visit the desert. Speak to a camp that will provide a 4*4 if you are planning to stay at a camp that’s set inside the dune. They will garage your car for a few days as you enjoy the desert from the comfort of a camp. Always, always wear seatbelt. Driving is on the right ride of the road. I did not find highway to be very crowded or threatening.
For the rest of the country, especially the cities, I suggest you leave it for the locals. Taxi goes wherever you want to. Bus and trains commute too. Morocco has Uber’s equivalent which is Indrive. We tried booking through InDrive and it was almost like a Hollywood movie conspiracy theory.
The local taxi union are intolerant to InDrive business. So the drivers of InDrive feel threatened and don’t want to confront them. We experienced this as we got down from the airport. Firstly the InDrive guy asked us to walk to him. He shared the location on WhatsApp. We did and upon arriving at the location, we found a bunch of taxi drivers hawking around with a side eye to us. A man sipping on mint tea at a local cafe looked at us and pointed fingers as if she wanted to convey a message! I was taken aback!
This is how we were introduced to Morocco but as I said before, I am from India. India has taught me how to deal with this and more! I will be honey, it was pretty fun, despite the red eye flight and everything else. One practice we saw in abundance was to make the man sit in the front seat to make it look like you are driving around with friends or family. A lady driver came to pick us up one day. I promptly took the front sit and she smiled!
For commute to one city to another you may want to book Buses with Supratours.
Moroccan culture is patriarchal, conservative and male dominated.
A Riad Experience in Morocco
Staying in a Riad is ubiquitous to visiting Morocco and rightfully so. We were told several times this is your home in Marrakesh and I genuinely felt at home in the Riad. It was a nice little retreat from the chaos of the bazar at night. However Roads are designed to be houses and you can actually hear whatever is going on in the room next. For me it was the early morning love making but our neighbors that woke me up. Can’t say I appreciated it very much.
Despite all the scams and touts, I encourage you to purchase Argan oil from Morocco. It is a product unique to the region and has really great benefit for hair and skin. Again, don’t fall for the tourist trap but choose where the locals go. Slow down and spend at least 2 full days in each city.
Casablanca is nice, in fact we had some of the best dinner and sunset view but it really has nothing exceptional on offer. But check for flights off Casablanca as they tend to be really cheaper compared to other cities. Ensemble artisanal is a nice boutique you can explore if you like to shop artisanal products.
I remember the tea shops which had a bunch of chairs arranged outside. Locals sat there with their share of mint tea, cigarette, occasionally Cigars. They smoked and spent hours looking at swarming scores of tourists, probably judging. I saw countless pictures of Marrakesh on Instagram. And in really, it did not feel so Grammy.
Underrated Places to Visit in Morocco
I know a bunch of tourists eager to see Morocco make a quick trip to see the Desert and one of the cities of either Marrakesh or Fes depending on where they enter Morocco from. If you are pressed for time, may be that’s what you do, however Morocco has some of the unique less touristy spots which is not crazy busy with tourist footfall. Safi is one such city in Morocco. The Ergs of Zagora is off the tourist radar and can only be visited during winter months as Summer is extremely hot! For a quite coastal town, Sidi Ifni is an upcoming destination. The oyster capital beach town of Oualidia, the Saturday market of Rissani, the monument valley like rock structures of Tafraoute- Morocco is home of some of the lesser known gems that will mesmerize a discerning traveler and how!
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