I've spent a couple of weeks in Morocco. Here's a small travel guide with a few of my observations.

Currency & Money Usage

Moroccan Dirhams, MAD, is the currency. It's essentially pegged to the Euro at a 10:1 exchange rate (100 dirhams is about 1 euro; not 100% accurate but probably all you need to know). You can't get it before you go. You have to get dirhams at the Morocco airport, either that or attempt to use Euros until you can access an exchange, of which there are many. You can use ATMs at the airport, but be aware there will likely be a large queue.

When using ATMs, there doesn't seem to be a way to avoid getting charged a fixed fee for the use of the international ATM. All banks that I could see charge this fee. Likely you know this already, but I recommend using a travel-focused credit card to avoid currency conversions, and always select the MAD value when using an ATM.

In general, all transactions are in cash, card payments are not a thing. However, haggling seems to be restricted to certain areas, e.g. souks when buying potentially higher-value items. I don't think it's appropriate to haggle e.g. for prepared food.

The discussions of tipping seem to divide people very much. Most sources seem to say "it's customary", however it's unclear whether Moroccans actually tip. Rounding the bill to the nearest value seems to be the most common way to do it, alternatively keep change around. In my opinion you should never tip more than 10%. The minimum you can tip is 2DH, otherwise just don't bother.

The ATMs will mostly dispense 100DH and 200DH notes. 200DH notes are a pain to deal with, because they're too large. However probably the majority of shops will be ok with you offering large notes, they are likely to have change unless they have only just opened. If they don't, just move to the next one.

Toilet attendants are a thing in Morocco and they will want to charge you 2DH for the privilege of spending a penny. This can be problematic as you may not have the change in which case leave whatever you have, but try to make sure you always have some 1DH coins on your person.

Rough cost guide

This is what I was paying but I might have been being ripped off.

  • Coffee: between 5 and 20 DH. See note on Coffee
  • Water: <10DH in a shop.
  • Street food sold by piece e.g. savory fritters, 5DH a piece.
  • Snack bar food: 10 to 40DH.
  • Fancier restaurant: up to 80DH for a single main, with menus/formulas up to
  • 120DH. For 60-80DH you should be getting something a properly filling meal.
  • Full grand taxi journey 30 minutes: 10DH
  • Full grand taxi journey 1 hour: 35DH
  • Petit taxi: 20/30DH for like 20 minutes.
  • Train Rabat to Marrakesh: 200DH
  • Intra city CTM / Supratours buses tend to be around 100DH - 200DH.
  • Hotel laundry service: 5DH.

In general, nothing should ever be more expensive than Europe, but at the same time it's not right to assume that absolutely everything will be significantly cheaper than Europe.

Water

The tap water is chlorinated. I never got ill from it but I only used it for toothbrushing and maybe some icecubes. I found the flavour unpleasant though. Buying water is quite a pain, if I stayed longer I would likely start drinking the tap water. If you're moving a lot then it's impractical to carry around large bottles of tap water, but at the same time it sucks having to continually monitor and ration your water use.

Language

Moroccan Arabic is the main language. French is used on most but not all signage. Most people speak at least some French but you shouldn't assume people are fluent in French. In cities, many young people speak good English, but in general your default assumption should be that people don't speak any English. It'll be useful for you to at least learn basic phrases in Moroccan Arabic, hello and thank you, consult a guide book for that. I used French for all numeric discussion.

Rs are always trilled and people frequently won't understand you if you speak with a non-trilled R.

Alcohol

Most places aren't licenced to sell alcohol. Lots of places serve mocktails, I had a delicious virgin mojito. You can get Casablanca beer on draught in tourist-focused pubs.

Travel

There are lots of ways to travel.

Local buses are cheap but poorly signposted, stops just seem to exist in people's heads largely, and people flag down the buses when they want to get on. There are a few labelled arrêt on the road, if you see people waiting on the pavement for no obvious reason there's a fair chance they are waiting for a bus.

Petit taxis are cheap but bear in mind that you will likely be overcharged as a tourist unless you haggle. You might also end up sharing a taxi because the driver will pick up people on the road who are going the same route, this is totally normal and in this case every passenger pays the full rate of their journey. Meters (compteur) exist and you should try to get drivers to use them, but in tourist areas drivers sometimes refuse your business rather than use the meter.

Grand taxis are an excellent system whereby people share rides in large cabs. These can drive outside of city limits. They are an excellent means of getting from city to city where the hop is relatively small. For long journeys they might not be that comfortable, though. There's a fixed set of routes. Travel books should contain lists of grand taxi routes that are close-enough to being accurate, but as a general rule you'll always be able to get grand taxis to geographically-near settlements, and even some that are quite far away. To get one you walk up to the terminal and ask someone! It's not always that clear who to ask, but sometimes people will be shouting out destinations, and they will point you in the right direction for your destination. Get in and wait for the ride to start, it'll start when you have 6 people. There doesn't seem to be any obvious protocol around where to sit so just sit where you want. You'll be charged for the ride BEFORE the ride starts and it should be quite cheap. In my limited experience, people don't talk too much during the ride itself, but they'll often chat a bit while waiting for it to fill up.

Coaches are run by Supratours and CTM. Supratours is a branch of ONCF, who are the public train operator patterned after the French one. There's not a lot to choose between these two companies. They both run comfortable and reliable services. However the coaches do not have wifi or toilets. The latter is quite tricky, for long trips the Supratours coaches will make rest stops so that you can use the toilet. You may get just 1 rest stop for the entire journey though (this is what I experienced on the night bus Marrakech -> Fes). When you book a ticket you get given a seat allocation (place) which you must sit in, unless there's very few people on the bus in which case you may be able to just sit wherever you like. All people will be trying to find their allocated seat. The problem with coaches is that they often stop very far outside of town -- in this case you'll need to figure out internal transport from the bus depot to the city centre. Sometimes they'll come into the central gare routière or sometimes they will have their own stop. Other passengers will board the coach mid journey from offices which are run by the company. Buses have air conditioning to cool down, but they don't have anything to heat up -- this not being a problem most of the time. However, in the cold regions like the Middle Atlas in the early morning and night, it can actually get quite cold, so bring at least a jumper and ideally more if this is your situation.

Trains are fast and comfortable but can be busy. They seem to be quite privatised like in the UK which means the exact arrangement is a mixed bag: sometimes you might be in a traditional-style compartment facing other people. Again, unlike the UK, booking a ticket gives you a fixed place on the train, which you must sit in. There are distinct 1st and 2nd class sections of the train. Make sure you sit in the right carriage (voiture) and seat (place). They do check tickets, an inspector comes around and scans a QR code on the ticket. There are no boards or announcements showing the calling destinations, but every stop has a board saying e.g. "GARE DE MEKNES" so you need to look out for your stop. The platforms (voie) themselves do have electronic boards showing calling destinations and departure time in Arabic and French.

Morocco is a papers-please society. When you're doing inter-town travel, always carry a copy of your passport.

Weather

I arrived in mid November, this was a good time to arrive. I'd say that once it reached December, it was starting to get too cold. The optimal way would probably be to do your trip spanning November, perhaps the start of November. The sun does make up for it, because even when the temperature is quite cold, the brightness of the sun still heats you up (and can burn you, although it's not actually too bad in November.) The mornings can be very cold. Still don't overplay this: most of the day it's sunny and warm.

Coffee

Coffee is very widely served in Morocco and is usually made in espresso machines. However there are lots of different things that pass for coffee. In general they follow the French system. If you ask for cafe noir you'll get a small ('short') drink. You can try asking for a cafe americain but what you get for this is very mixed. Most drinks will still be quite short and strong compared to the UK, I had to accept that to a large extent I simply wasn't going to be able to get a large heavily diluted Americano like you can get in the UK. It's common to add sugar to coffee and in the case of the cafe noir it's perhaps not a bad idea as it mitigates some of the bitterness. You can stop throwing stones at me now...

Tea

Atay, thé minthe, laughingly called Moroccan whisky, is something you should definitely encounter. The barman will give you the teapot and some mint leaves, put the mint leaves into the pot, pour it out, then repour the glass back into the pot, repeat the process 3 times. Seems to be traditionally drunk with sugar cubes. Overall, this is a pretty great drink and I understand why Moroccans like it.

Food

There is a fuzzy distinction between a restaurant-proper, and a takeaway-style venue. You can normally sit down to eat even at the takeaway-type venues which label themselves as 'snack bars', though they do serve full meals, not only snacks. Not all eating-establishments will have menus, if they have a menu it might only be in Arabic or it might be in French. Just because a venue displays graphics or names of a dish doesn't mean that it necessarily serves that dish! If you sit down you normally pay after eating. You can ask for food 'à emporter' to get it wrapped, nearly everyone will do this.

There's also proper 'street food' where you just buy single pre-made pieces from the stall, you can expect to pay 5DH or less for them.

In snack bars and restaurants, portion sizes tend to be large (apparently this is a Mediterranean thing) but this is not 100% guaranteed. Don't order a full menu / formula without being pretty hungry.

Many dishes are served with frites even when you might not expect them to be. The frites are often undersalted, unfortunately.

Layout

Nearly all towns have at least two distinct parts, a Medina and a Ville Nouvelle. Medinas are car-free and often quite hard to navigate as GPS doesn't always work in narrow streets. In some places the Medina can function as a completely self-contained area, in other places the Medina is more of an add-on and the Ville Nouvelle is much larger.

Accommodation

Some hotels will want to be paid in cash, others will accept cards as in booking.com.

The standard of accommodation is rather low, but the value is still quite good. In the UK and Western Europe, the minimum you can pay for a place to stay is about £50 a night (~60MAD), which gets you a decent level of comfort. In Morocco you can pay a lot less than this, it's possible to pay more like £20 a night, but your level of comfort will be correspondingly lower. So for instance, accommodation is often deficient in these areas:

  • Access to a chair and table
  • Lighting beyond a main light
  • Placement of AC outlets
  • Consistent hot water in the shower
  • A/C (or if they have A/C the heating mode doesn't work)
  • Reliable wi-fi
  • Cleanliness
  • Toilet roll
  • Staff speaking English
  • Availability of hot drinks
  • Availability of bottled water
  • Having a window
  • Soundproofing
  • Staff presence
  • Access control (keys being broken or weird protocol around them)

Pretty much all establishments serve breakfast which is a nice opportunity both to taste the various things on offer and also to interact with the staff and other guests. Breakfast is called ftour. Most places will give you some or all of the following:

  • a fried egg, or occasionally a hard boiled egg
  • jam
  • marmalade
  • amlou
  • msemen (guaranteed)
  • baguette
  • jben (white cheese)
  • butter
  • Baghrir -- semolina pancake (sometimes)
  • honey
  • cake of some sort
  • coffee
  • orange juice
  • fruit salad
  • olives (likely Beldi)

Breakfast tends to be very sweet so almost every one had some sort of cake, normally a sponge cake. Msemen is also always present. Breakfast can run from any time 7 to maybe 10-11, but don't expect it to be on-the-dot whatever time you choose. (There's generally a much looser attitude taken towards time in Morocco.)

Miscellaneous

If you're coming from the UK you'll need an UK->EU adapter.

The country code is +212.

Roof terraces are a big thing in Morocco.