The 10 essential tips for traveling to Morocco
This list of the best tips for traveling to Morocco will help you prepare your trip in a country that we are sure will make you fall in love with its cultural contrasts and unique corners.
Located a few kilometers from Spain, in Morocco you can enjoy labyrinthine medinas, deserts of great dunes where you can spend a night watching the stars, ancient fishing villages or adobe that seem frozen in time, Roman vestiges and one of the best gastronomies of the world, which together, form one of the most incredible countries in the world.
Taking into account the cultural difference, in order to have the best experience and know the friendliness of the Moroccan people, we recommend you travel with an open mind, without the initial prejudices or fears of a culture and way of life totally different from ours.
Based on the experience of our three trips to this country, one of our favorites in the world, we have made a list of what we think are some of the 10 essential tips for traveling to Morocco. Let's start!
- What is the best time?
The best time to travel to Morocco is in spring or autumn, when you avoid the stifling heat of summer and bad weather in the form of cold and rain in winter, especially in the northern part of the Atlas. The most tourist cities in the country such as Marrakech or Fez can visit throughout the year, although in July and August they can reach temperatures close to 40 degrees.
Another important fact is knowing the month in which Ramadan is celebrated, a period in which Muslims do not start from dawn until dusk and many businesses remain closed during the day. The start date of Ramadan changes every year as it is governed by the lunar calendar and not the solar one like ours. To have a reference, in 2019 it is celebrated throughout almost the month of May and each year it is usually carried out about 11 days before the previous year.
Although at this time it is perfectly feasible to travel to Morocco, it is advisable to take it into account to be able to adjust the times if necessary.
- 2. Security
Morocco is one of the safest countries in Africa, especially for travelers. Keep in mind that tourism is one of the great sources of income for the country and the government allocates numerous resources so that you feel comfortable and protected at all times. This does not mean that in less touristy areas of the country and isolated neighborhoods of big cities, especially at night, you have to take extra precautions and be well informed of possible dangers before traveling through areas you do not know.
Thefts are not common, although it is necessary to be aware of small scams in the most tourist cities. Some of the most common ones are the false guides that are offered in the medinas and that work on commission for shops and restaurants, the taxi drivers who do not set the meter or do not set a rate before to be able to inflate the price or the sellers who sell to gold price products that are not of sufficient quality.
A good option to have a pleasant first contact and get to know a bit of the idiosyncrasy of a city like Marrakech is to book a private tour in which you have a good guide in Spanish and you choose the itinerary, or book this free tour in Spanish for free! !
If you visit Fez you can book in advance this guided tour in Spanish that passes through the main points of interest in the Medina.
- 3. Requirements to enter the country
If you are Spanish, you do not need a visa to enter Morocco, you just have to carry your passport with a minimum validity of 6 months and fill out an immigration form that will be given to you on the plane or boat. If you are from another country, you can check if the visa is mandatory on the official website of your Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In addition to the visa, one of the best tips for traveling to Morocco and other countries is to always carry one or more copies of the passport on paper and another in the cloud, either in an email account, on Google Drive or in Dropbox.
- 4. Vaccines and travel insurance
In the case of vaccines, there is no mandatory to travel to Morocco, according to the World Health Organization. But it is advisable to make an appointment at an International Vaccination Center and take the book with the vaccines you have on, especially if you have been in areas where there is Yellow Fever.
In all cities you can find good hospitals and private clinics that have agreements with insurers, but medical treatments in these centers can be quite expensive if you do not have good travel insurance.
We always travel insured with Mondo, with whom we carry an insurance fully adequate to the needs that we will have on the trip.
Hiring your insurance here with Mondo, just for being a reader of Street Travelers, you have a 5% discount.
In addition to the best travel insurance for Morocco, it is advisable to follow a series of basic precautions such as drinking bottled water, avoiding drinks with ice and fresh vegetables washed with water.
- 5. How to start the journey
The most common means of transport to travel to Morocco is by plane, although you can also use the boat or the ferry, which crosses the Strait of Gibraltar.
The ferry option will allow you to make a route through Morocco in your car, although considering the low price of car rental in the country and the long time you can invest in transfers, we do not think it is worth it if you do not live near the strait .
If you travel by plane, you have direct and daily flights with low cost companies such as Ryanair, Airarabia and Vueling, to cities such as Fez, Marrakech, Tangier and Casablanca, among many others. We recommend using a page like Skyscanner to check all the available options.
Upon arrival at the airport you can rent a car to make a route through Morocco or take the bus or taxi that takes you to the hotel or to the city center you want to visit. Another more comfortable option with which to get to the hotel and with which you will avoid haggling, scams and misunderstandings with taxi drivers, is to book a direct transfer to your hotel from the airport, in which a driver will wait for you with a sign with your name on it . You can book here the transfer from Marrakech Menara Airport to your hotel or here the one from Fez Saiss Airport in Fez to your hotel.
- 6. Money exchange
The official currency of the country is the Dirham, and although currently one euro is equivalent to almost 11 dirhams, you can get an idea of the value of things, dividing the price by 10.
To have dirhams, we always recommend withdrawing money from ATMs, rather than opting for exchange offices. To avoid paying commissions and always have the current exchange rate, we recommend using the N26 card to pay and the Bnext and Revolut cards to withdraw money at ATMs. They are the ones that we use, they are free and they will mean great savings.
You can find more information in this article about the best cards to travel without commissions.
If you do not have a card with which they will return the commission, the best thing is to withdraw money at the ATMs of the city since in the airports they usually charge more commission.
Remember to always carry cash, if possible in coins and bills of little value, for the usual tips in restaurants and for taxis.
- 7. How to have internet in Morocco?
If you want to have internet in Morocco, something very necessary today, especially taking into account the number of applications we use on our trips and the need to be in contact with our family and friends, you can choose several options:
Buy a SIM card at the airport or at a phone shop in the city, the latter option being the cheapest.
Buy a Holafly SIM card, with which you will have internet from the moment you land, saving you all the time of the procedures and making the whole process to have internet in Marreucos much more comfortable, fast and easy.
In this case, with the Holafly SIM you will have several Gb to browse the Internet (depending on the option you choose), they will send it to you free of charge at home, you will keep your WhatsApp number and you will have assistance service in Spanish. You can buy your Holafly prepaid SIM card here with a 5% discount for being our reader.
- 8. Travel to Morocco by yourself or with an agency
After our three Morocco tours, Casablanca, Meknes and Fez in 5 days, Marrakech and Essaouira in 5 days and the route of the Kasbahs in 4 days, we recommend traveling to Morocco on your own, rather than choosing to hire a travel agency.
Traveling on your own will allow you to have a freedom, which in a country like Morocco, we believe is essential in addition to being a unique experience that can serve as a practice to operate in other countries with similar cultures and in which it is more difficult move freely.
Having a rental car or your own is perfect to enjoy the trip to the fullest, as you can decide when and where to stop at each moment of the route. In addition to stopping at its natural wonders, towns anchored in time and labyrinthine cities, during the trip you will be able to meet the friendliness of the Moroccan people on more than one occasion and at the most unexpected moment.
If you don't want to drive, public transport such as the train or the bus is a good alternative to move between the most tourist cities in northern Morocco. Another comfortable way to get to know various areas of the country is to stay in a large city and take short day trips to one of its essentials that are closer. In this case, if you want to know better the history of the country and the places you visit, it is interesting to book some of these excursions with a guide in Spanish that are found in the most famous cities.
- 10. Sleep in the Sahara Desert
One of the best tips for traveling to Morocco is to spend a night in a tent under the stars, in the middle of the Sahara desert. The mythical Sahara, the largest warm desert in the world, has two access areas with the necessary infrastructure to make this experience unforgettable: Zagora and Merzouga. Before deciding on one of these two places, it should be borne in mind that although Zagora is a little closer, its dunes and desert are not as spectacular as those of Merzouga, something to keep in mind when deciding on one. or another.
You can get to these two places by rental car or by taxi from Marrakech and there you can hire one of the 4 × 4 tours, which includes spending the night in the desert.
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