The medinas of Marrakech and Fez, the Sahara desert, souks and colour: Morocco is a journey into another age, a step away from Europe.
🧭 Essential facts
Currency
Moroccan dirham (MAD)
Language
Arabic and Berber
Best time to go
Spring and autumn
🌍 About Morocco
Morocco is fourteen kilometres from Europe and could be in another century. You cross the Strait of Gibraltar on an hour's ferry and on the other side there are medieval, car-free medinas where you genuinely get lost, souks that work exactly as they did five hundred years ago, four-thousand-metre mountains with snow on them, and a desert of orange dunes that begins where the asphalt ends. It is probably the most intense destination available at such a short distance.
That intensity is also the difficult part, and it is worth saying plainly: in the tourist areas of Marrakech, Fez and Tangier there is constant commercial pressure, people offering to guide you and then charging for it, insistent traders, and a permanent sense of being sized up as a customer. It is not dangerous, but it is wearing. Those who go knowing that, with patience and good humour, have a wonderful time; those who do not expect it sometimes go home annoyed on the third day.
What makes it worth it is a variety few destinations of its size can offer. In a week you can go from an imperial city to the Atlantic coast at Essaouira, cross the High Atlas over a mountain pass, sleep in a tent among the dunes of Merzouga and come back through oasis valleys and mud kasbahs. And the prices, even today, remain low compared with Europe.
💱 Currency and exchange rate
The local currency is the Moroccan dirham (MAD). Carry some cash, tell your bank before travelling and check the day's rate.
💱 What your currency is worth in MADLIVE WIDGET
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✈️ Getting there and around
Casablanca (CMN) takes the long-haul flights, while Marrakech (RAK), Fez (FEZ) and Tangier (TNG) take the European ones. Al Boraq, the first high-speed train in Africa, links Tangier with Casablanca in a little over two hours, and the ONCF network covers the whole northern axis well — Casablanca, Rabat, Fez, Marrakech — with comfortable, cheap trains. Heading south, where the train does not reach, the CTM and Supratours buses are the two serious operators and can be booked online. Shared grands taxis cover the short hops between towns and leave when they fill up. You can also arrive by sea: the ferries from Tarifa and Algeciras cross to Tanger Med in under an hour.
🎒 What to do and see
Marrakech and Jemaa el-Fna square→
The Marrakech medina is a World Heritage site and its central square is a spectacle that changes by the hour: by day there are juice sellers, snake charmers and water carriers, and as the sun goes down it fills with smoking food stalls, gnawa musicians and storytellers. Around it are the souks, the Bahia palace, the Saadian tombs and the Majorelle garden, with its cobalt blue, which belonged to Yves Saint Laurent. It is the country's most touristed city and also its most exhausting: alternate the medina with rooftops and gardens.
Fez and its medina→
The medina of Fez el-Bali is the largest car-free urban area in the world: some nine thousand alleyways where GPS is useless and where you inevitably get lost, which is part of the experience. It holds the university of Al Qarawiyyin, founded in 859 and considered the oldest still operating in the world. And the Chouara tanneries, with their vats of colour, viewed from the terraces of the leather shops — with a sprig of mint under your nose, because the smell is ferocious. It is the most authentic and least made-up of the imperial cities.
The Merzouga desert→
The dunes of Erg Chebbi, up to a hundred and fifty metres high, are the Sahara you have in your head. The classic approach is to ride in by camel at dusk, sleep in a tented camp among the dunes and climb a ridge for the sunrise, under a night sky that in the desert looks like almost nowhere else. It is reached from Marrakech or Fez on a long two-day journey with stops along the way. The alternative is Erg Chigaga, further out and less busy.
Chefchaouen, the blue city→
An entire town painted blue in the Rif mountains, with steep streets, turquoise doors and flowerpots everywhere. It is far calmer than the imperial cities, you walk without commercial pressure, and it works well as a rest in the middle of an intense trip. Stay the night: once the day buses leave, the town changes completely. From above, the Spanish mosque gives the classic view at sunset.
Ait Ben Haddou→
A fortified mud ksar, a World Heritage site, stacked on a hill above a dry river. It is the country's most famous filming location: Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia and Game of Thrones were all shot here, among many others. You cross the river and climb to the granary at the top, with a view over the valley. It sits on the road between Marrakech and the desert, so almost every circuit stops here, and half an hour away is Ouarzazate with its film studios.
The Dades valley and the Todra gorge→
The so-called route of a thousand kasbahs: oasis valleys with palm groves, earth-coloured adobe villages and red rock formations. The Todra gorge is a canyon of three-hundred-metre vertical walls that at its narrowest leaves barely ten metres between them, with a stream running through; it is climbing country and you can walk the floor. The Dades has a road of tight hairpins that is among the most photographed in the country.
Essaouira and the Atlantic coast→
A walled city facing the Atlantic, with Portuguese ramparts, seagulls, blue boats in the harbour and a constant wind that has made it a mecca for kitesurfing and windsurfing. Its medina is a World Heritage site and is far more relaxed than those inland: here almost nobody chases you to sell you something. You eat fish straight off the boat at the harbour stalls. It is three hours from Marrakech and the escape everyone is grateful for.
Tangier and the north→
The gateway from Spain, an hour away by ferry, and a city that was an international zone and a refuge for writers and artists in the twentieth century. It has a medina sloping down to the sea, the kasbah with its view over the Strait — on clear days you can see Spain — and the Caves of Hercules, whose opening to the ocean is shaped like Africa. It is modernising fast and is now the hub of the high-speed railway.
Rabat and Casablanca→
Rabat is the capital, calm and orderly, with the Kasbah of the Udayas painted blue and white above the river, the unfinished Hassan tower and the Chellah necropolis, with Roman ruins and storks nesting on top. Casablanca is the big modern city, less touristed, and its great draw is the Hassan II mosque, one of the few in the country that non-Muslims may visit, with a two-hundred-and-ten-metre minaret and part of its footprint over the sea.
Meknes and Volubilis→
Meknes is the quietest of the four imperial cities, with enormous walls, the Bab Mansour gate and the granaries of sultan Moulay Ismail. Half an hour away are the Roman ruins of Volubilis, a World Heritage site, with mosaics preserved in the open air in very good condition and a triumphal arch still standing, amid olive groves. Beside it is Moulay Idriss, the country's holy city, draped over two hills.
The High Atlas and Toubkal
An hour from Marrakech the real mountains begin: Berber valleys with stone villages, cultivation terraces and Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa at 4,167 metres, climbed in two days with a guide and without technical gear in summer. The Imlil valley is the classic base and also works as a day trip. In winter there is snow and even a ski station at Oukaïmeden.
Sleeping in a riad
Not accommodation so much as part of the trip. Riads are traditional medina houses built inwards, around a courtyard with a fountain and orange trees, with no windows onto the street. From outside you see an unremarkable door in an alley; inside there are tiles, carved wood and absolute silence in the middle of the medina's noise, almost always with a roof terrace for breakfast. They cost considerably less than an equivalent hotel in Europe and are the best accommodation decision you can make in Morocco.
📅 When to go: climate and best time
Spring and autumn are clearly the best times. From March to May the country is green, temperatures are pleasant everywhere and the desert is not yet burning; from September to November something similar happens, with the heat dropping and good light. These are the ideal windows for combining imperial cities, mountains and desert in one trip, which is what almost everybody wants to do.
Summer, June to August, is hard inland: Marrakech and Fez comfortably pass forty degrees and the desert becomes unviable by day, although the Atlantic coast — Essaouira, Agadir, Tangier — stays cool thanks to the wind and is at its best. Winter, December to February, has pleasant days and very cold nights, especially in the desert and the mountains, where it snows; it is low season, with lower prices and fewer people in the medinas. One thing to factor into planning: during Ramadan many restaurants close during the day and the rhythm of the country changes completely, so check the dates, which shift every year.
🍽️ What to eat
Moroccan cooking is one of the world's great cuisines and mixes Berber, Arab, Andalusi and French influences. The tagine is the signature dish, an earthenware pot with a conical lid in which lamb is slow-cooked with prunes, chicken with preserved lemon and olives, or vegetables with spices. Couscous is traditionally eaten on Fridays, after prayers, and in homes it is a family meal. There is also harira, the thick pulse soup with which the fast is broken, pastilla — a pastry that is savoury and sweet at once, with cinnamon and sugar on top — and the fish of the Atlantic coast.
Mint tea, which they call Berber whisky, is not a drink but a social ritual: it is served very sweet, poured from a height to make it foam, and refusing it when someone offers it with genuine hospitality is taken badly. It is worth distinguishing that from the tea you are served in a shop while they show you carpets, which is part of the sale. Two practical warnings: alcohol is very restricted and is not available in the medina or in most restaurants, though it is in hotels and some licensed places; and stick to bottled water and be careful with raw salads and ice for the first few days.
🛟 Safety and health
Morocco is a safe country to travel in and violence against tourists is very infrequent; what there is is a high level of commercial hassle and petty scams, and that is what you need to know how to handle. The classics: someone telling you the street is closed or the square is 'that way' to steer you elsewhere and then charge you for guiding; fake guides offering to walk you through the medina; the taxi with no meter; and the stories that the tanneries souk closes today. The response that works is a polite, firm 'no, thank you' without stopping to argue. Women travelling alone commonly report comments and persistent attention, especially in Marrakech and Fez, though rarely anything beyond that.
On health, the basic advice is bottled water, care with ice and raw vegetables for the first few days, and eating at stalls with a high turnover of people, which usually signals fresh food. Ask in advance about recommended vaccinations — generally hepatitis A and typhoid for trips involving street food — and take travel insurance, because private care is what works well and it is paid for. The sun in the desert and the south is very strong, so sunscreen, a hat and plenty of water. Emergencies: 19 for police in cities, 15 for ambulance, and 177 for the gendarmerie on the road.
💰 How much it costs
Morocco is still cheap compared with Europe, and is one of the destinations where a budget goes furthest: for the price of a mediocre hotel in Spain you sleep in a very lovely riad. Internal transport — trains, CTM and Supratours buses — costs very little, and so does eating at stalls and local restaurants. What you do pay for is the organised desert circuit, upper-range accommodation and services designed for tourists.
Haggling is part of the system and you need to understand it rather than look for a reference figure: in the souk there is no fixed price, the first number you are given is a starting point, and you negotiate with patience and good humour, without giving offence and knowing you can always walk away. In supermarkets, pharmacies, train stations and restaurants with a menu, by contrast, the price is fixed and is not haggled. Two more things: the dirham is a closed currency, so change money in the country and spend what is left before you leave; and carry small notes, because change is scarce and many taxi drivers and stalls do not have it.
🤝 Culture and practical tips
Morocco is a Muslim country and religion organises daily life: five calls to prayer a day heard across the whole city, Friday as the main day, and mosques closed to non-Muslims, with the notable exception of the Hassan II in Casablanca. The recommended dress is modest for everyone: shoulders and knees covered, especially outside tourist areas and in villages, and for women that considerably reduces unwanted attention. There is no need to cover your hair except on entering a place of worship where that is permitted.
The hospitality is real and highly valued: if you are invited for tea or to eat at someone's home, accepting is the right thing to do, you eat with your right hand and you praise the food. At the same time it is worth distinguishing genuine hospitality from the commercial performance, which also exists. Other useful rules: do not photograph people without asking, and women least of all, which is taken very badly; the left hand is considered unclean for eating and greeting; and public displays of affection are frowned upon. During Ramadan, eating, drinking or smoking in the street in plain view during the day is disrespectful, although tourists are tolerated: the considerate thing is to do it in private.
📜 History of Morocco
Morocco's history is that of a far edge of the world: al-Maghrib al-Aqsa, "the far west", the last land in Africa before the Atlantic, where the Atlas Mountains, the Sahara Desert and two seas meet. Long before the Arabs arrived, this land already belonged to the Amazigh, or Berbers, the "free people", who have lived here for thousands of years and remain its deepest human foundation. After them came the Phoenician merchants who set up trading posts on the coast, the scholarly king Juba II who ruled Roman Mauretania from Volubilis, and the armies of Islam that crossed from the East in the 7th century and changed the country's language, faith and destiny for good.
From then on Morocco was, almost without a break, a kingdom in its own right, which is rare in North Africa: it never became part of the Ottoman Empire and has one of the oldest monarchies on the planet. This is where the great Berber and Sharifian dynasties came from: the Idrisids, Almoravids, Almohads, Marinids, Saadians and the Alaouites who still reign today. They built Fez and Marrakech, crossed the Strait to rule al-Andalus and raised mosques whose towers inspired the Giralda in Seville. Travelling through Morocco, from the ancient medina of Fez to Jemaa el-Fna square in Marrakech, from blue Chefchaouen to the dunes of Merzouga, from art deco Casablanca to the mud-brick kasbahs of the south, means moving through that history of desert empires, Andalusian splendour, rivalry with the Iberian powers, colonial protectorate and a young but firm independence.
Read the full history of Morocco →❓ FAQs about Morocco
Do I need a visa for Morocco?
Most likely not. Morocco publishes a list of exempt countries through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs at consulat.ma, and it works the other way round from most countries: if your nationality is not on that list, you need a consular visa. US, Canadian, British, Australian and EU passport holders are exempt and can stay up to 90 days, and there is no Moroccan ETA or compulsory electronic authorisation for exempt countries. One useful detail for planning a long European trip: Morocco is not part of the Schengen area, so the days you spend here do not count against your 90-in-180 Schengen allowance. Verified against the official Moroccan list in September 2026.
How do I get there from Europe?
It is one of the simplest ways into Africa. The ferries from Tarifa and Algeciras in Spain cross to Tanger Med in roughly an hour, with several departures a day, carrying passengers and cars. There are also cheap flights from much of Europe to Marrakech, Fez, Tangier and Casablanca, and Casablanca takes the long-haul routes. Once inside, the Al Boraq high-speed train — the first in Africa — links Tangier with Casablanca in a little over two hours.
Is it safe, including for a woman travelling alone?
It is a safe country as regards violent crime, which is very infrequent against tourists. What there is is constant commercial hassle in the tourist medinas and petty scams: fake guides, people diverting you 'because the street is closed', taxis with no meter. Women travelling alone frequently report comments and persistent attention, especially in Marrakech and Fez; it helps to dress modestly, walk with purpose, not engage with provocation and avoid empty alleys at night. A great many women travel Morocco alone without problems, but it is worth knowing what you will meet.
How does haggling work?
In the souk there is no fixed price: the first one you are given is a starting point and is negotiated. The unwritten rules are to go in with good humour, not to give offence, to be clear about what you are willing to pay and always to be ready to walk away, which is the most effective tool. Never haggle for something you do not intend to buy, because that does cause a problem. And note: in supermarkets, pharmacies, train stations, ticket offices and restaurants with a menu the price is fixed and is not haggled.
When is the best time to go?
Spring, March to May, and autumn, September to November. These are the two windows in which you can combine cities, mountains and desert without suffering the heat. In summer the interior passes forty degrees and the desert becomes unviable by day, though the Atlantic coast is perfect. In winter it is cold at night in the desert and it snows in the Atlas, but there are fewer people and better prices. Also check the dates of Ramadan, because they change every year and noticeably alter how the country runs.
How do I get around the country?
The ONCF trains are comfortable and cheap and cover the northern axis very well — Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca, Fez, Marrakech — with the Al Boraq high-speed service between Tangier and Casablanca. For the south, where the train does not reach, there are the CTM and Supratours buses, the two serious operators, bookable online. Shared grands taxis cover the hops between towns and leave when they fill up. Hiring a car makes sense for the kasbah route and the valleys, not for the cities, where you cannot drive into the medinas.
Is the desert tour worth it?
Yes, but know what it involves: from Marrakech or Fez it is two days out with many hours on the road and a night in between, so the classic circuit is three days and two nights. If time is very short there are closer desert options that are not the big dunes and disappoint a fair number of people. Merzouga has the Erg Chebbi dunes and is the most accessible; Erg Chigaga is more remote with less tourism. Choose a camp with recent reviews and confirm what is included, because the difference between one and another is large.
How many days do I need?
Five days covers Marrakech and one escape, or the desert circuit and not much more. Eight to ten days allows a rounded route: Marrakech, the desert by the kasbah road, and back over the Atlas adding Essaouira or Fez. Two weeks is enough for the whole north with Chefchaouen, Tangier, Fez and Meknes plus the south. Distances are long and the mountain roads slow, so do not chain too many destinations together.
Explore Morocco by region
Pick a region and open each destination to see what to do, prices and how to get there.
📍
Marrakech and the Atlantic coast
3 destinations📍
Casablanca and the imperial cities (Fez, Meknes, Rabat)
5 destinations📍
The north: Tangier and Chefchaouen
2 destinations📍
The south, the Atlas and the Sahara Desert
6 destinationsWhere the data on Morocco comes from
These are the sources we cite most across this country's guides, with how many times each appears. Hard data —tickets, opening hours, requirements, transport— comes from the official source and carries the date we checked it. Restaurant and hotel picks come from guides and reviews, and we say so on each page.
