I visited Morocco for the first time this past weekend and fell in love with the country. Morocco is a beautiful place filled with incredibly welcoming, warm, and kind people. I had very little idea of what to expect going in! These are what I wish I knew before traveling to Morocco.
The Temperature Varies LARGELY Day and Night
I went to Morocco in February, which is the colder season in the country. I was in Marrakech and in the Sahara Desert for my five day trip. At the peak of the day, the temperature could easily hit 75/80 degrees. But at night, it could drop anywhere from the 60s to the 40s.
This was a big adjustment for me. In Ibiza where I currently live, it stays in the 50s or 60s everyday and doesn’t vary too much. In Connecticut as well, the temperature does not drop more than 10/15 degrees on a given day.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the warmth during the day, I was not expecting how these changes would affect my body. After a day or two, I started getting a runny nose. By the last day of the trip, I had a stuffy and runny nose.
I wish I knew this ahead of time, so I could have prepared what I was bringing more, like warmer clothes and some cold medicine to prepare myself!
You Should Not Drink the Tap Water
The tap water in Morocco is not the cleanest. People argue whether you should or should not brush your teeth and wash your face with it. I did both of those and was fine; I believe because I did not ingest any of the water.
My first shower in Morocco, the water pooled up a tinged brown color in the bathtub. That made me weary of the water to start with, but after a few minutes, the water cleared right up. On that note, many of the showers were one hand-held shower head, situated in a holder at the bathtub faucet level. This surprised and slightly disappointed me, as at night it gets pretty cold and I want my whole body to be in hot water!
At basically every stop on our trip, people were buying bottles of water. I wish earlier in the trip that I would have bought a large case of water to take with me to save money.
You Can Get Food Poisoning Easily
When looking up travel reviews before going, as one does, my roommates and I noticed that many people online were getting food poisoning while in Morocco. One girl noted that out of the 6 times she was in Morocco, she got food poisoning 4 times.
This made my roommates and I quite nervous. We heard many bathrooms in Marrakesh make you pay before you enter. We were worried we wouldn’t feel well and potentially wouldn’t be able to find a bathroom easily, or be sick while we were roadtripping for multiple hours at a time.
Our tour group told us the majority of people get food poisoning during their trips, since people normally aren’t used to the food or have the stomach strength, so they carefully and thoroughly vetted all of the restaurants we visited. More on my tour group in point number eight.
Bargaining at Morocco Markets
I’m going to start by saying that this is the market vendor’s livelihood, so I personally didn’t bargain too crazy out of respect for them.
The local currency is called Dirham, and ten or eleven Dirham are worth one Euro. This means, the Euro is very strong and is worth a lot more. I exchanged 80 Euros into Dirham when I arrived and used that to pay for my lunches and souvenirs. Breakfast and dinners were covered by my tour group price.
The most simple way to bargain is to look at something, talk with the worker about it, then start to walk about. You can say you don’t have enough money or that you aren’t sure, and they will probably drop the price a little to a lot.
Don’t barter over a few dirham. That could be a meal the local might not be able to eat if you are arguing over five or ten dirham. Be kind, considerate, and respectful to the natives!
How Kind and Welcoming Arab Culture Is
I learned on this trip very quickly just how amazing Arab people are. One thing I miss from the USA while living abroad is the small talk, whether it’s chatting with your waiter or the person loading your groceries at the supermarket.
That same warmth I never see in Ibiza, Spain, or any other places in Europe that I’ve visited thus far (maybe with the exception of Italy). My roommates and I were so impressed with how kind all of the local Moroccans were to us. Waiters would come up to us and ask where we were from. They wanted to know what we thought of the country and why we were here.
Our bus drivers gave us the bluetooth information for the bus so we could play music. They loaded our bags up in the car with a smile and always asked us if we slept well.
I noticed as we drove through more remote areas, how generally, people always were sitting outside together, talking to each other. Arab culture values community and hospitality, which I enjoyed seeing. I was thoroughly impressed and it makes me excited to come again one day!
How Good Moroccan Tea Is
Morocco is famous for their mint tea. I’m no stranger to tea, so I was at first, not that excited to try it. Our first dinner with the group, mint tea was served to us, and our lives were changed.
The mint in the tea is extremely fresh, and the sugar cubes they add in make the tea delicious and addicting! In my house, we add honey to tea often, but I’ve never once thought of adding sugar!
The sugar cubes dissolve quickly and integrate into the drink. In Spain with our coffees, we often find sugar clumped together at the bottom of the drink. We were pleasantly surprised and are now on the hunt to find Moroccan mint tea in Ibiza.
The Airport Workers are STRICT
The Marrakech airport does not take mobile boarding passes. This means, you need to print out or show your reservation confirmation at the check in desk. I normally travel with hand luggage only since my trips are on the shorter side.
The workers at the check in desk are the most strict workers you’ll ever face in your life.
I have a approved personal item bag. It fits perfectly underneath the Ryanair seats. In fact. I can fit my jacket and my camera under the seat at the same time.
My friends, their bags fit underneath, but not super well. Theirs are more like a regular backpack while mine was made to be rectangular and to fit under an airplane seat. My bag was flagged and I had to pay almost 45 euros as a fine for my bag.
My bag is always compliant with regulations, always compliant with Ryanair (which I fly all the time), so I was extremely angry to get fined.
That being said, I would recommend upgrading to priority or being super cautious with how much you pack your bags. If the tiniest piece sticks out of the Ryanair luggage sizers, you will have to pay.
Going With a Tour Group for the First Time to Morocco
I initially was planning on going to Marrakech as a solo traveler. I found amazing Black Friday deals, rooms in super nice hostels for 12 to 15 euros a night, which I planned on doing.
One of my roommates found this company called CityLife Madrid, which was hosting a trip in Morocco. For just under 300 euros, we could go to Morocco for 5 nights, breakfast and dinner included, hotels included, transportation included.
Looking at the itinerary, we were like, how is all of this included for this price?! We went on a walking tour of Marrakech, to a sand castle looking town where Game of Thrones and many other movies were filmed, up this beautiful mountain, ATV and camel riding in the desert, and more! If you are interested in learning more, check out CityLife Madrid as well as this post about my trip. I would HIGHLY recommend it!
If you are interested in going solo or simply without a tour group, check out this post about things I thoroughly enjoyed in Marrakech (as well as things I wish I got to do)!
I wish I knew how much I would fall in love with Morocco before going. The simplicity of their insanely delicious cuisine, the beautiful nature, the kind hearted people. I cannot wait to go back and explore more of the country! Specifically Casablanca and some of the beach towns on the Southern coast.
