This list of the best tips for traveling to Morocco will help you prepare your trip to 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, large dune deserts where you can spend a night watching the stars, old fishing villages or adobe villages that seem frozen in time, Roman vestiges and one of the best gastronomies in the world. world, which together make up one of the most incredible countries in the world.
Taking into account the cultural difference, to have the best experience and know the kindness 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, of which we have written this Morocco guide, we have made a list of what we think are some of the 10 essential tips for traveling to Morocco. We started!
1. What is the best time?
The best time to travel to Morocco is in spring or autumn, when you will avoid the suffocating heat of summer and bad weather in the form of cold and rain in winter, especially in the northern area of the Atlas. The most touristic cities of the country such as Marrakech or Fez can be visited throughout the year, although in July and August they can reach temperatures close to 40 degrees.
Another important piece of information is to know the month in which Ramadan is celebrated, a period in which Muslims do not eat from dawn to dusk and many businesses are closed during the day. The start date of Ramadan changes every year, since it is governed by the lunar calendar and not the solar one like ours. For reference, in 2019 it will be held for almost the entire month of May and each year it is normally held about 11 days earlier than the previous year.
Although at this time it is perfectly feasible to travel to Morocco, it is convenient 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. It must be taken into account 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 not very touristy areas of the country and isolated neighborhoods of large cities, especially at night, you have to take extra precautions and inform yourself well of the possible dangers before visiting areas that you do not know.
Thefts are not common, although you do have to be aware of small scams in the most tourist cities. Some of the most common are the false guides that are offered in the medinas and who work on commission for shops and restaurants, the taxi drivers who do not put the meter or do not set a rate beforehand to later be able to inflate the price or the vendors who sell to gold price products that are not of sufficient quality.
A good option to have a pleasant first contact and learn a bit about 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. !
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 for entering 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 page 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, in 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 bring the book with the vaccines that you are wearing, 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 insurance companies, 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 totally adequate to the needs that we are going to have on the trip.
By contracting your insurance with Mondo here, just for being a reader of Viajeros Callejeros, 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 trip
The most common means of transport to travel to Morocco is the 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.
When you arrive at the airport you can rent a car to make a route through Morocco or take the bus or taxi that will take 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 . 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 at ATMs, rather than opting for the exchange houses. To avoid paying commissions and always having 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 we use, they are free and will save you a lot.
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 the commission will be returned, it is best to withdraw money at ATMs in the city, since those at airports usually charge more commission.
Also remember to always carry cash, if possible in coins and notes of little value, for the usual tips in restaurants and for taxis.
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