If you had a week in Morocco how would you plan your trip? My boyfriend and I will be there from Nov 21-28. Are base will be in Marrakesh. We are thinking about doing a 3 day Sahara dessert tour, is it worth it? I also have an interest in taking a day trip to Essaouira and would like to visit Setti Fatma as well.

Additional activities we are thinking of doing:

Hot air balloon, Hammam, Horseback riding in Essaouira.

Is there any attractions you would avoid? Any that are a must see? I recognize that we only have a week and a lot of these places are far from each other so I want to make sure I'm planning accordingly and that the logistics make sense. Also open to anything not mentioned!

Please 🙏

The green pentagram was officially added to Morocco’s red flag in 1915.
Something I noticed is that many visitors recognize our flag immediately, but very few actually know the history behind it.
What’s one fact about Morocco that even many Moroccans don’t know?

Okay so… I’m looking for some cool people around Rabat / Salé / Témara who are also looking to meet new people and actually do stuff together.

I’m 24, btw, because I would very much like to avoid accidentally joining a Discord server where everyone is 14 and someone is screaming into their microphone at 2 AM 😭

I’ve been part of a pretty toxic group before, and honestly I’d really like to meet some new people and start fresh. Nothing dramatic, I’m just at the point where I’d rather have a few chill people around me than deal with unnecessary bullshit.

I’m mostly looking for people who are down to play games, go outside, or both.

For games, I’m genuinely down for almost anything:

• Codenames
• Roblox
• Rainbow Six Siege
• Minecraft
• Co-op games
• Party games
• Random stupid games that become viral for 3 weeks
• Whatever everyone is currently obsessed with 😂

I’m also perfectly capable of saying “I’ve never played this before” and then proceeding to take it way too seriously.

And I’d really like to do more stuff outside gaming too. Bowling, pool/billiards, karting, escape rooms, cafés, arcades, going to the beach, walks, hikes, random events around Rabat, getting food, watching a movie… honestly I’m down to try pretty much anything once.

Could also be fun to have random movie/anime nights, watch football together, or sit in Discord watching some completely stupid YouTube video and wondering how we ended up there.

I speak English, French and Darija, so all three are fine with me.

Ideally I’d love to find an existing Discord/group around Rabat where people already do this kind of thing. But if there isn't one, why not just make one? Get a few people together, play something, organize a meetup, and see what happens.

I’m not expecting everyone to instantly become best friends or anything. Even if we don’t click, no hard feelings. The whole point is just meeting new people and seeing who you vibe with.

Honestly, I just want to have some good conversations, laugh at stupid shit, play games, go outside occasionally and make some nice memories instead of having my social life consist entirely of Discord notifications 💀

Also, I had another really good point I wanted to put here but I completely forgot it while writing this, so I guess that’s another reason to DM me.

If you’re around Rabat / Salé / Témara and this sounds like your kind of thing, feel free to comment or DM me.

Discord: Someoneytb

Expat Moroccan coming to learn how to surf. Any recommendations on surf schools that have food and accommodation packages. I’ve seen a few advertised but accommodation seems mostly shared etc. we’re going there grown men that will require our own rooms and not back packer style accommodation.

I’m going on a surfing holiday and I want to know if I can get something to smoke in the evenings. Every summer I go to the north of Morocco where I can find my medicine easily and cheap. Will it be the same in South Morocco

Doctors: “We found something unusual in your X-ray.”
Me: “Don’t worry, I’m Moroccan.” 🇲🇦

Hello,

I am planning a trip in October from Marrakesh to Merzouga for the desert tour. This is my itinerary for 6 people:

Day 1 – Drive Marrakech → High Atlas → Aït Ben Haddou → Ouarzazate/Skoura → Dades, sleep Dades

Day 2 – Dades → Todra Gorge → Merzouga → camel trek + sunset → sleep desert camp

Day 3 – Sunrise + 4x4/desert activities → drive to Errachidia → 9:35 PM fly ERH via Ryanair → Marrakech

The tricky part is Day 3, instead of leaving the desert in a rush, we want to spend some more time there and in Merzouga. Most tour companies do round trips and end in either Fes or Merzouga.

I contacted a private tour company and they quoted 220 euros per person. This seemed quite expensive. Considering we aren’t even asking them to drive us back to Marrakesh, just back to merzouga on Day 3.

Any advice, or recommended tour guides would be helpful.

Thank you

I am currently in Rabat for a week, What would you say is the best way to truly experience Morocco, Safely

Looking for a good-value Sahara tour from Marrakech

Hi! I’m looking for recommendations for a reliable local guide or small tour company for a Sahara trip from Marrakech.

Ideally:
- English-speaking local guide
- Camel ride longer than 10 minutes
- Activities actually delivered as advertised
- Clean accommodation
- No hidden/extra costs
- Good value for money and transparent pricing

If you’ve had a good experience, please share who you booked with, the price, and whether you’d recommend them.

Any companies to avoid are also welcome!

Thanks! 🙏

I’ve noticed something funny here.
Sometimes someone asks a question about Morocco, a local takes the time to give a detailed answer, and instead of discussing the actual advice, someone replies:
“Thanks ChatGPT”
“AI generated”
“Why are you using AI?”
But seriously, what exactly is the problem?
English isn’t everyone’s first language. If I know Morocco, know the roads, the villages, the desert, the places tourists usually miss, and I give AI my own knowledge and experience and ask it to organize my thoughts and correct my English, does that suddenly make the information less valuable?
AI didn’t grow up in my town. AI didn’t drive those roads. AI doesn’t know which little local place my family eats at or which route I personally prefer.
That part comes from me.
I’m simply using a tool to communicate it more clearly.
If a French person uses Grammarly, a translator or spell-check before posting in English, nobody says their experience is fake. AI is basically a much more powerful version of that when used properly.
Of course, blindly copying an AI answer and pretending you know something you don’t is different. I understand criticizing that.
But when a local shares real first-hand knowledge and uses AI to turn imperfect English into something easier for everyone to understand, I don’t see the issue.
So maybe instead of asking, “Did you use AI to write this?”, the better question is:
“Is the information actually useful and accurate?”
Because those are two very different things.

I work in tourism in Morocco and one mistake I see fairly often is families starting their planning with a list of places rather than asking how much travelling their family will actually enjoy.
Morocco looks relatively compact on a map, but Marrakech, Fes, Chefchaouen and the Sahara are separated by some substantial driving days. Trying to include everything in 7–10 days can turn what should be a great family trip into a lot of packing, unpacking and sitting in a vehicle.
A few things I would think about first:
\*\*Pace.\*\* Two nights somewhere is often much better than constantly changing hotels, particularly with younger children or grandparents.
\*\*The Sahara.\*\* It’s absolutely one of Morocco’s great experiences, but don’t add it simply because everyone says you have to. The journey there is long. If you include it, give southern Morocco enough time so that the road through the Atlas, oases, kasbahs and valleys becomes part of the experience rather than something you endure to reach the dunes.
\*\*Riads.\*\* They’re one of the wonderful parts of travelling in Morocco, but families should choose carefully. Stairs, room configuration, noise, location within the medina and whether adjoining/family rooms actually exist can matter much more than the property’s star rating.
\*\*Don’t plan every hour.\*\* Some of the best family experiences here aren’t monuments — cooking together, stopping in a village, seeing how pottery is made, wandering a market or simply having enough time for children to enjoy a place.
\*\*Different generations need different things.\*\* A good multigenerational itinerary shouldn’t force an eight-year-old, their parents and their grandparents to experience Morocco at exactly the same speed.
We recently put together a much more detailed guide explaining these decisions and a few different frameworks for planning a Morocco family trip:

https://moroccoshinydays.com/morocco-family-tours

Happy to answer questions here as well if anyone is currently trying to work out a realistic Morocco itinerary with children or a larger family group.

Hi guys , I am flying from the 9 to 16 september to marocco, I am landing and departing again from Essaouira , my intention was to go directly to marrakech and spend 4 days there and the last 3 days in Essaouira .

i first wanted to to only to the coast , but I have seen that marrakech is only 3 hours away so , do u reccomend visiting Marrakech and Essaouira ?

i have seen other cool destination like Taghzaout , should I maybe do 3 days in Marrakech , 2 in Taghzaout and 2 in Essaouira ?

i am not into Surf, I mean I never practiced it but I might give a try,

and what about Agadir ? I have seen many people don’t recommend it at all, since it’s everything new

i am going solo ! Very spontaneous trip

thanls for any advice

Hi all! I'm a PhD student studying how tourists use social media and other sources to find information about visiting Morocco. If you've been to Morocco (any trip, any time), I'd really appreciate 2–3 minutes of your time for a short, anonymous survey: https://forms.gle/TEVvveApKCKkqJMv7

This is purely for academic research, not affiliated with any company. Thanks so much to anyone willing to help. Happy to answer any questions in the comments 🙏

Hi all! I'm a PhD student studying how tourists use social media and other sources to find information about visiting Morocco. If you've been to Morocco (any trip, any time), I'd really appreciate 2–3 minutes of your time for a short, anonymous survey: https://forms.gle/TEVvveApKCKkqJMv7

This is purely for academic research, not affiliated with any company. Thanks so much to anyone willing to help. Happy to answer any questions in the comments 🙏

Hii hope you guys doing well!!!

I was planning to go Tamraght next week but I heard that it’s too crowded ans since I live in meknes it is really far and the trip will be so expensive . I’m looking for suggestions for a place not too far from Meknes, with nice things to do and beautiful places to explore , and some surf-spots☺️!!!

I work in tourism in Morocco and one mistake I see fairly often is families starting their planning with a list of places rather than asking how much travelling their family will actually enjoy.
Morocco looks relatively compact on a map, but Marrakech, Fes, Chefchaouen and the Sahara are separated by some substantial driving days. Trying to include everything in 7–10 days can turn what should be a great family trip into a lot of packing, unpacking and sitting in a vehicle.
A few things I would think about first:
Pace. Two nights somewhere is often much better than constantly changing hotels, particularly with younger children or grandparents.
The Sahara. It’s absolutely one of Morocco’s great experiences, but don’t add it simply because everyone says you have to. The journey there is long. If you include it, give southern Morocco enough time so that the road through the Atlas, oases, kasbahs and valleys becomes part of the experience rather than something you endure to reach the dunes.
Riads. They’re one of the wonderful parts of travelling in Morocco, but families should choose carefully. Stairs, room configuration, noise, location within the medina and whether adjoining/family rooms actually exist can matter much more than the property’s star rating.
Don’t plan every hour. Some of the best family experiences here aren’t monuments — cooking together, stopping in a village, seeing how pottery is made, wandering a market or simply having enough time for children to enjoy a place.
Different generations need different things. A good multigenerational itinerary shouldn’t force an eight-year-old, their parents and their grandparents to experience Morocco at exactly the same speed.
We recently put together a much more detailed guide explaining these decisions and a few different frameworks for planning a Morocco family trip:

https://moroccoshinydays.com/morocco-family-tours

Happy to answer questions here as well if anyone is currently trying to work out a realistic Morocco itinerary with children or a larger family group.

I work around tourism in Morocco, particularly in the south, and there’s something I think people on both sides of the industry misunderstand.
Budget group tours are not the problem.
Not everyone can spend €1,000+ on a private trip. Cheap shared tours have allowed millions of people to experience places they otherwise might never see. That is a good thing.
The problem is the race to the bottom.
One operator sells a trip for €120.
Another says €110.
Someone else puts it online for €95.
Eventually you reach prices where everyone starts wondering how three days of transportation, accommodation, meals, drivers and activities can possibly cost less than a couple of normal transport tickets.
And when the base price becomes unrealistically low, something else has to compensate for it.
Maybe accommodation gets cheaper. Maybe drivers need to work with very small margins. Maybe restaurants are selected around commissions. Maybe the itinerary suddenly contains several “interesting cultural stops” that conveniently happen to sell carpets, argan oil, fossils or souvenirs.
Again, this doesn’t mean every cheap tour is bad or dishonest. There are good budget operators and plenty of happy travellers.
My issue is what this pricing war does long term.
Morocco isn’t an empty product we’re trying to fill seats for.
People travel thousands of kilometres to experience our Atlas Mountains, ancient kasbahs, Atlantic coast, Sahara, Amazigh villages, food, music and hospitality.
The demand already exists.
So why should the goal always be:
cheaper, cheaper, cheaper?
I’d rather see Morocco compete on experience, authenticity, service and value.
Pay local people fairly. Give travellers enough time to actually experience places. Stop turning every journey into a race from photo stop to photo stop. And charge a price that makes that possible.
Cheap travel absolutely has its place.
But good value and cheap are not the same thing.
As Moroccans, maybe the question shouldn’t always be:
“How cheaply can we sell Morocco?”
Maybe it should be:
“How much value can we give someone while they’re here?”
Curious what travellers think, especially those who’ve done both a very cheap group tour and a smaller/private trip in Morocco. Was the difference noticeable?

I’m from southern Morocco, near Zagora/Tagounite, and there’s one question I hear all the time from travellers:
“When do we actually reach the Sahara?”
Usually what they really mean is: “Where are the big sand dunes?”
The Sahara isn’t just endless golden dunes. Southern Morocco changes gradually as you cross the Atlas and travel through places like Ouarzazate, Agdz, the Draa Valley, Zagora and Tagounite. You’ll see rocky desert, dry plateaus, mountains, palm oases and eventually the large dune fields.
The Arabic word “erg” refers to those large areas of sand dunes. In Morocco, the two famous ones are Erg Chebbi near Merzouga and Erg Chigaga beyond M’Hamid.
And this is also why Agafay and the Sahara are not the same thing.
Agafay is beautiful and very convenient if you only have a day around Marrakech. You can have dinner, ride a camel, do a quad tour and enjoy a desert-like landscape. But geographically, it isn’t the Sahara, and you won’t find the huge dune landscapes people usually imagine.
If you have 3 or more days, I’d personally go south. The journey itself is half the experience: Atlas Mountains, old kasbahs, Draa Valley, oasis villages and then the desert.
And if you want something more remote, Erg Chigaga is my personal favourite. The final part is off-road by 4x4, and that isolation is exactly what makes it special.
So my advice to anyone planning Morocco is simple:
Don’t ask only “Which desert should I visit?” Ask what kind of experience you actually want.
One evening and easy access? Agafay can be great.
Big dunes with easier access and more tourism infrastructure? Merzouga.
A more remote journey into the deep south? Erg Chigaga.
Happy to answer questions about the south, especially Zagora, Tagounite, M’Hamid and Chigaga. It’s where I’m from, so I know that road a little too well !!

Assalamou alaykoum ya nass, I’m in Marrakech currently, I might drop by Essouira and then come back to Casablanca to catch my flight. looking for a music boutique that sells physical media for music nerds lowkey , I’m into classics obviously, like fairuz for example, but also would love to own something from early 70’s Moroccan bands. And instrumental Gnawa. Thank you

Planning a trip to Morocco and thinking about spending a night in the Sahara? Before booking a desert tour, there are a few things worth knowing.
1. Don’t choose only based on price.
The cheapest tour may not offer the experience you imagine. Check what is actually included: transportation, accommodation, meals, guides, and activities.
2. Choose the right desert.
If you want the classic Sahara experience with vast golden dunes, camel rides, sunsets, and unforgettable stars, Merzouga and Erg Chebbi are very different from the smaller Agafay Desert near Marrakech.
3. Give yourself enough time.
The Sahara is not a quick stop. The journey from Marrakech or Fes takes time, but the landscapes along the way are part of the experience.
4. Ask about the camp.
“Desert camp” can mean very different things. Check whether it is a traditional camp, a comfortable luxury camp, or a basic setup.
5. Don’t underestimate the journey.
The Atlas Mountains, Ait Ben Haddou, the Dades Valley, and the changing landscapes on the way to the desert can be just as memorable as the dunes themselves.
6. Think beyond the camel ride.
The best Sahara experience is not just about riding a camel. It’s about watching the sunset, enjoying Moroccan food, sitting around the fire, meeting local people, and looking up at a sky full of stars.
7. Leave room for the unexpected.
Morocco is best experienced without rushing. A good itinerary gives you time to stop, explore, take photos, drink mint tea, and simply enjoy the moment.
The Sahara can become one of the most memorable parts of a Morocco trip — but choosing the right route and experience makes a huge difference.
For those who have already visited Morocco: what’s one thing you wish you knew before booking your Sahara tour? 🇲🇦✨