Is It Safe to Travel to Morocco?

Yes. Morocco is one of the calmest destinations in North Africa and welcomes millions of visitors every year. Violent crime against tourists is rare. What you are most likely to meet is commercial persistence. It is not danger, it is an annoyance, and it is easy to handle.

Here are the details, plainly.

They are not dangerous, only irritating, and knowing them in advance takes away their effect.

All of this happens mostly in the Marrakech medina and around Jemaa el-Fna, and hardly anywhere else. In the desert, in the Atlas villages and on the roads, you will not meet any of it.

It is perfectly possible, and many women do it. In the big cities you will get comments and stares in the street. It is not a physical threat, but it can be tiring. What really helps:

• Ignore it. Answering only prolongs the conversation.
• Wear clothes that cover your shoulders and knees. It is not required and nobody will ask you to, but it clearly reduces the attention.
• At night, stay on streets with people and open shops. The medina at 2 a.m. is empty and disorienting.
• Sunglasses and headphones. It sounds trivial, and it works.
• Travel with a private driver, as on our trips. It removes most of this, because you are not looking for transport or negotiating fares in the street.

• Always drink bottled water, even for brushing your teeth the first few days. It is very cheap and saves trouble.
• No ice from street stalls.
• Cooked food is safe: tagine and couscous arrive boiling. Be careful with raw salads in very basic places.
• The orange juice in the square is safe and among the best you will find anywhere.
• Bring something for your stomach, just in case. New water and new spices catch some people out.

The roads are better than people expect, and the motorways are good. We do not recommend renting a car to cross the Atlas unless you have experience driving in the mountains: the Tizi n’Tichka is tens of kilometres of tight bends, slow lorries and narrow overtaking spots. Local driving is also more improvised than in Europe.

With a driver it is not only about comfort. He knows the road, which section is under repair and what time the livestock crosses.

• No vaccines are compulsory to enter Morocco.
• You need a valid passport. Many nationalities need no visa for tourist stays, so confirm the rule with your consulate.
• Bring travel insurance. The private clinics in Marrakech are good and charge up front.
• Keep a photo of your passport on your phone.

If you travel with us, you also have your driver’s number and ours on WhatsApp, active for the whole trip. In practice, that is the number people use.

It struck the province of Al Haouz, in the High Atlas south of Marrakech. The mountain villages suffered badly and are still rebuilding. Tourist routes, main roads and the cities have worked normally since then.

If it worries you, tourism is exactly what supports the economy of that region.

In our experience it is almost never safety. It is badly built logistics: a coach tour with 40 people, a “luxury camp” that turns out to be a car park of tents, or a driver in a hurry because another group is waiting.

Choose carefully who you travel with and Morocco is an easy, comfortable destination, the kind people come back to.

Message us on WhatsApp and ask anything, with no commitment, including if you travel alone, with children or with an older person.

And if you would rather see it first, look at how we build our trips: private transport, driver and accommodation settled from day one.