We went to Morocco last week and I enjoyed it for the most part.

I want to cover the most important things first:

1. You might need money immediately. The cabs had to be paid in cash. Since the Moroccan Dirham is a closed currency, you’ll need to either: exchange money at the airport (the rates are not good though) or withdraw money at an ATM at the airport. I recommend the latter because you’ll get a better rate and even with the fee your bank will charge, you’ll still end up getting more money. For reference: one of my companions got less than 2000dh (around 1900dh, he lost the receipt but we’re sure it was less than 2000dh) for his €200 while I was charged €191 by my bank for 2000dh (exactly that amount).
2. Bring lots of cash if you plan on shopping at the Souks.
3. Print your boarding pass when exiting Morocco especially if you are flying with an LCC. We are third-country nationals so Ryanair had to do a visa-check. That means they can’t issue us a boarding pass even if we checked in online so they had to print our boarding passes at the check-in counters. That’s the ONLY advantage this system Ryanair has. Otherwise, it sucks.
4. The AIRPORT OFFICERS WILL check your luggage size and weight. The gate agent already checked the weight of our bags and the size of them but once leaving the check in counter, we were ushered again IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AIRPORT (nowhere near a counter nor the security gates) to check the size of our bags AGAIN. This pissed me off a bit because we still have another security check (take note, we already passed though one security check) and immigration to go through. And as far as I know, the woman was not even an employee of Ryanair but of the airport.

Enough with the rant, here are some highlights of our trip.

Casablanca

We booked a tour via GetYourGuide from Marrakech. The tour was just our group and another group. There were 7 of us in total. The car was okay but the car ride to Casablanca was 4 hours. The guide told us that it normally just takes 3 hours to reach the city from Marrakech but due to the heavy traffic, it lasted an hour longer. We went around the city and stopped a few times. We then had lunch which was okay. (The meal was not included in the payment for the tour.) Then came the highlight of the tour: the Hassan II Mosque. The mosque was really big and so pretty. This is the only mosque in Morocco where non-muslims are allowed so we figured it was worth it even though the locals we talked to after the trip didn’t think going to Casablanca was a good idea. Do I recommend going to Casablanca? It depends on what you think is important or what experience is worth it to you. Have you never been to a mosque and are curious on what it looks like inside? Then go for it. Note that the ride back to Marrakech is around 3 hours as well.

Ouarzazate, Atlas Studios and Ait-Ben-Haddou

We booked this trip via GetYourGuide again. This trip took us through the Atlas mountains to get to our final destination. The views on the road were STUNNING. We had a few stops for picture taking and bathroom breaks. The ride from and to Marrakech was around 3 hours. I got sick along the way (I got a sore throat and eventually the flu) unfortunately so I wasn’t able to enjoy it 100% but I think without a doubt this tour is worth taking. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. (Down below is a slideshow, if you are using your mobile phone maybe the format is a bit different.)

I think I’ll need to make a part 2 or maybe 3 as well since this one took a long time to write 😀

Before I say goodbye though, one thing I’d like to encourage tourists is to give the guides a tip. Our guides were amazing and we got to know that they are very overworked and we don’t think they are paid enough. They definitely do deserve more as they do their jobs well and are very accommodating.

‘Til next time!

-Finny