Ok guys in this video i'm
going to give you some travel tips about what to expect when you come to Morocco What you shouldn't do,
conversely what you should do and generally some advice which is going
to help you enjoy your time here more If you come with an open mind but with an educated
mind you're going to have a better time here [Music] So let's get straight on into it Firstly when you arrive don't expect
to go through passport control quickly Security's pretty harsh here,
there's going to be long queues Personally i had a good hour but i've
heard three hours isn't unheard of It can really take a lot
of time so just expect that Bring some patience with you always
and know that it can take time There's no way around, it it is what it is Secondly when you come into
the country do not bring a drone They're not allowed here, there's a
good chance they'll be confiscated You'll waste even more time
being asked questions about it Just leave it away, do not bring a drone here Now another preparation tip which is really
commonplace for any country you visit but make sure you bring plenty of different cards Personally I found that my normal
bank card wouldn't work in any ATMs here That was a Dutch issued Maestro card Wouldn't work anywhere here
so completely useless to me If i was relying on that i'd have problems My Visa card on the other hand, that
could be used in any ATMs that I used That wasn't a problem so I was
glad to have that with me but make sure you're prepared on that front always On the other hand the Visa
card is useful in an ATM but don't think that you can use that everywhere Cash is king in this country so you're probably
going to end up always having cash withdrawn But using a Visa credit or debit
card to actually withdraw it So leading on to that as
well as of course bringing money make sure you bring some small denominations Of course you won't have that initially but
whenever you get the chance to get some change get some change Start collecting those 20 Diram notes Start collecting the coins, the tens
and fives, you're gonna need them You're gonna be tipping all the time,
tipping is expected in this country so be prepared for it One thing I guarantee is that
not everyone will have change or at least they say they won't have change so be prepared and as I say just make sure when you get
the chance to get some change, get it Now one thing I found was quite unusual here,
I've traveled to a lot of Islamic countries but in Morocco here, don't assume
you can go in the mosques The mosques are closed to non-Muslims There's one exception that I know of
and that's the big mosque in Casablanca Which incidentally is a must visit,
that is a truly wonderful sight but anywhere else, do not try and go in,
you'll be promptly promptly shown out Just the way it is, their
culture we have to accept that And coming on from that, of course
Friday is the Islamic holy day so expect a lot to be closed Morocco is quite a strictly Islamic country really so the medinas, even like
the ancient medina of Fes or Marrakech Most stuff is going to be closed on a Friday,
you're not going to see much life there So expect that, if you're
here on a Friday make other plans Don't try and visit the Fes medina on
a Friday you'll be wasting your time, you won't see the life of it And also relating to Islam The call to prayer is taken very
seriously here so show your respects to it You'll note that if you're in a
cafe or a bar or something like that The music will go off for the call to prayer Activity will slow down That's expected, that's the way things
are done so also just take a calm moment Step back, respect it and things
will promptly continue on after Now getting around is one thing that
confused me at first quite a bit There are buses and there's
trams in certain cities but the networks certainly on the trams they
can be useful but they can be quite limited from a tourist point of view and tourist sites So you're going to end up taking taxis but don't assume that all
taxis are the same they're not There's typically, from what I've seen in,
I think every city I've been to in Morocco there's two different styles of taxis There's taxis which are for an individual person So one individual journey and they're not as commonplace I've not
really seen so many of those around, in fact I've never taken a single one of those and then there's the, I
believe they call them petit taxis and these are basically share taxis So you can flag one down It's going in your direction, there's
someone else in it and you can join the ride They'll use a meter, they always should
use a meter, of course always check and the price will be dirt cheap I believe sometimes they might tell you
there's a a 10 Dirham minimum so 1 Euro Very very cheap Other times they won't even say
that so they're probably having you on with the minimum but in
any case it's no money at all I'd probably tip it up to that anyway for
a reasonable journey that i wouldn't walk But yeah so you're going to get these taxis so assume that a lot of the
time if you do wave one down it's not going to be going the direction you want It's not going to go the place you want or maybe
you'll have to not quite go to the place you want and of course communication
can be a little bit hard because they typically won't speak English,
they'll speak Arabic, they'll be speak French so you have to work around that Your best bet that I've found is to take one of
these share taxis that doesn't have any people in If you're the first one getting
the ride, you've got more chance of getting the ride in the direction
and the exact place that you want to go as long as the taxi drivers are willing to go
there, and it's worth his while to go there Don't assume that most of the time they
do use the meter, but always check And with the other taxis
that as I say I didn't use they don't tend to use a meter, I did
negotiate with a couple a couple of times so as with that pretty much everything
in Morocco, negotiation is key Do not accept whatever price they
tell you at first, chances are they're going to be charging you way too high Know if you can what the journey should
cost through a local through someone else and make sure you negotiate it, certainly
don't put up with the first price On the other hand when you can, do make
use of the public transport options In cities like Casablanca and Rabat
they're not going to get you everywhere but they might get you on certain journeys, even if it's just from the train station
to some destination in the city center They're dirt cheap, they're
very modern, they're very good Definitely make use of them The public transport where it exists and there
is a pretty good infrastructure here in Morocco is very good standard, it's
like western Europe standard The trains - if you can
travel around by train, do it The trains are superb, they're very very fast on certain lines like I believe
from the Casablanca to Rabat routes it's a fast TGV that goes up to 300 km an hour Superb, comfortable, a first-class ticket costs
really very little by Western Europe standards but the quality is right up there the same so always take those if you can Some routes you have to take the bus, like if you go into Chefchaouen
there's no trains that go there The buses, they're comfortable enough, they
are a bit more expensive than the train and they're going to be a lot longer There's going to be numerous stop-offs on the way I think the stop-offs often
for my liking are too long but I understand the driver will
basically stop off a call to prayer time Will also have lunch at the same time,
you can end up with a half-hour stop off It really can pad out the journey but some routes you have to do it and so be it, it's a way to get around when
you have to do it but the trains are way better Now some general little things
when you're here in Morocco You'll read on the internet
that the tap water's safe to drink and maybe that's true to a certain extent but it certainly doesn't taste
very good at the very least Whether it's gonna make you have
an upset stomach I don't know but you're gonna end up drinking bottled
water here, it's what everyone does so expect that And another small but important tip It's worth just carrying around a
little bit of toilet paper If you're going to be on the road, if you're going
to be on a train, if you're going to be on a bus or even if you're just out and about
you can end up going into a squat toilet or even a western style
toilet and there'll be nothing Sometimes there will sometimes there won't Don't get caught short, expect it be prepared Now of course the markets or the souks are going
to be a big big thing when you come to Morocco and they are absolutely a joy The medina of Fes is legendary
as is the medina of Marrakesh so there's some things that you're going
to need to know about these though because they're legendary they're quite an experience,
but you can also get in quite some trouble in these places if you don't know what to
expect if you're not looking out for yourself So first things first, pay attention,
there will be pickpockets there In busy areas be aware, don't be paranoid but
be aware, don't assume that everyone is there to help you when you're in the markets There
will be people who are going to come up to you offering to help Offering to give you advice
but there's going to be another agenda generally They're going to be fake guides perhaps
they're going to be wanting to take you to a shop Or perhaps a common thing that i saw in
Marrakesh was if you look like you don't know where you're going then they'll quite
happily lead you there and then they'll demand pretty ridiculous sums of money
to actually take you there These guys, and don't get me wrong this
is the minority but they are there and they will absolutely prey on
any weakness that you show so of course the best way is don't show that
weakness, always look like you know where you're going if you can and if you can't just
be strong, just say no, just carry on walking At the same time when you're in
the medinas you will get lost These places they're dauntingly big,
Google maps won't correctly work in some cases you're going to
get lost but don't worry about it It's part of the experience, it's part of the joy just wandering around slightly lost
as long as you've got time there Now when you're shopping, if you
are actually shopping in the market don't expect the price you're
given to be the actual price Haggling is expected and relentless You're going to be given some crazy crazy
high price which is nothing like the reality With haggling anywhere you need to understand
what the true value of the product is It's basically the result of the negotiation
should be a win-win for both parties What will give them enough profit
that they're happy to sell it and what is the price that you're happy
to pay that you think it's worth It will take time and you may like it you
may not like it but it is the way here You have to go through it if you
want to shop here in the markets But don't assume you can do that everywhere If you're going in the new city, if
you go in a normal high street shop There's not going to be the haggling
there that's just like anywhere else, it's just going to be the set
prices written on the label there Now food one of the joys of Morocco,
there's some wonderful wonderful food here Of course the most famous thing is the tajine,
but don't expect the tajine as one dish The tajine is just the pot they cook
it in so a tajine can be anything It's simply whatever ingredients are cooked
in that pot, slow cooked using this method and resulting in typically wonderfully
wonderfully soft tender meat or fish but certainly not one dish, you could
be here for as long as your vacation have a tajine every day and
have an entirely different one Now if you're vegetarian,
don't worry on that front There's plenty of vegetarian food as
well, yep you'll see a lot of meat on the menu but there's plenty of vegetarian
options and good vegetarian options However don't necessarily expect food to be quick Fast food here is not so much of a
thing it takes time at least proper food However when i say that fast food isn't
a thing this is a bizarre anomaly that i found in Morocco It seems that either for
basically giving foreigners what maybe they want or maybe because just Moroccans
like it there's a lot of Western junk food so i've been i've been literally looking
for Moroccan food in certain places like the corniche of Rabat for one example and I literally see pizza, burger, all of
these things just repeated so much pizza even what looks to be a nice restaurant
and they got pizza on the menu Just finding plain Moroccan food
can actually sometimes be hard You have to go a little bit out of your way and then don't expect Google maps what you see
on there, don't expect that to actually exist I found a lot of time i'll look up a nice
Moroccan restaurant, I'll walk there, not there However you just walk around you see
what you see and you'll find some gems Keep persevering you'll find
some great great food here Now another quite specific thing i did
it myself a lot of tourists do it here The three-day trip from Marrakesh
down into the Sahara desert It's quite a production line of tourism,
definitely definitely a popular thing and I've actually done a whole video on it where I
show you honestly what it's like so you can decide for yourself whether you want to do it I'll put a
link up above here so definitely check that out if you're considering it but the one advice i'll give
you on this video don't skimp on the luxury option You'll see two or three different classes with a
basic one a luxury one and maybe a mid-range one The luxury one, I believe it costs maybe about
15-20 euros extra for the three days It's really a bargain for what
you get so just go for that, what you'll get is better accommodation Both
in the desert and on the set on the first night You'll get four course meals and in
the desert you'll get the luxury camp where you'll get running water you'll get
your own hot water bathroom and toilets, it's really really a better experience
for little extra money so why not Why not just do that now i can give a lot
more tips for that three-day tour but as i say check out the separate video on that one Now the final final tip which
is particularly relevant if you're doing a bit of YouTube filming like I am but also just if you're taking
pictures or videos for yourself Be careful what you're filming People don't like being filmed here and
you'll often get in a bit of trouble for it I've been shouted out on the street just
when I've been filming myself like this from people who aren't even in the shot This can happen here there's a certain attitude
here that people don't like being filmed There's a negative connotations
with it so be very aware of that and just yeah aware of what you're filming You've got to be careful with that
some places it's easier than others You can pretty much get away with
recording around the medina of Fes But then I've been in the main square
of Marrakesh and I've been shouted at and I don't mean from all the touts and that sort of thing there,
I just mean normal people walking by So yeah you have to be aware of that, it's
not the easiest country to be filming in And that's pretty much the advice i have
to offer from my experience in Morocco here Now you're going to have a great time
here this really is a fascinating country There's so much diversity here you see so
many interesting things if you travel around So much variety, it's really
fascinating so plan your trip be culturally aware and have a fantastic time here Hope see you next time guys, bye for now
