Morocco Travel Myths & Tips 2023

this week we are back with the very last video in our Morocco series and we're going to be attempting to dispel some myths that we have heard over and over again in stuff that we've read and watched online but that is simply not true we're also going to be dishing out our top tips on what to expect from this incredible country everything from the weather to planning your itinerary perhaps you're trying to decide whether a visit to Morocco is for you or maybe you're already in the process of planning your own trip either way hopefully this video gives you lots of helpful information about what to expect okay let's jump straight in with some common myths that you've probably heard about Morocco foreign now obviously when it comes to costs everything is relative and so it really depends on what you're expecting so here's the truth prices for us were relatively cheaper pretty much across the board when compared to the UK but whether that's your experience really depends on where you're going and what you're doing if you're traveling in a camper van like us and arranging most of your activities on your own steam like we did then you'll probably be pleasantly surprised at just how affordable Morocco is but if you're hoping for an action-packed vacation with numerous organized tours lots of traveling between destinations Michelin star restaurants then that quickly adds up so basically don't rock up expecting five-star luxury for Budget Backpacker prices it just ain't gonna happen but do know that you can live very well for relatively very little especially when compared to for example many countries that we've visited in Europe now a few people advised us before we went to Morocco that we needed to take a big stack of cash with those that we could exchange as and when we needed it now I think where this advice comes from is that Morocco had a closed currency so what that means is that you're unable to buy Dirham or exchange Dirham outside of Morocco's borders so that means that when you first arrive in Morocco you likely won't have any of the local currency but really don't worry about it whilst it's true that cash is King and outside most of the major cities cards aren't really accepted there are banks all over Morocco that you can withdraw money from depending on your personal bank some may charge a small fee and others will be free but there's certainly no reason to arrive with a big wad of cash because you can just withdraw it as you go which is both safer and more convenient at most ATMs that we came across withdrawals were limited to 2000 Dirham which is around 200 pounds or 200 Euros but depending on your travel style as we've already discussed that will go pretty far the mention of Morocco might conjure up images of golden sandus stretching out before you with Caravans of camels trekking through them but while this is certainly an aspect of Morocco's landscape it's one that a lot of Moroccan people get fed up of hearing Morocco is incredibly diverse in its Landscapes and we have spoken about this at length in other videos but another thing that Moroccans have told us that they get fed up about is the lack of acknowledgment of just how modern a lot of Morocco actually is in the largest cities in particular like Marrakesh Rabat Casablanca Tangier or esuira you'll find high-end shopping malls high-rise buildings Financial districts modern complexes just everything that you expect from a modern city and we have had quite a few questions on our videos about why we haven't shown that side of Morocco and the simple answer to that is it's not very interesting to us we can see modern cities and shopping malls and stuff like that pretty much anywhere in the world and particularly across the UK as well and they're all very similar but what Morocco has that is unique is its incredible history much of which is preserved in its medinas in its old towns and in its historical sites and that's where we found ourselves drawn to when you first start planning a trip to Morocco and you start telling people about it one of the questions that keeps coming up is is it safe to go there and then when you start looking into things online a lot of things come up they're like scams this rip-offs that but look we can categorically tell you after traveling there for three months the overall Morocco is a very safe country yes of course there is cram that happens but overall that isn't something that is aimed at tourists at all of course there is petty crime that goes on such as pickpocketing in the bigger touristy areas such as Marrakech for example and although we didn't experience that ourselves we do know that that happens but you know it's the same advice that we would give to anyone traveling to any major city in the world such as Rome Rio London even you need to keep your valuables close to you and know where they are at all times but beyond that crime levels in Morocco are pretty low so the chances of anything serious happening to you are quite unlikely foreign this is perhaps the most important tip that we can give you because more than likely in so many ways Morocco will probably not be like anywhere else that you have ever visited we've been traveling for almost eight years and we've even visited some nearby countries in North Africa but Morocco really stands out as being unique we'd urge you not to come with any preconceived ideas about what it might be like and just arrive with an open mind in the idea that you want to learn and discover about a new culture and the many amazing things that Morocco has to offer foreign odd one to point out because it's quite specific but we are seeing a lot more people traveling with drones these days it's not just YouTubers and filmmakers a lot of people just use them casually as hobbies and it is 100 prohibited that you can take drones into Morocco so we just wanted to point this out because they are quite expensive bits of kicks so if you're a drone owner it's something that you are going to have to leave behind at home because it is purely a blanket ban there isn't a special license that you can get or some kind of permit that you can apply for our understanding is that drones are viewed as a security risk so it's only under very exceptional circumstances that anyone is allowed to fly them in the country so understandably the Border Police are very strict about that we rest when we got off the ferry going through the security checks if we had a drone with us and the police also came in the van and had a look around to check whether we were telling the truth or not so yeah if you have a drone with you on your entry into Morocco the likelihood is that you are going to have that confiscated so our advice is definitely not to risk it if for any reason you did have one with you and you forgot you had it and you were lucky enough to get through customs definitely do not attempt to fly that in the country because you're going to be facing some very serious consequences [Music] foreign [Music] of things that we loved and things that we hated about Morocco one of the things that we hated was the fact that there are very rarely prices on anything in shops and this is for good reason because haggling is actually a huge part of the culture over here and it's even expected that you'll engage in a bit of back and forth before agreeing on a price for what you're buying now we know that for many people especially British people that the idea with bargaining with a seller over the price of an item is it best cringing juicing and for many of you will bring you out in a cold sweat but if you want to buy stuff here and you will want to buy stuff here then it's a hump that you're just gonna have to get over and we've got a few tips on how to go about it firstly make sure you research the prices of anything that you might want to buy beforehand so then you've got a ballpark figure that you can work from there are loads of blogs on the internet with indications of fair prices for everything from rugs to leather goods or you could also simply ask a few shopkeepers and see what sort of prices they come up with the next tip is to be prepared to to walk away this ultimately gives you a secret weapon and it's amazing how quickly you'll see prices tumbling when a seller thinks that their customer is losing interest now if you do walk away make sure that you leave on good terms because you still want the option to go back if you need to and finally following on from that the last tip is to always be friendly and good-natured when you're haggling no matter what you're faced with you can still be firm and stick to your guns and ultimately just say no if you can't agree on a price that suits you but never overstep the line into the territory of rudeness because it just will not go down well [Music] not long after we arrived someone told us that Morocco is a cold country with a hot sun and that is something that stuck with us because it is so true often in Morocco when you're not directly in the glare of the sun it can be surprisingly quite cold and so when the Sun goes down on an evening it can get pretty chilly pretty quickly also in the medinas where there's quite narrow walkways where there's not much sun or where the walkways are covered even it really does get quite cool in those places so whether you're coming for a beach break or a city trip make sure that you bring at least one warm garment with you to pop on when the Sun goes down that also applies to the Sahara Desert where temperatures often fluctuate between searing heat during the daytime and freezing at night so yeah don't get caught out and bring some warm clothing with you [Music] foreign trip during our visit to Morocco where we wanted to see and experience as much of a variety of Landscapes as possible this meant we zigzagged our way down the coast up the center back down to the Sahara before eventually making our way back up north again but we had three months and we were traveling in a campervan if we were to do it again we'd probably plan a different route and just try and do less because we felt pretty rushed towards the end and we still ended up missing out on loads of places that we did want to visit and even ended up missing out on doing some of the stuff and spending as much time in some of the places that we did get to go to now if you're coming to Morocco on a quick vacay of one or two weeks then this applies even more really think about what you want to experience and plan in advance how you're going to get between places because here's the thing Morocco is absolutely massive you could literally fit four England which is where we're from into it and whilst the train system is pretty good they've even got bullet trains here the network is actually pretty limited and though the roads are pretty decent here you don't want to be spending large chunks of your holiday in the back of a mini bus or driving for days on end in a higher car plan properly look at distances and times between places and most of all be realistic you can't just go and visit the mosques there is actually only the one mosque in the whole of Morocco that you can visit as a non-muslim so don't be going there if you aren't a Muslim thinking that you can just go and visit these gorgeous mosques this can be quite confusing because there are lots of countries around the world where as a non-muslim you can just walk into mosques but in Morocco it is strictly forbidden that being said the Hassan to a mosque in Casablanca which is the exception to the rule is well worth a visit it is a beautiful building and an incredible feat of workmanship so if you are heading that way definitely get that on your itinerary [Music] do not come to Morocco expecting that you are going to have a wild booze fueled party experience firstly the majority of people here don't drink anything stronger than a mint tea so bear that in mind and respect that aspect of the culture it's really not cool to be running around drunk in public secondly whilst there are bars and jobs in some of the major cities they're really not that common despite this it is possible to buy alcohol here and there's even alcohol produced here in Morocco including beers and lots of decent wines actually but you can only really get it in karafor supermarkets where it is kept and sold in a completely separate room called a cave or specific licensed alcohol shops if you know the story of what happened to Boston fares then you'll understand straight away why this is on here but if you don't then to very quickly sum it up our daughter was attacked by a cat and I was also scratched and bitten as I was pulling it off her we were advised by doctors at the hospital in fairs that we should get the rabies vaccine but it became a lot more stressful than it needed to be and we had some difficulties actually getting hold of the vaccines that we needed because basically everywhere was shut on the Sunday when we were trying to get them but it did all work out in the end we're all absolutely fine and completely recovered now and if you do want to watch a false Theory then click the link above and you can watch it there we won't go into any more detail here but here's the interesting part because during the process of getting these we actually learned a lot more about the rabies vaccines that we did not know beforehand there's a common misconception about the rabies vaccine that if you take it pre-exposure that it doesn't actually protect you from rabies if you are then exposed to it and that you do still have to go through the full rabies treatment and that it just gives you an extra 24 or 48 hours or something to get the first shot fortunately this is completely untrue a travel vaccine expert that we spoke to when we arrived back in the UK informed us that if you have a full course of the rabies vaccine then you will in fact receive immunity for Life had we been aware of this than we probably would have been vaccinated a lot of years ago and it would have saved us a lot of hassle so we'd highly recommend considering getting the rabies vaccine before you travel to Morocco that's not to say that there's a big rabies problem here or that it's something that you should necessarily be scared of but it is just something to be aware of and to consider for yourselves now if you have a car your camper van or motorhome like us then you will need to plan ahead and speak to your vehicle insurance and break down cover companies beforehand because amazingly most of them do not cover travel in Morocco the only one that we've heard of that does cover it is Saga and whilst there may be others ours certainly didn't and we couldn't find any that would give us temporary cover for our trip there if like us you can't get cover from your regular provider you are going to need to purchase it at the Port upon entry it is a legal requirement in Morocco and you may get asked for it at the police checkpoints so do make sure that you get it it is a really simple process it's very straightforward but there are a few things that you need to know so first of all you will need to have your vehicle registration documents with you if you're from the UK that is your V5 these need to be the original copies so don't forget those you'll also need your driving license but we're hoping that you carry that around with you anyway and an important thing to note is that it is only third-party Insurance you can't get fully comprehensive cover so it doesn't actually cover your vehicle that is something that you need to weigh up as to whether you're willing to take that risk or not with regards to Breakdown Cover we personally decided not to get any we've been very lucky with our van in that we've never had any serious problems with it so we were quite confident that we were going to be okay we'd also found out from the little bit of research that we'd done that it was probably going to be relatively inexpensive to get recovered from anywhere or get any repairs done that we needed to do something that is worth knowing is that there are mechanics everywhere in Morocco and they work to a really high standard for a very affordable price it is a thing that people actually take their Vans to Morocco to have mechanical work done on them so yeah that's not something that you need to worry about so there you have it those are our top tips and biggest myths about Morocco we hope it's given you something to think about if you are planning a trip to Morocco I would love to hear your thoughts if you are Moroccan or if you visit Morocco in the past have you got any other tips that you'd like to dispense or any other myths that you'd like to dispel do let us know Down Below in the comments if you enjoyed this video then please smash that Thumbs Up Button now to let us know and if you're new around here then why not consider subscribing it's absolutely free just hit that subscribe button and whilst you're there make sure you tap the little bell button that's next to it so you get notified every time we post a new video next week we will be returning to our travel videos and taking on something that has been on our bucket list for a long long time we are going to do Scotland's NC 500 road trip catch you then [Music] foreign

Channel: The Whole World or Nothing

Views: 7,282

Keywords: vanlife family, vanlife morocco, full time vanlife, full time travel, travel family, travel with a toddler, vanlife with a toddler, living in a van, vanlife inspiration, exploring morocco, moroccan roadtrip, morocco parkups, morocco by campervan, morocco scenery, travel morocco, morocco medinas, morocco beaches, morocco food, morocco weather

Id: GAqXANL0rWI

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023