Morocco: What to Know Before You Visit Morocco

[Music] hey there fellow travelers mark here with walters world and today we're here in marrakech morocco and today we have for you are things you should know before you come to morocco for the first time because this is a really fantastic place lots of different regions great colors great food great people and so we're going to go through what you need to know before you come and one of the questions people have is mark do i need a visa to go to morocco actually more likely than not you do not if you're from europe from the u.s canada no visa needed so there's very few places that need a visa so it's very easy to come here because they really want tourists to come which is awesome the thing is when you come in one thing i want to get you ready for is the line yeah when you're coming through customs might take a while now you get lucky it could be 20 minutes or it could take two hours so be ready for that one of the reasons why it takes so long is inside your passport they write a number down and that's like your tourist number so when you're going to your hotels or your riyads where you really should stay i'll talk about the accommodations they're going to have that number and you're gonna use that quite often okay so have a heads up for that so when you're at the airport what i recommend is get some dirham the local currency when you are there because it's very difficult if not impossible to get it from outside the country so you need to get it when you're here so exchange some money when you get to the airport when you arrive yes the exchange rates aren't gonna be that good but at least you'll have some cash because morocco is a cash-based society you're paying cash all the time okay now credit cards you can pay them at nicer restaurants and hotels and stuff like that but you're here in the markets and you're negotiating stuff cash is what you're going to use okay now the theorem that they have you can have bills and coins the bills there's a 200 100 a 50 and a 20 dirham bill also you can get coins the coins there's a 10 a one a five i'll put the list up all the coins that are up here too and the thing is you want to break those big bills because you want a tip and you want to give out the money and stuff like that and the thing is you don't have a lot of change here people always like no change no change so you want to have smaller bills now another thing is looking for atms there's going to be atms at the airport there's atms at the banks they're not impossible to find it's easier to find them in like the new towns versus like medina places like this but you can find some there but just know cash is what you're going to need to have to get around and the thing is when you're here you're going to hag a lot when you shop but we'll go into a nice quieter place to finish this so we can actually talk a bit more about what you should know but i just want to give you a feel for the jamal's now the main square here in marrakech it is really cool place but we'll go inside to talk about it so we've come to the rooftops above marrakech to continue on with this because it got a little noise and a little crazy there in the medina the thing is in the medinas not just the medina here in marrakesh but medina's around you need to realize when you're going to be shopping you're going to be buying you know things haggling is kind of a fact of life here when you are shopping so you're trying to buy rugs or some of these cool lamps that are here or even t-shirts and stuff like that you will be bargaining a lot now if you're a place like marrakesh or in fez they're medina where there's a lot of tourists coming you're probably not going to get very much bang for your bargaining buck because they know there's more tourists coming here but you can save money that way kind of expect to pay 25 to 50 percent less than the original asking price of the local okay just to give you a heads up now not everything's negotiable but in general there's usually some things you can do to kind of get through that and i know a lot of tourists sometimes get upset with all the negotiations and stuff like that it's like oh i just want to buy stuff and be done well that doesn't work you can get upset all you want it's not going to change things you just need to realize haglin is part of buying things when you are here now some things it's not like you to a normal store you're in the new town and stuff like that the price is the price but in the soaks and the medina's and things like that here in morocco you will be kind of bargaining quite a bit so just have a heads up for that one going back to the money thing i guess i should talk about the credit cards you'll see a lot of places will have every single credit card imaginable on there that says oh we'll take it if they take them the thing is they won't like your american express or your discover they prefer like the visas and mastercards okay so just have a heads up for that one they'll prefer that but again this is a cash country so you're going to be using cash all right when you are doing this bargaining you're going to be talking to the locals right and so you probably want to know is what's the language they speak here well arabic is the official language most people speak french as the kind of like working language kind of stuff that's here and the thing is if you're in tourism industries you'll find a lot of english you'll find spanish all kinds of stuff because a lot of spanish tourists that come here a lot of french tours that come here and actually has become a really kind of a popular destination and they're doing a lot to kind of improve the infrastructure and improve the tourist experience here so language-wise you're not going to be too hard-pressed you know some french you'll be fine but do you learn a few words like the merci which is thank you in french and no mercy which is no thank you or if you want to learn arabic which is thank you or allah which is no thank you i know i'm butchering it but they'll get the idea when you're there just a few words can really make a big difference the thing is that people are very friendly here which is really nice so they will help you out just know that sometimes they could be a little bit pushy when it comes to selling stuff and things like that but in general the people are pretty chill here so that's really nice now if you're looking to get around the country what you need to know is there's actually a decent train system oncf goes to a lot of places around the country but most likely what you're going to be doing is taking buses to go places or if you can fly do that and the country is rather large so you know going for marrakech doing a real sahara trip will take you eight to ten hours in the car to get down there so just be prepared for that prepare for lots of distances okay now to get around there's cabs that are here but make sure you negotiate the price of your cab before you get in so everything's on the up and up just for a heads up for that one and there are the grand taxis the big taxis the thing is the ground is big not like great okay so just have a heads up for that you'll get more people and they're more smooshed in so have a heads up and if you're going out to like towns that are kind of smaller towns and stuff like that you might have mini vans or many buses to do it so just have a heads up for that the thing you got to realize is when you are here you know there's all kinds of different regions that are here and a lot of people ask well mark where should we go how do i see it all well we need to know is there's four main regions here in morocco you've got the mountains and yes there's some mountains there behind us the atlas mountains and stuff like that go far down you have that you have the sahara desert okay you have that region you have the coast and the other plains where we are right now what i recommend is don't try to do every single thing because the country is actually really really large and so maybe pick a couple areas to focus on when you are here that will make things a lot easier also i think i should talk about the weather now because if you look back there if you can actually see the mountains there's snow on top of them yes snow look in the winter time if you're coming in november december january february march it does get chilly here i'm not saying it's cold i'm just saying it's chilly like every morning we're putting sweatshirts on to go see the city i mean we take it off by 10 or 11 and then at night when the sun goes down it does cool off a bit and what you need to know if you're going to be doing one of those sahara tours and things like that the differences in the temperature between day and night is very extreme so make sure you do have multiple layers if you're going to be coming okay so a heads up for that one also if you're going to be coming in the summer man if you're here may through august we're talking you can get to 50 celsius in the hundreds in fahrenheit and it can be very hot and the thing is you want to make sure you're keeping hydrated okay and in morocco stick to the bottled water okay just stick the bottled water it's probably a better bet for your tummy when you're doing that so do use a bottle of water when you are here now some other things we need to talk about is one thing is people like to ask what about the wi-fi do they have internet there like yes the internet's everywhere people the internet here has been fine i've been on youtube we've watched movies the kids are watching their netflix and stuff like that at night before we go to bed no problems there i have seen in the the riyadh's the hotels wi-fi runs pretty fine some of your sites might be a little bit slower than you're used to also some apps might not work when they're here they might be controlled here so be careful with that but in general having any problems one thing i will say though with cell service and cell coverage if you're going to be going to explore and you're going to the sahara desert you're going up into the mountains your cell coverage will obviously drop off a bit so just have a heads up for that so if you're going to be doing hikes and things like that you think oh my cell will help me out make sure you let you know your hotel you're staying in or your riyadh or whatever what your plans are so they know if you're coming back or not just to be safe but in general not too many words that you wouldn't expect in a normal country like this okay another thing if you're looking at plugging your devices because look you're going to be taking tons of pictures when you're here this place is beautiful it's not just the blue city in the north there's in the mountains there's just so many cool things to see here you're gonna want to plug things in and it's a standard european plug you know the two circle things standard plug to use here no problem at all so that's kind of nice now another thing people like to know when they travel is mark is it safe when you go to morocco we found morocco be actually pretty safe i mean i haven't had any issues there i mean there's going to be the usual pickpockets in the medina kind of thing just like you have pickpockets the main sites of rome and things like that also female travelers i do recommend you dress conservatively when you are here because there have been issues about that i know jocelyn has talked to us if you watch our five love and hates of marrakesh she'll talk about how sometimes she felt kind of left out of things because it was kind of like the male tours were treated a little bit different than the female tourists so do have a heads up for that if you are a female tourist coming to morocco i highly highly highly highly recommend barack mama it's a website you can go check out lady lives here and gives all kinds of great advice for females traveling to morocco so that's one thing i would look out for that and go check out her site but in general your safety you're gonna be pretty okay here probably the biggest safeties you're gonna have is when you're on the road okay or when you're walking near the road because you will see there's cars there's buses there's donkeys pulling carts there's mopeds there's motorcycles there's bikes all kinds of stuff going so it can be a bit dangerous so make sure you're always paying attention you've got your little kids make sure you keep them with you when you when you are here or next to you especially the medina i mean people are going to steal your kid but the thing is they could get lost and it's very easy to get lost i guess that could be a safety thing because i did see some tourists freaking out where are we where are we the right place in the medina look you'll find your way out it's always important to keep a map with you in one of the bigger cities with the medina's like in fez and stuff like that we're here in marrakesh you want to do that if you're in like casablanca casablanca is a modern city you know with the modern buildings and stuff like that and the thing is when people think of morocco they usually think of the medina's kind of stuff which you have to realize is morocco is a very you know very advanced i mean it's it's a normal country so there's normal cities too and they'll have the new city and then the old town the medina part so you can have those two different areas okay another thing is you might want to look at accommodation you're coming here now morocco is putting a lot of money into tours of infrastructure to build new hotels new resorts getting people to go to the beach and surf there and stuff like that so you do have a wide variety of accommodations when you come here hotels resorts things like that you can look around if you're going to the sahara desert yes you can sleep in the tents and do those kind of things it's really pretty cool but for my biggest bang for the book the best experience for us is staying at riads and what a riyadh is it's basically a mult it's a multi-family home that has a courtyard in the center that's now been turned into a hotel the thing is these courtyards will be gorgeous with plants and stuff like that and they've done up a lot of them really nice inside a lot of the rounds will have wonderful restaurants inside too or they'll have where i'm at now up on the rooftops where you can have drinks and stuff like that it's really really a great thing but there is a lot of accommodation options you won't have too much for trouble with that um another thing is sometimes people want to know is hey when do i sign up for my tours and right do i show you tours and stuff like that here in morocco i do recommend doing tours because if you're french is very good or arabic your burberry is not quite there the tour guides really make things a lot easier especially negotiations and stuff like that it just makes takes a little bit easier on you so do have a heads up so you might want to consider that and the thing is you don't have to sign up for a tour like months in advance if you're coming here your hotel your riyad your resort they can set up tours for you just fine so you do have that okay and there is a ton of tour tour guides here and people try to sell you things i recommend booking from your hotel because if the thing goes wrong you can yell at your hotel whereas when you book it on the street they're like hey whatever okay so that is one thing and that's one thing i have anywhere in the world okay you book from a hotel just see if someone yell out of things go wrong now another big part of tourism is actually the food and the food here in morocco is wonderful and the thing is most of it is grown here in morocco so if you're on the coast you're eating the fish if you're here in the plains you're having the vegetables and the fruits that are grown here you have all kinds of really great locally produced foods like you won't see a ton of food you know at the stores and stuff like that in the markets but you will see the food you're like wow look at all the spices look at all those veggies and those fruits you will eat really well when you are here and the thing is you have this thing called tagine okay and tashin you'll see it on there like oh tajin it's one thing no tagine is is this pot you'll see it's like a pyramid pot you know and they cook it in there into like a stew kind of thing the thing is you can have rabbit you can have lamb you can have beef you can have chicken in it there's all kinds of different flavors i know we had one with onion and rabbit oh my god it was so good well you'll probably find a lot there's a beef one that we actually made at a cooking class that's here you can do there's one that's a chicken and lemon which is always like a nice backup kind of stuff so you can have that but there's a lot of different tagines out there you can have so that's kind of an easy go-to one that will be all over the place also couscous is very popular here which you might have with it couscous is a big friday kind of thing so it might come as a side dish on a friday or if you're in some of the smaller towns my couscous might not be available unless it's friday so you do have that but we have a whole video on with actually a local chef talking about the food here in morocco so if you check down below we'll put the link up for you so you can do that she also does cooking classes so that could be something for you another thing is when you're looking at what you're going to drink when you're here like i said stick to the bottled water when you're here in morocco but the probably the tastiest thing to drink when you are here is the mint tea and the mint tea is kind of like a welcome drink so if you go to your reality or hotel they might have a mint tea for you just to start off or you're negotiating for your your carpets or whatever mint tea is kind of a popular thing it's really really good so you definitely have to have that when you're here also bread is like a staple here you have fried bread you have baked bread you have normal bread you have all kinds of different breads when you're here so just know if you're a car person you got some problems because it's not just the bread it's also lots of pastries that are here that are really good there's one that i've had i've actually it's it's a pastry with chicken inside and nuts in it and it was so good they actually have a dessert version of it which was chocolate and dried fruits in it i'm like oh my god it was amazing so there's a lot of really good food you can have when you're here now another thing you should know is you know a lot of people say well i'm going to morocco it's a muslim country so there won't be any alcohol well in morocco they're pretty laid back like they're pretty open to everybody that's what's cool about morocco they're very open for all kinds of people and the thing is if you like alcohol you can come here if you're going to drink something i highly recommend the moroccan wine i mean we've had some really good moroccan wines reds whites grays really good stuff so drink the local wine when you're here you'll be fine now i'm not saying come here for like a bender or coming here for a bachelor stag party kind of stuff you don't do that in morocco okay but the thing is you can enjoy some really nice wine when you are here now another thing i kind of want to talk about with religion here is one thing you need to realize is unless you're muslim you will not be allowed to go into the mosque they're beautiful from the outside you want to go in but you're not allowed now in casablanca this big one you can go into there you can see that but it's kind of disappointing like man all these buildings are so beautiful inside versus outside i can only imagine how beautiful the moss are on the inside but you can't see it as a tourist unless you're muslim so if you want to see it go online to see some of the pictures you'd like wow it is gorgeous because literally when you go inside the buildings in morocco it's so much more beautiful than the outside of the buildings i mean the doorways are beautiful but once you go through the doorways the interior parts of homes and stuff like that and rion's and stuff are just gorgeous with the courtyards and the thing is you're going to want to take a lot of pictures of these courtyards all these doorways and stuff like that and taking pictures is fine i will warn you though if you're going to be taking pictures of people you need to ask them beforehand and they might say no so you need to respect that or they might say yeah sure but you got to pay me you got to give me a tip to take the picture and don't be like oh i don't have any money then don't take the picture okay because they'll follow you around and the thing is if you're going to be going to the markets like here in marrakech you'll see the snake charmers and you'll see the people the monkeys and the animals and all kinds of stuff want to say oh come take a picture whatever realize you're going to be paying those people to take that picture and don't sit there and take a ton of pictures go oh i don't have any money anything like that believe me they will follow you and no one's going to feel sorry for you and they're like give me some money come on you got to tip me this is how we make our living because that is how they make their living okay so just have a heads up for that and just respect things now if you're taking like you know pictures of the beautiful moss from the outside and in the medinas and things like that that's okay but if people go like this you know when you're going by shops be respectful for that because that's one of the things we as tourists need to do is respect the people when we are there so we've got three things left we're going to talk about the prices we're going to talk about the people and we're going to talk about the places you want to visit when you're here in terms of prices morocco is actually not that bad i mean honestly we're staying a really nice hotel for a fantastic price now it's not cheap but it is an affordable place to visit where you really save your money is where you're eating you get this amazing food when we're here which we talked about the thing is it's at a fractional price you'd have something you know in western europe or in a big city in the u.s i mean a nice meal in marrakech on the square which is obviously tourist tracked up prices the four of us ate there with dessert for about 67 68 i mean i can't do that at tgi fridays with my family in my little town i live in so the thing is you will do your money will go far when you're doing stuff here so that's kind of a nice thing to know okay another thing i want to talk about are the people the people in morocco super friendly super funny super kind and the thing is if you got kids get a local jersey and we've got our kids the morocco jersey and everyone's like hey if you'll take us in their houses and not asking for money either you had to do it like hey no no here that's cool you got his jersey awesome he's a parisian door but now and it's so funny because we got a video where we're walking through the medina and just hear people calling out our kids because they're jerseys it's pretty cool but the thing is people are really nice yes they can be pushing when it's in the sales position so just relax with that but they're still actually very friendly in general they're very welcoming that's one of the nice things the maracas are very very welcoming which is very different than other places you go and travel to it's like now yes there's lots of tourists that come here but they're still welcoming for all those tours so that's really a nice thing and if you're looking at places you want to go okay the famous places okay so marrakesh that's probably the most go-to one for a lot of people here you've got the medina to see when you're here you've got some museums you've got the bahia palace you can go check out you have that if you go up to fez and fez that medina is even cooler than this one the medina is a market place you have that you can go up the north and see chefchaouen the blue city the one you've seen all the instagram pictures the one that's on the like all the moroccan tourism stuff you can go see that you can do a tour in the sahara and i'll tell you when you're gonna do a tour for the sahara look one two days no you need to do a few more days because how far it is and the thing is you want to make sure when you go you want to go for the one that starts or goes through mirzoga okay the thing is i'm sure to say it wrong so that's why i spell it down there but when you're doing that one the hair too that starts through there or goes through there that's probably the one that's going to give you a better bang for your buck than the other ones so you do have that okay also you could do you can of course hit the coastline and stuff like that casablanca though i would say casablanca is more of a you know it's an industrial city so financial city so not great for the tourism but still a good place to fly out of because i know we're headed to casa blanc and we're actually going to fly out of there because i got really good cheap tickets to portugal from there so that was really cool anyway i hope this helps you know a little bit more about what you should know before you come to morocco it really is a fantastic country we've really enjoyed us the people have been really great the food's been great really cool things to see a wonderful place really pretty safe to go see too so i hope you have a good time oh there is one safety thing i'm going to tell you about the stray cats you'll see a lot of straight cats when you're here don't pet them okay just fyi i know they're cute i know they're cuddly but don't do it all right so i'll say bye for morocco and if you want to find more the 10 shocks of visiting morocco what you love and hate about busy marrakesh check us out on our website at waltersworld.com we're also on twitter facebook instagram youtube and we really appreciate your like subscriptions if you want to learn more hit that subscribe button we put out new travel videos every wednesday and saturday also we'd like to say a big shout out thank you merci to our to our patrons on patreon for helping make this possible so we'll see you later and we wish you a great time here in morocco bye

Channel: Wolters World

Views: 163,546

Keywords: travel, europe, wolters world, travel advice, tourist attractions, travel vlogger, honest travel, Walters World

Id: ImrgxBEUduY

Length: 19min 42sec (1182 seconds)

Published: Sun May 16 2021