As soon as I flew arrived to Morocco from Portugal, I knew I was not in Europe any more. The sights, smells and people are very different. In most Moroccan cities tourist spend their time in the medina. The medina is a maze of narrow streets, usually surrounded by walls and is an assault on the senses. This is a historic part of the city, filled with stores selling everything from camel meat to cheesy fridge magnets for tourists. Each store comes with an eager shop owner, who is not at all shy in trying to sell you his goods.
Hassling is a large part of being a tourist in Morocco. In the main tourist areas, you can not walk 20 meters without some one yelling “My friend! My friend!”. People will come up to you and start walking with you, acting as if they are your guide and demand money. Most of the time it is clear how they are trying to make money off of you. However, we frequently had people coming up and telling us that the road we were walking down was closed, or it was a dead end. Not trusting them, we would continue anyways and not once was a road actually closed. I could not figure out what their motives were. Do they just enjoy messing with tourists?
While these hasslers are usually easy to identify, and are mostly just an annoyance, it unfortunately means that you have to be sceptical of everyone. A few locals seemed genuine when wanting to give directions or recommendations, but you have to ignore them anyways. We would usually do the opposite of what someone said, just out of spite.
Before going to Morocco, I was told the people are not the nicest. I found people there were very nice and helpful, when money was not involved. Anytime money was involved it felt like they wanted to milk you for every possible durham. In many countries, the people working at the hostels are your trusted confidant that you use for recommendations. However, in Morocco some of the hostel owners were quite scammy. While I am ok to pay a bit more for things than the average Moroccan, I am not willing to pay 5x or even 10x more. And still, it is more about the principle than the actual cost. Being ripped off doesn’t feel nice.
Tourism is a large part of the Moroccan economy. This means the police and government are supportive of tourists, and want them to go home and recommend Morocco to their friends. While I was there I had a minor incident. The police and medical staff there were extremely friendly and helpful. Because I was a tourist, I got first class service and attention. I also felt very safe while I was there, and had not met anyone that had been robbed. Based on my experience, and what I had heard about Morocco before going, I think that the government has put effort into making Morocco more tourist friendly.
And it has worked. I was disappointed with how touristy Morocco was. Almost everywhere it felt like things were embellished for tourists, and that true Moroccan culture was not being shown. I still think that one is able to experience the culture, but things need to be taken with a grain of salt.
What I really loved about Morocco was the landscape. From mountainous forests to barren deserts dotted with oasis’s, the landscape is extremely diverse. When hiking Mt Toubkhal, we climbed over ice and snow. Just a few days later we were climbing over sand dunes in the desert! Since the country is quite large I spent a lot of time on buses. This was a great way to checkout the landscape, and see it transition between biomes.
For someone travelling to Morocco, I would recommend the nature and the smaller cities/towns. I found that most of the big cities had a similar feel. The highlights for me were the Atlas Mountains and the Sahra desert. If I had more time I also would have gone to Essouria and on the coast, and Chefcahoen in the mountains. But be warned, it’s gonna be HOT!!!
Moroccan cuisine is equally as hot (temperature-wise). The staples include mint tea to drink and tajine and couscous to eat. These dishes are always served steaming. True will power is waiting five minutes when you are starving for your food to cool down after it has been served. The hot food is more effective in cooling you down, as it increases the amount your body sweats. Although, it is not as satisfying as a nice cool drink. I found the food to be just ok. Many of the dishes had similar flavours. I did have pastilla, simlar-ish to chicken pot pie, which was great.
Overall Morocco was an interesting and beautiful country and I am glad I visited. Both the landscape and cultures are very unique and worth experiencing.
– Mitch