Travel guide - Morocco

If you hold a full passport from the UK, Ireland, any other EU country, the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, you require no visa to enter Morocco for up to ninety days. Note, however, that your passport must be valid for at least six months beyond your date of entry, and always double check your visa requirements before departure as the situation can change. South African citizens are among those who need a visa; applications should be made to the nearest Moroccan embassy or consulate.

When entering the country , formalities are fairly straightforward, though you will have to fill in a form stating personal details, purpose of visit and your profession . In recent years, Moroccan authorities have shown an occasional reluctance to allow in those who categorize themselves as "journalist"; an alternative profession on the form might be wise.

Note that items such as electronic equipment and video cameras may be entered on your passport. If you lose them during your visit, they will be assumed "sold" when you come to leave and (unless you have police documentation of theft) you will have to pay 100 percent duty. All goods on your passport should be "cleared" when leaving to prevent problems on future trips. Vehicles need a Green Card.

Like accommodation, food in Morocco falls into two basic categories: ordinary Moroccan meals served in the Medina cafés (or bought from stalls), and French-influenced tourist menus in most of the hotels and Ville Nouvelle restaurants. There are exceptions - cheap local cafés in the new cities and occasional palace-style places in the Medina. Whatever your budget, don't be afraid to try both options. The Medina places are mostly cleaner than they look and their food is usually fresh and tasty

If you're looking for breakfast or a snack , you can buy a half- baguette - plus butter and jam, cheese or eggs, if you want - from many bread or grocery stores, and take it into a café to order a coffee. Many cafés, even those which serve no other food, may offer a breakfast of bread, butter and jam (which is also what you'll get in most hotels), or maybe an omelette. Some places also offer soup, such as harira , with bread, and others have stalls outside selling by weight traditional griddle breads such as harsha (quite heavy with a gritty crust), melaoui (sprinkled with oil, rolled out thin, folded over and rolled out again several times, like an Indian paratha) and baghira (full of holes like an English crumpet). If that is not sufficient, supplementary foods you could buy include dates or olives, yoghurt, or soft white cheese ( ejben ).

The smoking of kif (marijuana) and hashish (" chocolaté ") has for a long time been a regular pastime of Moroccans and tourists alike. Indeed, in the 1960s and 1970s (or further back, in the 1930s), its ready availability, good quality and low cost made kif a major tourist attraction. It is, however, illegal, or, as the ONMT puts it:

Tourists coming to Morocco are warned that the first article in the Dahir of April 24th 1954 prohibits the POSSESSION, the OFFER, the DISTRIBUTION, the PURCHASE, the SALE and the TRANSPORTATION as well as the EXPORTATION of CANNABIS IN WHATEVER FORM. The Dahir allows for a penalty of IMPRISONMENT from three months to five years and a fine of 2400 to 240,000 dirhams, or only one of these. Moreover the law court may ordain the SEIZURE of the means of transport and the things used to cover up the smuggling as well as the toxic products themselves.

In winter, Moroccans often add chiba (Arabic for wormwood, absinthe in French) to their tea to 'keep out the cold'. You can also get black tea ( atai ahmar in Arabic, thé rouge in French, literally meaning "red tea") - inevitably made with the ubiquitous Lipton's tea bags, a brand fondly believed by Moroccans to be typically English. Herbal infusions include aniseed ( anis ) and verbena ( verveine ).

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