Touring Morocco by Motorhome – Part 1

This March we took the ferry from Algeciras in Spain to Tanger Med where we were touring Morocco by Motorhome to escape the end of the British winter. Here we have a reference FAQ type list of answers to driving and travelling by campervan in this fascinating country of North Africa.

1. Are there many fuel stations?

Petrol stations are generally frequent with large modern forecourts, cafe’s, small shops, toilets and undercover vehicle car washing areas. They are similar to European service stations.

Fuel stations are located on main roads between towns and on approaches to larger towns. Small, old type petrol pumps at small garages are sometimes found within smaller towns, but these may be difficult to access.

New, modern fuel stations are frequently being built across Morocco. We drove by several which were nearing completion but not yet open.

We would make sure the fuel tank was full before setting out on any remote or long drives.

2. Are there Electric Vehicle charging points?

We didn’t notice any electric vehicle charging points (unsure if they have any) and only saw one electric car which was from Germany.

3. Do fuel stations take card payment?

We predominantly paid for fuel with Revoult using Apple Pay. However: Always ask before you fill up if they take card payment because some don’t. Some fuel stations took card payment with a physical bank card but not Apple Pay.

We found that ‘Total’ fuel stations usually took Apple Pay so generally we stuck to filling up at those. We tried a few Shell petrol stations but on asking, none took card payments.

All petrol stations will take cash – Cash is King in Morocco.

4. Are campsites plentiful? Touring Morocco by Motorhome.

Generally yes, there are plenty of campsites in or around the main areas to visit, although not necessarily whilst on a remote long drive.

We would drive a route and have an end destination in mind which had a campsite for us to stay at.

There are some exceptions where only day parking is available or some towns where there’s only one campsite on the outskirts.

Overall though, we didn’t struggle at all with finding a campsite for the night.

5. Did we book campsites? Touring Morocco by Motorhome.

No, we didn’t book any campsites in advance. Our trip was during March and April, when Morocco was coming out of the busier Winter season and campsites were fairly quiet.

In Winter, it may be a different experience, we were told campsites can be very full indeed.

6. How much is a campsite stay?

Campsites are really reasonable, we paid between 60 and 100 Dirham which equates to roughly £6 to £10 per night.

This is a pitch without electric, simply because we never use an EHU. Electric pitches are often available it’s just we didn’t need one.

7. Are there Dump/Fresh areas for Motorhomes?

Most campsites have motorhome service areas, sometimes with a drive over waste water drain, but take a bucket incase you need to use one.

All campsites we went to had toilet emptying and fresh water for filling up.

As for public Aire type service areas, we only came across a couple.

8. Did we wild camp? Touring Morocco by Motorhome.

No, we only stayed on official campsites or similar.

9. Do campsites have hot showers?

Yes, campsites usually have hot showers. These aren’t always mixer showers like we have in the UK, so water can be very hot or very cold or anything in-between.

Sometimes, showers are heated by the campsite owner lighting a fire to heat the water up. So there will may be limited hot water.

10. Are there washing machines?

Washing machines are rare, but we did have a couple of campsites which had one. If we saw a washing machine we would use it incase we didn’t see another.

We didn’t come across any laundrettes like you’d have in Europe.

11. What are toilets like?

Campsites have flushing toilets which are usually UK style in appearance. There are some French style squat toilets too, but we found these to be less common.

We didn’t really come across any public toilets, so used our campervan toilet often or if we ate out or had a coffee somewhere we would use their toilet.

All toilets we came across were flushed with water and not drop toilets like you’d have in remote areas of Australia or New Zealand.

Toilet paper is not put in the toilet. Every toilet we saw had a waste paper basket in the cubicle to put used toilet paper in.

12. Are there recycling bins?

We didn’t really come across any recycling. There’s often household and general rubbish around or fires to burn rubbish and old TV’s inparticular seem to get abandoned in the strangest places!

13. Can you buy Ad Blue? Touring Morocco by Motorhome.

Yes, we bought Ad Blue at a fuel station which was in a sealed container, which we used.

However, we spoke to a German couple who also had a Sprinter campervan and had bought Ad Blue from a Shell fuel station. They told us it had been filled with water which had then caused problems with their engine. They were warning us to be careful when buying Ad Blue, even when it was from a well known fuel station name.

14. Do campsites and shops take Card?

We only stayed on 1 campsite which excepted card payment, all the rest only took cash.

Shops and cafes are the same, predominantly taking cash only. The only exception was when shopping in a bigger supermarket, which did take Apple Pay/card.

15. Are there lots of supermarkets?

No. Supermarkets are rare, so when we saw one, we would shop there. We only came across an out of town supermarket 2 or 3 times, these were small (similar size to a Lidl/Aldi in Europe).

There are plenty of very small shops in towns and villages, as well as meat stalls and veg too. Bread is often sold in these small stalls/shops.

16. Is the food good?

Eating out is widespread, with cafes and eateries everywhere. Obviously Tagine is a popular dish and we had several of these which were all really tasty.

As for price, expect to pay between 60 and 90 MAD for a main course.

17. Can you drink the water?

We didn’t drink the water without first purifying it in our LifeSaver water container. You fill this with any quality water and it purifies it into drinking water, so saves buying plastic bottled water.

If you don’t have a LifeSaver, bottled water is available to buy in most places.

18. Did we get a bad tummy?

No, we didn’t have any upset tummy days.

19. What are roads like? Touring Morocco by Motorhome.

Roads are actually much better than we expected. Many roads are quite new looking and more are being built across Morocco, so driving around is fairly good.

Most are tarmac roads, with some exceptions in remote areas or once you reach the end of the road to the Sahara. However, there are some really dangerous and treacherous routes, which require careful consideration before embarking on them.

This is especially the case with some of the passes over the mountains, which can take several hours driving to cross. Not only are these narrow, winding and sometimes gravel or dirt surfaces, but there are little in the way of safety barriers and few passing places.

Towns and cities are crazy – don’t say we didn’t warn you!

20. What’s driving around like?

Driving requires a lot of concentration and eyes, ears and everything you have should be on full alert.

Driving in remote areas is superb but roads can be hair-raising and dangerous. Weather can also be changeable, for example we hit dense fog on a mountain pass and had to sit it out on a small layby for a couple of hours.

Even then, when we set off after the fog lifted slightly, a car overtaking on a mountain bend came hurtling towards us out of the pea-soup fog which was still lingering. It was the scariest close call ever, thankfully the guy managed to swerve into a tiny space to avoid hitting us head on.

There is a saying in Morocco, that they drive on the left “most of the time” and it’s true!

Perhaps ensure you have good vehicle insurance before venturing to Morocco! Personally, we won’t tour abroad without fully comprehensive insurance, although it’s not easy to find a UK insurer which will offer this.

21. Are roads busy? Touring Morocco by Motorhome.

Roads in towns, villages and cities are crazily busy and concentration is absolutely key to helping prevent an incident.

Vehicles are nearly all very old and come in all shapes and sizes. Lorries can be high with supplies or livestock, whilst scooters, donkey’s, horses, donkey’s pulling carts, scooter carts, motorbikes, cars and bicycles carry people and goods around.

Some scooters can have a family of 4 on the back, whilst donkey’s carry a range of goods from batches of propane gas bottles to hay, food supplies and general goods.

Pedestrians mingle between traffic, as do stray dogs and anything from hens to wild cats, herds of goats, sheep and cattle.

Roads out of town

Driving on roads outside of towns are generally quieter but traffic is constant. Lorries and other transport with goods drive really slowly, creating a build up of traffic behind.

Overall roads, even if they are good can be slow, simply because of the age and type of vehicles using them.

Tourist buses are like tourist trains trundling across the country. They are endless! Carrying tourists who have flown in to the well known tourist hubs such as Marrakesh or Agadir and then take organised trips to the desert or other ‘must see’ locations.

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