None of this is complicated, but getting it wrong on arrival costs you an afternoon.
Entry
Many nationalities, including most European, UK, US, Canadian and Australian passport holders, enter visa-free for stays of up to 90 days. Rules change, so check against your own passport with an official source rather than a travel blog, and make sure your passport has comfortable validity remaining.
Money
The dirham is a closed currency, which in practice means you obtain it inside Morocco rather than bringing it with you. ATMs are plentiful in Agadir and Marrakech and sparse once you head inland.
Draw enough cash for the whole inland leg before you leave the cities. Card acceptance falls away quickly outside urban areas, and there is no ATM at a dune camp. Keep small notes for tips and roadside stops.
Connectivity
A local SIM or eSIM is inexpensive and coverage on the coast is good. Signal thins inland and effectively disappears in the erg. Download offline maps, boarding passes and anything you want to listen to before you leave the coast.
Tipping
Customary and appreciated rather than obligatory. Round up in cafés. For a multi-day trip, set aside a note for your desert guide and driver at the end, separate from anything you give your surf instructors.
Ramadan
Shifts the rhythm of the whole country: shorter working hours, quieter daytimes, and extraordinary evenings once the fast breaks. Trips run normally and camps cater for guests as usual.
Check the dates for your year, and be aware that roads are extremely busy in the days around the two Eid holidays.
Language
Darija is the everyday spoken Arabic, Tamazight languages are widely spoken in this region, and French is common in business and tourism. English is widespread in the surf villages. Four words of greeting go a long way.
Money in practice, day by day
Expect to use cash for most things outside hotels and larger restaurants. Cafés, taxis, the souk, roadside stops, tips, hammams and desert camps are cash. Larger supermarkets, hotels and some restaurants take cards.
ATMs charge a local fee of roughly 20 to 40 dirhams per withdrawal on top of whatever your bank takes, so draw larger amounts less often. Withdraw in dirhams rather than accepting your card issuer's conversion, which is almost always a worse rate.
Keep a supply of small notes. Breaking a 200 dirham note for a 15 dirham coffee is a daily irritation, and tipping is impossible without them.
You may not legally take large amounts of dirham out of the country, so spend or change back before departure. Airport exchange rates are poor.
Connectivity, in detail
The three networks are Maroc Telecom, Orange and Inwi. Coverage on the coast between Agadir and Taghazout is good on all three; inland towards Merzouga it thins, and in the erg it disappears.
A tourist SIM with a data package costs a few euros and can be bought at the airport, in any town, or as an eSIM before you travel. You need your passport to register a physical SIM, which is normal and takes five minutes.
Download offline maps for the whole route before you leave the coast, plus your boarding passes and anything you want to listen to. WhatsApp is the default communication channel in Morocco for businesses as well as people; almost every operator, including us, works through it.
Health admin and pharmacies
No vaccinations are required for entry from most countries. Hepatitis A and typhoid are commonly recommended by travel clinics, and tetanus should be current. Check with a clinic six to eight weeks before you travel.
Pharmacies are excellent, widespread and identifiable by a green cross. Pharmacists are highly trained, often speak French and English, and can dispense many things without a prescription. For a stomach upset, a reef cut or an ear infection, a pharmacy is the correct first stop rather than a clinic.
Bring any prescription medication in its original packaging with a copy of the prescription.
Cultural admin nobody mentions
Friday is the main prayer day and the middle of the day is quieter, with some businesses closing for a couple of hours. Plan around it rather than being surprised by it.
Photography of police, military and some government buildings is not permitted. Photographing people requires permission.
Alcohol is sold in licensed shops, larger supermarkets and licensed hotels and restaurants, and is not part of daily life in the villages. Public drinking is not acceptable.
Cannabis is illegal despite what anybody offers you on a beach. So is possession, and being a tourist is not a defence.
Language, and the four you will hear
Darija is Moroccan Arabic, the everyday spoken language, and it is different enough from Modern Standard Arabic that speakers of the latter often struggle.
Tamazight languages — Tashelhit in this region — are spoken by a large proportion of people on this coast and in the Atlas, and Tamazight is an official language alongside Arabic.
French is widespread in business, education and tourism, and is often the most useful second language for a visitor.
English is common in surf villages and among younger people, and less so inland.
Learn four words and you will be treated differently: salam, shukran, la shukran, bslama. Add "bshhal" — how much — and you can shop.
Bargaining, done properly
Bargaining is expected in souks and not in shops with marked prices. It is a social exchange rather than a confrontation, and treating it as a fight produces a bad price and a bad afternoon.
The mechanics: ask the price, name something meaningfully lower without being insulting, and converge. Walking away is a legitimate and normal move that frequently produces a better price, and it is not rude.
Decide before you start what the item is worth to you and stop there. Haggling to save two euros on something you wanted at the first price is a poor use of goodwill.
Taxis, cafés with menus and supermarkets are not negotiable. Do not try.
Public holidays and timing
Ramadan moves roughly eleven days earlier each year and reshapes daily rhythms for a month. Eid al-Fitr at the end of it and Eid al-Adha about ten weeks later are the two biggest holidays, when families travel, roads are extremely busy and many businesses close for several days.
Fixed national holidays include Independence Manifesto Day in January, Labour Day on 1 May, Throne Day on 30 July, and Green March Day on 6 November.
None of these stop a surf trip. All of them affect road traffic, opening hours and availability, and knowing which one you are travelling into removes surprises.
The pre-departure checklist
Passport valid with comfortable time remaining, and entry requirements checked against your own nationality on an official source.
Travel insurance bought, with surfing explicitly covered and repatriation included if you are heading inland.
Some euros to change on arrival, plus a card that works internationally and a note of your bank's ATM fees.
An eSIM bought, or a plan to buy a SIM at the airport with your passport to hand.
Offline maps, boarding passes and playlists downloaded, because you will lose signal in the erg.
Any prescription medication in original packaging with a copy of the prescription.
And the dates of Ramadan or either Eid checked against your trip, not because they will stop anything, but because knowing changes what you expect from a Tuesday afternoon.
Costs on the ground, so you can budget
A coffee in a village café costs a couple of dirhams; in a tourist-facing café on the coast, considerably more. A tagine in a local restaurant is modest; the same dish on a terrace with a sea view is several times that.
A grand taxi seat between Aourir and Taghazout costs a few dirhams. A chartered grand taxi for a half day is a fraction of a private transfer. A petit taxi across Agadir on the meter is inexpensive.
A hammam at a local bathhouse is cheap; a spa hammam with massage at a hotel runs €35 and upwards. Both are worth doing and they are entirely different experiences.
Most guests find €15 to €25 a day covers everything not included in a package — coffees, a lunch, a taxi, a tip and the occasional purchase. Double that if you plan to eat out every evening and buy properly in the souk.
Carry more small notes than you think you need. Almost every friction point in a day here is caused by nobody having change.