Travelling to Morocco with a motorhome (and two dogs!)
David & Sharon say...
"When we purchased our Carthago we had hopes of making some longer trips where having the extra storage space inside would make all the difference to our comfort and enjoyment. Morocco had been on our radar for some time, being so close to Europe but yet being part of the African continent it seemed an exotic and interesting destination. And so it proved to be! The other motivation was it lies outside the Schengen area so all the time we spent there did not count against the 90 day maximum we could spend in Europe.
We set off from our home in Inverness just after Christmas and crossed through the tunnel a couple of days later. As we have two lively Spaniels the tunnel is the perfect way for us to cross the Channel as they sit with us inside our Motorhome for the 25 minute crossing. They both have EU Passports so it was a straightforward process going through customs.
Approximately a week later we arrived in Algeciras where we purchased ferry tickets to Tangier Med from the well known Carlos Travel Agency. They had the best prices and know the system inside out so we were in and out quickly clutching our free gifts of Prosecco and Spanish biscuits! There was a complication though as we required animal health certificates for each of our dogs and once issued were only valid for 24 hours! Fortunately the nearby vet was used to issuing these but after that we had to drive to the customs office at the port to get them validated. Quite a carry on plus we were down 200 Euros. There is no problem sleeping overnight in the car park opposite the vets. We did along with about 40 other vans! We also took the opportunity to stock up on beer, wine and spirits to last a month. Alcohol is hard to find in Morocco and if you do it is expensive.
The next morning we arrived in good time for the 08.00 crossing and were now properly on our way. It took about 90 minutes sailing plus the same again to clear the Moroccan Customs. Our Motorhome had to go through a giant scanning machine but fortunately they weren't interested in our alcohol. Neither were they interested in the animal health certificates we had gone to so much bother to obtain!
Immediately beyond customs we came across several portacabins where you could exchange currency and purchase Moroccan SIM cards, a very handy stop for us.
On the West Coast of Morocco runs a modern dual carriageway from Tangier Med all the way south to the town of Safi. If you cut off at Casablanca another dual carriageway takes you past the outskirts of Marrakech as far south as Agadir. They are both toll roads but are inexpensive and make for easy driving.
We weren't though overambitious for our first day and made the easy 85km journey to the costal town of Asilah. This proved to be an excellent choice as it is a gentle introduction into Moroccan life. The town has a lovely beach front with plenty hotels, restaurants and shops as well as an interesting Medina.
The next day as confidence grew we travelled another 180 kilometres south to the larger town of Kenitra by which time we were ready for a two night stop to relax a bit and have time to go exploring.
With our confidence growing we visited a couple of the bigger cities, first the capital Rabat before attempting Casablanca. We visited on a Sunday thinking that there may be less traffic which was true to an extent. We struck lucky and found guardian parking within site of their number one attraction Hassan II Mosque. We did find the famous Ricks Cafe but couldn't get in as we were deemed to be inappropriately dressed and we had dogs!
Over the next few days we kept moving south with the highlight being the costal town of Essaouira. With limited overnight parking there though we moved that night to a small costal village called Sidi Kaouki which although small has three campsites! We really enjoyed it and booked in for a second night.
Feeling refreshed we went on to the really big one, Marrakech! We didn’t fancy driving through the middle of it but found an excellent campsite Le Relais on the northern outskirts of the city. They arranged a dog friendly taxi for us and we had a good day exploring the central area.
We wanted to move further south and headed towards Agadir via the well known Jarjeer Donkey Refuge and we were very impressed by the fantastic work they do there.
We spent the next week traveling west with some one or two night stops before reaching another absolutely highlight when we parked up for a couple of nights in the Sahara desert. The scenery was truly amazing and our dogs loved chasing their balls up and down the sand dunes.
By now two thirds of our time was gone and it was time to travel north. The roads were more challenging here than on the west coast but we took our time and had very few difficulties. We particularly wanted to visit Fes and we found a campsite attached to a good hotel who arranged a guide and transport to visit the famous Medina. This proved be very successful and with the combined cost a moderate 60 Euros was good value and we saw things we wouldn't have otherwise.
Our final “must visit” was the blue town of Chefchaouen. This was our last full day in Morocco and we enjoyed every moment exploring the brightly coloured narrow streets that make up the old town.
Sadly our time had come to an end and we drove back to Tangier Med for the return crossing to Algeciras. Again we had all our documentation, vaccination records and pet passports ready for our dogs but neither the customs in Morocco or Spain showed the remotest interest and waved us through after checking just our own passports.
Some points to note when taking your motorhome to Morocco:
1)The people are friendly, helpful and welcoming.
2) There is no refillable gas outlets in the country.
3) Make sure you have currency and don’t rely on credit cards. On several occasions we stopped for diesel, handed over a card only to be told they couldn't take it.
4) As you move away from the coast filling stations became fewer. We got into the habit of filling up once the tank got below half full.
5) We had been advised on various websites and Facebook pages against taking our dogs but these fears proved to be entirely unfounded. The biggest issue we had was people stopping us wanting their photos!
6) In all but the bigger cities alcohol is not for sale even in supermarkets and if you do find any it is expensive. Whatever is your tipple take it with you.
7) For those who require Ad Blue we found very few paces that had any but fortunately we had taken a few 10 litre containers with us.
8) A common business model is finding a hotel with campsite attached which worked well for us as we could park up and have a good value meal.
9) While campsites are generally basic we found them adequate and had everything you need.
10) Where electric hook up is available it’s generally low wattage and we regularly blew the supply and learned to be careful to put on one item at a time.
11) Although we didn’t ever wild camp we regularly used what they call “Guardian Camping” for both daytime parking and/or sleeping overnight. Generally costing between a couple of pounds and fiver it a very economic option.
Throughout our holiday we posted regularly on Facebook and Instagram receiving many comments saying how brave we are going to Morocco in a motorhome! The perception a lot of people is very different from the reality of a country which is fascinating, welcoming and so different to Europe despite the short sea crossing to get there.
