Travelling Solo in Morocco

This is a draft – I’m working on getting more details and photos! (Sep 25, 2026)

I travelled to Morocco in November 2010, and while I did write a few articles around that time that would be useful for a traveller, I’d always meant to review my journal entries and write some more about where I went and what I did. So now, 16 years later, I’m finally getting around to it.

Morocco is one of my favourite places that I’ve travelled, and I recommend it –

My Trip

Because I was travelling on my own, and it wasn’t the high season for tourism, I didn’t book anything in advance. This gave me a huge amount of freedom – I could stay where I wanted, and leave when I wanted, and didn’t have to take anyone else’s needs into account. I met people wherever I went, both Moroccans and people from all over the world, so I only had a few periods where I was lonely. In 2010, cell & data service weren’t what they are now, so I travelled with an iPod and connected to wifi where I could. I tried once or twice to do a video call home from an internet cafe, but communication home was pretty limited.
If I were doing it again now, I’d of course have an e-sim and my mom would be able to check my location at any time.

Prices

I was a broke culture worker with a student debt, so I was definitely trying to stick to a budget, One of the things I kept in my journal was a log of my daily spending, and for the majority of my days in Morocco I spent less than $85 CAD, including everything – travel, meals, gifts, and accommodations. However, I stayed in some really lovely places – I rarely went with the cheapest options- and I bought First Class tickets on all of the trains, stayed in Rhiads (similar to B&Bs, but in beautiful mansions that are hundreds of years old and filled with gorgeous carved stucco and central courtyards with fountains), and did all of my Christmas shopping.

From my notes, on my most expensive day I spent $153.09 CAD, and on my least-expensive day I spent $30.62 CAD.

While prices have changed since then, the conversion from Moroccan Dirham to Canadian Dollar hasn’t changed much at all – 150 dh in 2010 was $18.29 CAD, while in 2026 it’s $21.75 CAD.

Haggling

I haggled in the places where it’s appropriate – at the stalls in the souks. I know that some people feel uncomfortable with it, but I enjoyed it – it’s part of getting into the rhythm of the places you visit. My main strategy was not to look at anything too closely, and certainly never touch anything, until I thought I was interested in it and had a price in mind that I’d be willing to pay. It’s hard, because I’m a very tactile person and I like to touch things, but

Whenever I mention a price I paid for *anything,* some bright spark chirps at me that I got cheated. I want to be super-clear about this: I didn’t. I always paid a fair price, and a price I was willing to pay, and if the seller wasn’t able to part with something for the price I was willing to pay for it, I walked away. Sometimes, walking away is strategy, but at other times it’s just the outcome.

Something I understood very quickly in Morocco is that, while back at home at that time I was a low-wage culture worker struggling to make ends meet and pay off my student loans, my purchasing power and standard of living far exceeds that of many (if not most) regular people in Morocco. So yes, of course I paid more than a local would, consider that the premium you pay for the luxury of being able to travel. If I wanted to be an asshole and a bully, I probably could have paid less for many things. But that’s not how I want to move through the world.

Accommodations

I stayed in a real variety of places around the country, from cheap old hotels, to Ryads, to a camel-hair tent in the Sahara, and even some Western-style hotels. Because I was travelling in the off-season, I didn’t book ahead and I generally was able to stay at my first pick in most of the places I visited. While some of the places I stayed previously have gone up in price considerably since 2010, there are still plenty of comparable places in the same price range – for example, my room at Ryad Bahia in Meknes was $48.91 CAD in 2010, and to book roughly the same date today (2026) would be $130.00 CAD. But in the same neighbourhood, there are some beautiful and well-rated Ryads charging less then $50.00 CAD/night.

My journey in Morocco

Day 1 – Land in Casablanca, take the train to Rabat

Day 2 –