Morocco is easy to pack for once you accept one fact: you will experience several climates on the same trip. A single week can include a hot medina, a mountain pass with snow on it, and a desert night close to freezing.
Clothing
Light, loose and covering is the formula. Long trousers or a long skirt, and tops that cover the shoulders, work everywhere in Morocco and are cooler in real heat than less fabric would be.
- Light long-sleeved shirts — better than short sleeves in the sun
- One warm layer, always, whatever the season
- A scarf: sun, wind, sand, and covering your head in religious sites
- Something modest for the medinas — shoulders and knees
- Swimwear if your riad or hotel has a pool
Footwear — the thing people get wrong
Medina lanes are uneven stone, often wet where someone has just washed a doorstep, and steep in Fes and Chefchaouen. You will walk far more than you expect.
Bring closed shoes with grip that you can wear all day. Bring sandals for the riad and the beach. Do not make your only footwear something new.
For the desert
You leave your main suitcase at the vehicle or hotel and take a small overnight bag into the dunes. This is what actually matters in it:
- A warm jacket, hat and socks — nights are cold, especially November to March
- A head torch or a charged phone
- A power bank; camp electricity is limited
- Sunglasses and high-factor sun cream
- Long trousers if you are riding a camel
- Wet wipes, which are more useful out here than you would think
The two things almost everyone forgets
A universal plug adapter — Morocco uses European two-pin sockets, which catches out UK, US and Australian travellers.
And cash in small notes. Card is fine in hotels and larger restaurants, but the souks, the villages, the tips and everything in the desert run on cash, and nobody wants to break a large note.
Ready to see it for yourself?
Tell us your dates and your route and we will send a packing note specific to them — a January desert night and an August coastal week need very different bags.
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