10 Tips for Renting a Car in Morocco

This guide will help you when renting a car in Morocco. Included are very important tips to help you survive the ride as I did in 2018!

Renting a car in Morocco

How do you make the most of your time in Morocco you ask? Rent a car, that’s how! After speaking to several recent travelers to Morocco, they all suggested that we should be renting a car while there, so we did just that.

I left the hot public buses, delayed trains, and noisy tour buses behind and hit the road.

The best part about having a car was that we could keep some items that we didn’t need every day in the trunk, so it lightened the load in our bags when moving from city to city.

I visited the following cities:

Casablanca – Rabat – Meknes – Marrakesh

Picking up a Rental Car in Casablanca

The rental car pick-up is located inside the Casablanca airport, past the baggage claim, down the escalator on the lower level.

There are not any signs, so just ask someone working in the airport and they can point you in the right direction.

You will only need your passport and driver’s license from your country to rent a car.

I opted for a budget rental, and we got a budget car. We rented it through Location Auto, via Kayak. The car was old and had scratches over all it.

The gas tank was empty when they gave it to us and the tires needed air. It also shook when you went over 90 kph (60 mph), and the air conditioning only worked when it wanted to.

Nevertheless, we got what we paid for, and thankfully it lasted the entire trip without breaking down.

The total cost was $180 USD for 8 days to rent a car.

Next time I will use Discover Cars instead. They are more reliable and have better customer service.

DRIVING TIPS

You drive on the right side of the road.

People will dart out into the streets with no forewarning and not use the crosswalks, so you must pay attention while driving.

The main highways have rest stops with gas stations, snacks, wifi, and restrooms. See my Do’s and Don’ts post for some restroom tips.

The highway directional signs will be in Arabic and French. Bring an audio jack with you so you can listen to your music instead of the radio for long drives. Highways are pretty much empty and the speed limit ranges between 40-120 kph.

You must pay for the tolls in cash. In total, I spent $48 USD in tolls.

Examples of toll costs:

Leaving Casablanca Airport – 6 dirhams

Casablanca to Rabat – 34 dirhams

Rabat to Meknes – 34 dirhams each way

Rabat to Marrakech – 102 dirhams

*use xe.com for the latest exchange rates

Pro tip: Download the Google Maps route BEFORE you leave WIFI.

At Casablanca airport, you will see a kiosk for a FREE 200 MB sim card for the cell network called Inwi. They will help you get set up and it only takes 10 minutes of your day. It’s super cheap (only $2 for 2GB of data) to add data for SEVEN days!!!

Once you are up and running, download the maps and be on your way so you don’t have to struggle to read one of these maps.

Getting Gas

The type of gas will be listed inside of the gas tank, either superplomb or gasoil. There is a gas station right outside of the airport if you need to fill up before hitting the road for a long drive.

Make sure to have cash on you as some gas stations do not take credit cards. The gas attendants will pump the gas for you. Round up to the nearest 5 dirhams when you pay, as a tip for the attendant.

Parking  (City by City)

Casablanca – There is plenty of street parking. You may or may not have to give a person who “watches the cars” on that street 5-10 dirhams to “keep an eye on it” or not. We were told we would have to do this, but no one approached us in Casablanca for money.

Rabat – This city also has plenty of street parking with no attendants collecting money.

Meknes – The streets inside the medina are very tight, but there are parking lots to leave the car if needed. We left our car in a lot for one night for 30 dirhams.

Marrakesh – Now this is when the fun begins when renting a car in Morocco. If you book overnight accommodations anywhere near the medina (city center) you need to be very careful about driving into the center.

Google Maps will tell you that you can drive down these tiny streets, but I ended up in a situation in which the car did not fit between two stone walls and a police officer had to assist us in getting out.

One of the employees at my hostel was nice enough to get in the car with us to help us park in their parking lot, but honestly, it would have been easier to park somewhere outside of the medina.

You can find parking outside of the medina in parking lots, or if you’re staying at a resort, they will have parking for you so you can avoid the tight situation we got ourselves into!

Did you find this post helpful on renting a car? Let us know in the comments below!

*This post may contain some affiliate links. If you purchase through that link, I may receive a commission. You will never pay extra for using these links, it will be purely to support the blog. I will only suggest items that I use myself, to enhance your travel experience. Thank you in advance for any support you may give me!