First time to Morocco
 

Good day all
My wife and I are planning to tour Morocco starting about March 15/2023. We are from Canada but have parked our bike in Europe for 4 years. We've done all our own routings mostly out of Milan in that time and are quite comfortable on our own.
We are thinking of a trip of 10-12 days after leaving our rental condo in Estepona Spain.
We would stay on tarmac mostly.
We are riding our own BMW R1200GS which is registered in Ontario, Canada. We use green card insurance for our travels so far but understand we would need to purchase Morocco insurance separate.

The question is should we be leaning towards a guided tour first time, or a self guided tour made up by a tour company or a DIY?
Thanks

I think it will be no problem to drive in Morocco without a group. I did it plenty of times. Plenty of hotels with safe parking available.
I have a green card ( insured in Belgium) and my card is valid in Morocco too, so no need to purchase insurance at the border. Look at your Green card to see if it is valid in Morocco

I agree, assuming you are experienced travellers you ought to be able to manage Morocco on your own, especially compared with the price of guided tours.
The key is to have the first days booked, after which you can wing it. Off the ferry aim for somewhere like Asilah (1 hour).
booking.com is popular in Mk.

Depending on your tolerance for hassle, I would leave on foot city exploration (Fez, Marrakech, etc) for another fly-in trip and stick to enjoying the great riding down south.
Or do them on the way back when you're more acclimatised.
I'd also head south over the Atlas and to the desert fringe.
Another country compared to the busier north.

Details on entry and docs here:
https://sahara-overland.com/2014/12/...getting-there/

I'm not sure if it's the same further south but certainly in Tangiers this summer the street hassle level was close to zero - something that really surprised me as I've been there many times and its always been something you have to cope with. I was talking to one of the locals about it and he told me that when tourist levels dropped to zero with Covid they all had to find something else to do. Tourist levels were still down this summer so their alternative employment was still the better bet. He expects they'll be back but it may take a while to ramp up.

A tour company will make a 9 day route which includes a GPS with the route, hotels, breakfasts, and a booklet giving ideas what to do.
Riding my own bike.
3,000 Euro.
Thoughts?

Morocco is a well mapped,tourist friendly,modern country.There is absolutely no need to join an on road,guided tour.If you are a little nervous use Reise Map and Booking.com to plan your trip and never forget that a Plan is only a base line that can be changed bier

That’s crazy money for any tour. And even more so for a road based one without a guide present. Well over double what I would charge for a guided off road tour.

Even if you allowed €1000 for top class hotels (and they would be on that budget) the company are pocketing the rest for a few hours work. Shameful really.

This autumn was crazy with the amount of guided bike groups. I have never seen it so busy with motorbikes and overlanders. Campervans numbers were hugely down though.

I could sell you a self guided itinerary with gps routes etc but it’s just not worth it for you. For a road based trip, sit down with a copy of the rough guide and work out where you are interested in visiting and ask questions here. I’ll be happy to point you towards interesting roads between stops and im sure others would chip in with suggestions.

Thanks for your input. We will do it ourselves with input from the group.

I typically use my bmw garmin gps to navigate and build the route using base camp.
However it appears no no mini sd cards are available for North Africa. Do you guys just use your cellphone for navigation?

A mini SD card for a fitted BMW GPS?
Not sure how they work but you can buy a Garmin map for North Africa for just £20 and it's pretty good.

https://sahara-overland.com/2016/12/...-map-reviewed/

I thought Garmin had a North Africa map set available? I install open street maps for North Africa onto my Garmin Montana. Mostly I've been using the North Africa Topo maps downloaded from gmaptool.eu over the last few months

Google Directions work in Morocco now after being blocked for years. Alternatively mapy.cz is pretty good on the phone. Giaia GPS is very good but difficult to get the hang of or maps.me works ok.

There is def a garmin street view sd card for morrocco , I bought it second hand off of this forum for under 20 pounds.....its currently on loan to a friend.

I ordered the sahara overland map. It won't load on my gps It says it's having trouble retrieving the purchased content. I'm not an IT guy.
Any ideas?

I phoned up Garmin. They tell me it's not compatible with Navigator V.

The card I had works in a gamin 550 ? The bike one that I think is similar to the bmw thing , or u could pick up a cheap zumo 50......it works in that too .

How soon do u need it ? Are u in the UK?

Our Morocco trip starts March 15, will be spending January 11- March 15 in Estepona Spain.
We live in Canada

Well that's that idea scuppered.............maps.me it is then

Get in touch
 

As far as the best places to visit in your time frame, I would suggest you get in touch with Tim Cullis on here. He'll steer you right.
As far as your sat nav problem, I'll do my best to help you (no charge) :smartass: (Bob will be pleased!)

Whatsup would be uselful by p.m and do work out Time difference as you say you are in Canada! I'm in London UK

Updated
1)New maps (country map and contours map ) uploaded to my drop box ready for you.
2) I might be able to help with your sahara overland map but I don't currently have sufficient info to identify what you actually have.
As you said you were "not an I.T guy" it would benefit you if we spoke to facilitate things for you.
The ball is in your court Sir !

Happy days
 

Problem solved!
Enjoy your trip Suzuki12 and do let me know if you have other questions.
And congrats on your I.T abilities; you are more an 'IT' Guy than you give yourself credit for!

For Maroc info, speak to Tim.
ATB

Toyark
Thanks very much for your help, you sure know your stuff
Glenn

Our travel dates to Morocco start March 15/2023 and run about 2 weeks. I just noticed that Ramadan starts March 22.
What are your thoughts on travelling during that time?
Should we be changing our timing to avoid Ramadan?

Traveling in Ramadan isnt a problem, in most tourist places things will be as normal. Out of them you need to plan a bit further ahead for shopping and cafes/restaurants may be closed in smaller towns and villages until the evening

It's been like that since at least 2018. Not sure what happened to change things.

I remember 12-15 years ago when Fanum (from UKGSer) had bikers riding shotgun on his massive bike trailer through Tanger to prevent chancers leaping on board.

Ramadan is a PITA as it substantially interferes with my favourite way of passing the time by sitting in a pavement cafe sipping a nus-nus coffee and people watching. You will only be able to do that in tourist areas of major cities. If you have the choice to move dates to avoid most of Ramadan, I would do.

The problems with GPS might not be worth solving. I managed fine from 1972 to 2005 with just paper maps and you will have a much better understanding of the country if you do this. The road network is not complicated and you only need GPS if you are travelling off-tarmac. Be aware that Google has still not updated the road numbers since the massive renumbering changes in 2018.

March can still be cold in the north, so I would head south as fast as possible. You could use the autoroutes to make real fast progress.