“Insider tips” in Morocco

Now Christian and I have been traveling in Africa for a good 4 weeks and it's time to share a few impressions while camping.

I always find it funny when I open my various apps and only a few of them work in Africa. I also had to download Morocco first for the car navigation system...

We are currently traveling with Park4Night, it works quite well, there are campsites in almost all the places we wanted to visit and also a hotel where you can park in the yard and spend the night if necessary. We banned the camping guide that we had bought specifically after two attempts because the lady has her favorite campsites and is not always up to date. There is actually a good camping guide from France for Morocco, but you don't necessarily need it. IN ADDITION to the places listed in the apps, there are also small surprises on the side of the road, some self-made signs, some professionally made, which refer to additional offers. Insider tips that only rely on word of mouth no longer exist in the digital age.

We took the route differently than most campers who travel here, because we drove from the city of Meknes into the solitude of the desert and that was really great. Sometimes we were alone on the pitches, then there were the campers who stood right next to you when there was plenty of space. A woman from Nuremberg was particularly friendly and when she was arranging the caravan, she pointed out to me that her husband wanted to take the caravan to fill up with water NOW. If he could have done it earlier, he had to wait... The woman really wasn't friendly!

We now know that most travelers are looking for the PERFECT campsite here, which means that the site should have a European standard toilet and shower, i.e. hot water, WIFI/WLAN, electricity, sewage, washing machine, and restaurant. Most places offer this, insider tips are only the campsites that only opened a few months ago, the rest can be quickly found and navigated to thanks to the apps.

The 4x4 expedition vehicles also have to fill up with water every now and then after their desert tours and are happy about a warm shower; these people are rarely seen at the moment. Most campers here drive a standard motorhome, they are mostly dependent on electricity, where we can theoretically be self-sufficient. Every place has something we like, so over the next few days we can look at a few campeggios and see where we want to stay.

My experience is that you should arrive at midday because then there are usually no problems finding a place. It gets crowded quickly in the afternoon, especially if it means that the place is quiet at night and meets a certain standard. Unfortunately, this also means that people stand really close to us, they don't care that we might have to use the drawbar or that we have dogs in the caravan. Sometimes this is really incomprehensible given the usually generous amount of space available.

In general you get a very friendly welcome, sometimes you can have tea or coffee with the boss, there are also bread for breakfast in many places, which of course attracts even more people. I can understand it, but on the other hand the overnight stays cost so little in comparison that I don't have to pay attention to these offers, in my opinion. Most of the time the place earns more from the restaurant than from the overnight stay, which is why we like to order dinner.

I also have to speak up for the campsite in Zagora, because we received a great welcome there after the accident and the owner wanted to provide us with material straight away. Moroccans are so helpful!