Insider's Guide to Navigating Tipping and Shopping in Morocco

The culture of tipping in Morocco is something we get a lot of questions about, and indeed many people aren't sure if they should tip at all, or when, and how much. It can quickly get overwhelming and a little awkward, if you don't know what to expect.

Azdean is here today to set out a comprehensive guide to tipping when you're travelling in Morocco. The short answer is yes, tipping applies in many cases across the country, in many different situations. The culture has evolved to something similar to the United States and other countries. You can expect to tip in a lot of familiar circumstances, but the question still remains, how much? And where do you get the small bills and change that you'll need?

Tipping might not be mandatory in Morocco, but it's a key part of the culture deeply appreciated by locals. From cab rides to restaurant meals, the tipping norms vary, and Azdean will  help you navigate them like a pro. This episode is a mix of listener questions and Azdean's own experience as a traveller in Morocco himself.

We'll equip you with the know-how to identify different Dirham notes and why the humble 20 dirham note is your ultimate travel buddy. Plus be prepared for moments where you aren't used to tipping, and try not to be caught out.

As we journey deeper into the episode, we switch gears to tackle Moroccan shopping realities.  There are shopping pitfalls where unsuspecting tourists can be exploited. Destination Morocco is there to help you out, but awareness and precaution are crucially important. Azdean explains what can happen and how the company tries to circumvent it.

Tipping is one of those things that can be an afterthought in your tour preparations, but when you're there, in the moment, you'll appreciate having learned how to navigate as a confident traveller. 

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Transcript

AZDEAN: 1:09

Welcome to the Destination Morocco podcast, the show that takes you way to the beautiful country of Morocco. I am your host, Azdean Elmoustaquim. In each episode, we explore Moroccan culture, history, attractions and activities real and practical information coming from experienced travelers and native Moroccans like myself. And now let's go exploring. Welcome back to another amazing episode of Destination Morocco podcast. In this episode, we're going to be talking about the ultimate guide to tipping and shopping in Morocco. I'll do my best to answer a lot of questions that we have received concerning tipping and also shopping. Shopping is going to be at the end of the episode and we really, really have to talk about it because this is something that we have witnessed and seen ourselves, especially in the recent bookings in the last few months. So much to cover. Tipping in Morocco is a way really to express your appreciation for a service that you have received, a good service that you have received or a good experience. Tipping in Morocco is not a must, but it's really, really appreciated. This episode, everything we're going to give as an example, it's going to be in USD and, compared into the Moroccan currency, the dirham One USD equals roughly really equals 10 dirhams. It's actually less, but we're just going to say, 10 dirhams, just to make it easy to calculate the conversion rate. And also for me. I really use an app that helps me quite a bit converting the money from different currencies. So the app is called the globe convert. The globe convert, it's one word. Then you can download it on your iPhone or Samsung and it's really really good. So I'll start this episode by answering these questions. There are quite a few actually in there, really really good.

AZDEAN: 3:15

Is tipping a common practice in Morocco? Yes, it is a common practice in Morocco. Almost anywhere you go, people expect you to tip. Was it always that way? No, actually the tipping culture was not this way in Morocco, especially when looking back into the 80s, the 70s, the 60s. When you tip somebody, they almost feel like they're embarrassed for accepting your tip. It's considered, you know, not a good thing or kind of taboo. But now obviously the culture has changed quite a bit, so tipping is very appreciated nowadays.

AZDEAN: 3:51

The next question we have is the tipping culture similar to the one in the United States? I would say absolutely, and probably that's what we're headed in terms of tipping in general everywhere. So, yes, it is very similar to the culture in the US and tipping in the US. The percentage may be different, but still it's really really similar. Who expects to get a tip? That's really a vast question. A lot of people. Anybody that you come in contact and they provided you with a service, they will expect you to tip. Now, the percentage of tipping is different. In some areas we use a percentage and some areas we just use a dollar amount. For example, you take a cab, you just give them a dollar amount or you know a dirham amount which, in terms of dirhams maybe two dirhams is decent, which is the equivalent to maybe 50 cents USD In some places. When you go, for example, to a restaurant and stuff like that, then the tip is really a percentage versus a dollar amount, and we're going to cover that a little bit further down this episode. So, yeah, that's a really really good question.

AZDEAN: 5:02

What places do people need to tip that they may not be used to? So somewhere people are not expected to tip, but they need to. Okay, there's few, actually, but one that comes into mind is the washrooms, restrooms, bathrooms. When you travel in Morocco, whether from city to city, you're gonna make some stops, you know break stops, restroom stops and stuff like that and when you go to the restroom, you'll see there's an attendee or attendant that keeps that restroom clean, smelling nice and all that stuff. But they expect a tip from you while using the restroom and the tip normally is one dirham two dirhams, one is good which is the equivalent again to 25 cents US currency. Yeah, that's one place that really comes to mind. If you don't have it, you don't have changed and don't worry about it, but it's really nice if you could tip.

AZDEAN: 5:57

The next question that we have is if someone shows you around their shop, will they expect a tip? No, if somebody's showing you the shop, first of all they want to sell you stuff that's more than the tip they're gonna get. You can shop anywhere. You can window shop, anywhere you go. Nobody should expect you to tip at all. Do I have to buy something? No, you do not. You do not have to buy anything from the shop for you to be there. You can just look around, compare products maybe with other shops and see which one you know if you're gonna buy something. That's the way to do it Go from shop to shop and see what they have. If it's similar items. If it's different, then you can compare and make a decision. And even then, when you buy, you still do not need to tip.

AZDEAN: 6:46

So the next question we have is when should you tip? Do you do it before your trip or at the end of your trip, especially if it's your guide and driver? Oh, these are really good questions. When should you tip? I always say tip at the end of the tour. You always. I mean, there's no for me. I always leave it at the end because that's just how everybody really expects it and that's the common practice for everybody. So they always leave the tip at the end of the tour, for sure.

AZDEAN: 7:18

So the next question is how do travelers on tours get the small coins and bills for tipping? Oh, this is a really, really good question. So it's we talked about this for the episode number four with the scams that small change is more powerful than those large bills in Morocco and you save money that way. Quite a bit of it when you have the right change at the right moment at the right place or city. So when you don't have those coins, you always want to ask number one, your driver, and he can go anywhere and get you the small coins. Exchange, you know, 10, $10, $20 and get you plenty of coins. If you have a local guide with you or a guide with you, you can ask him. If you have a tour leader with you, then he's the right person to ask, or if you have a national guide, he's the one to ask. But if you just have a car and a driver, then you can just ask the driver and he'll take care of that for you.

AZDEAN: 9:09

Okay, the next question is can you tip in cash, in USD or in euros? Actually, you can tip in any currency, because it can be converted to Moroccan currency, to Durham currency. Yeah, tip with whatever currency you have and whatever you're comfortable with. Yeah, definitely, it's a really good question, by the way. So the next question that we have is there tipping on credit card transaction.

AZDEAN: 9:35

I think we've had this situation before. We can add the tip, because sometimes, in this case, what happened is the guest at the end of her tour, she didn't have any cash with her, so she asked hey, can you charge my credit card? And then that amount of the tip just give it to I think it was Heisham was her tour leader and the Muhammad was the driver. So just give Muhammad this amount and give Heisham this amount instead, of course. So that's exactly what we did, but it's very rare that we run into this situation, but in case we run into it, we take care of it. So the next question is where can people add tip on their credit card for the tour? So normally we do not add the tip on the bill.

AZDEAN: 10:23

So when you're paying your tour, the itinerary for your tour and everything, we don't charge you tipping. We don't charge whether it's 10%, 15%, 18% or 20%. We just leave it as it is and we leave the tip completely up to you. Now let's say, for instance, somebody wants to add the tip for their services they're going to be receiving in Morocco. They can absolutely do that and that when I say the tip, it's mainly for the driver, the tour leader and stuff like that. So for the people they're going to be staying with them throughout, so they can do that. But for us, we actually have never done this. We just do it the regular, the old-fashioned way.

AZDEAN: 11:00

The next question is is it considered wood? Not the tip? It's not really considered wood. If you don't tip, I'm sure you have your reasons and behind not tipping, it's perfectly fine not to tip. Sometimes it's a communication issue or miscommunication, because in some cultures they don't tip. They have a different tipping culture. So how much should you tip? There are actually three questions and I'm going to answer all of them at the same time with what's coming up a little bit below number one how much should you tip? Number two what are the percentages these days for the tip? Then the third one is the certain people or professions get tipped differently. Let's talk a little bit into more details about the tipping. So, especially these last three or four questions, I'm going to answer them this way.

AZDEAN: 11:54

The answers that I'm giving these are for private tours and a private tour it can be a minimum of two people. It's actually minimum of one, but we base it on two people. Then you can adjust the price. When the private tour has four people let's say you know parents, kids and stuff like that then the same thing you do. You adjust it. When the tour has six people. It could be multi-gen, traveling together, family, friends but you need to adjust these percentages and these numbers that I'm going to be talking about according to how many people are going to be traveling on that private tour. So the quotes that I'm giving are for two people. If you're traveling just two people, the amount per person is going to be the highest. When you're traveling in a group, for example, of 10 people, the amount that you're going to be tipping is a lot less than if you were just two people traveling on private tour.

AZDEAN: 12:50

So, when it comes to restaurants, if you're going to have a lunch or dinner at a casual restaurant, just pay 10 to 15 percent of the bill. The bill normally it's it's maybe five bucks, 20 bucks, just 10 to 15 percent of that. Now, when you're going to an upscale restaurant, I would definitely recommend 15 to 20 percent of the bill. So just keep that in mind. These numbers, again, they look almost similar to the US. If you're having just like walking around and having some street food, you don't really need to tip. But if you want to tip, maybe you know 50 cents and just a few coins. So the coins are really, really helpful, especially on your daily activities. The large bills. They're going to help you. At the end of your tour, when you're paying your tour leader, you're paying your local guide or national guide or a driver. That's when you're going to use those large bills. But within your tour, on daily things that you're doing, the small coins are going to be your best friends.

AZDEAN: 13:51

Sometimes we have requests to have an experience with the burger experience, for example, or a village experience, and those when you get invited to their house and you share a meal with them, with their lunch or dinner with their families, and stuff like that. Normally I would recommend tip in between 15 to 20 dollars per party. So let's say, two people are going, yeah, 15 bucks. 20 bucks is more than enough. And again, if you're going on a group, if you're going six people, then the amount should decrease per person, but the overall they should get more tip that way. So just keep that in mind. This is for restaurants.

AZDEAN: 14:28

Now, when we talk about experiences, it really depends. There's so many experiences. But again, use your judgment, see what makes sense to you and see what you're comfortable with. There's nothing wrong with tipping little or over tipping, but you want to do whatever you're comfortable with. So when we talk about experiences, for example, you know when you go to, you're in fast, you're in the medina, there's so many things that you're looking at, so beautiful, and you want to take pictures, whether it's downtime or medina, esawara or marrakech, a lot of people they're frown upon. They don't want you to take that picture. But some of them they're not going to say much to you. You can just take it. They're not going to say anything to you. But in a lot of the places what you want to do first is ask if it's okay to take a picture. Most of them they'll say yes, especially if you give them a tip. We've done it. We normally give five bucks and people they don't mind. They say, okay, go ahead. So five dollars usd, that's what I normally pay. Five dollars usd if it's a big shop. You go into a big shop, it's huge and you're taking a lot of pictures. You know, I think $10 is reasonable, but for the regular ones, five bucks. So you have between five to $10. Okay, now we're going to go to. This is for taking pictures. We're going to go to the Hanna tattoo, for example.

AZDEAN: 15:43

When you book an experience or when we book an experience for you, we always recommend between $10 and $15. And this is for experience For two people. Let's say, having a Hanna tattoo experience when the lady is done, just you know, 10, 15 bucks is good for you. So now, if it's four people, I would say she'd be less than 10, maybe eight to 10 versus 10 to 15. But because, again, the amount is less. But then when four people are tipping she's getting a bigger tip. So the more people tip. If it's four, six, then the amount really decreases of your tip. Just keep that in mind. That way you know if there's six of you and you're giving $10 per person for experience. That's quite a bit. So that's what we do.

AZDEAN: 16:27

Let's say, we booked for your hot air balloon. Normally, because they pick you up at the hotel or the riyadh, they give you breakfast, then take you back to your riyadh or hotel and you can actually have a breakfast on air at the hot air balloon and normally I would say, tip five to $15. Let's say you're part of two, then between $5 and $15 is really good. The other thing is I want to jump into the Hamam and Spa experience. The Hamam and Spa experience it's no different because even in US when you go you have a spa, you definitely tip and in this case I would recommend between $5 to $10 per attendee. This is for a regular massage. If you do something that it's luxury, that it's a little bit more pricey, I would say, just give a little bit extra. So this is for the experiences For transportation.

AZDEAN: 17:17

You look at the length of time or days or days that you have booked your tour, whether it's seven days, whether it's eight days, whether it's nine and 10. So it's really, really important for us to price the tip or recommend the tip per day, per person, in this case For your driver. It's better to tip at the end of the tour, which we have answered earlier. It is appropriate to tip approximately, I would say, about 12 USD per day per person. And again, the reason is because here's your constant the driver is with you from the moment you arrive in Morocco until the moment he drops you off at the airport or your hotel or your port, if you come in through Tangier and stuff like that. So $12 per person per day. It's a good tip when you have local tour guides with you. So the local tour guide, they come with the item, or really it's faster or more.

AZDEAN: 18:09

I guess sometimes you want to do I'll give the example of voliubilis. In voliubilis you don't really need the local guide all day. So the local guide is going to be for half a day, and the same thing you can do half a day in many other places. So the local guides, what we recommend. A full day city tour is between $10 to $15 per person. So let's say you're you know it's two people getting a local guide. Let's say in Marrakesh. I would say between 20 to 30 bucks for the two people. If you're doing a half day, you're just going to do half a day, then the afternoon going to take the time off For half a day. I would recommend $5 to $10 USD per person. Just keep that in mind. So when we build a night tentative for you, marrakesh and Fass are included. If you need local guides in different places, we can do that as well.

AZDEAN: 19:00

So the tour leader what is a tour leader? A lot of people don't know what a tour leader is. A tour leader is different than a national guide. A tour leader, basically, is your assistant, is your concierge, is your bodyguard, really. So he does everything for you. So when you need to make a currency exchange at the moment you arrive in Morocco, he can help you do that. He can help recommend restaurants, places to go and stuff like that. He's your personal assistant, basically, and a tour leader. What makes them different is they actually have to run a marathon, finish a marathon, because they're also called mountain guides and just in case you get stuck somewhere that you know the nearest city is far, they should be able to run to the nearest city and get you the help that you need. So this is a tour leader and we recommend $15 USD per person daily. So let's say you have a tour for 10 days, that's 150 per person, party of two, that's 300, which is really, really good.

AZDEAN: 19:59

The other thing with a tour leader when you have a tour leader, you still need local guides in different cities. Let's say Marrakesh, fass, shafshaw and Volubilius, mknaz, tangier and Tietwan and all those cities, if you prefer, because a tour leader is not really certified to be a local guide in those cities, some of those cities that we have mentioned. Now, when we talk about national guides, national guides are different than the tour leaders. When you have a national guide, it's the combination of a tour leader and a local guide. So you'll have a national guide with you and your driver and that's it Versus. You have a tour leader, then you have your car and driver, then you have local guides in each major city. You make a stop and again we use and we book whoever you choose. If you just want car and driver, we can do that. If you want just car and driver and local guides in different cities, we can do that as well. If you want to take it to the next level, then we can do a tour leader or a national guide. So it's completely up to you.

AZDEAN: 20:56

So now we're going to move to the Royads and hotels and what is the tip in? Again, everything we're seeing here today is per couple and those are private tours. So when you go to the Riyadh and somebody helps you with the luggage a bellman, I would say two to five bucks is good, unless you're traveling with a lot of luggage then I would say between five to ten dollars is good. A house keeping I would say maybe a dollar or two dollars per day that you're gonna be staying at that place. If you're staying for two days, then you know two dollars is good. The dormant, basically the dormant, just like the US. You know if you need a cab and they hail a cab for you and just one box, two dollars is good. Room service in this one, in some areas, just like the US, they have the productivity included. But you always want to check and ask hey, you know, is it included? If it's not included, then I would say 10% is a good tip to give.

AZDEAN: 21:51

The other thing that we have in the riyadhs. Sometimes we have requests for cooking class and I would say for this it depends on how many people are taking the cooking class and I would recommend 15 dollars to 25 dollars per party. It depends if you're having it in marakash or if you're having it in fast. Some are different. In a way, you can go to the market, pick up the vegetables, the meat and everything that you want to cook for that class, or sometimes the riyadh, the hotel. They have everything ready for you. All you do is just go into the kitchen and start preparing everything. Just it depends what type of experience you get and tip, I would say, accordingly.

AZDEAN: 22:31

So now the next question that I have is actually when you ride a camel. Oh, this is a good one. Okay, I'm gonna talk about my last experience in mizuga, which was amazing, amazing, by the way. Normally I would recommend tipping between two to five dollars for the camel handler. He helps you put on your scarf and everything, and they do it in a really, really very nice and unique way. So two to five dollars is good, but we were very lucky the guys that were with us. They're really really good paparazzi's. They know how to take the best pictures. So, and it was, it was a good fit. We had so much fun, we enjoyed it and obviously we did tip them more, but they're really really deserved it. They went above and beyond what we have expected of them. And this is the best thing about tipping you. You know I need to tip. Maybe I don't really need to, but I can tip maybe two bucks, but I end up paying ten dollars because of the things that they have gone above, just to make that experience an outstanding experience. So that was a special case for us. So for you, I would recommend two to five dollars. It's plenty.

AZDEAN: 23:35

Now, what we're gonna try to do is I know we did it on episode four I'm gonna have some pictures the bills and then the equal to those bills if you were to convert them into Moroccan currency, which is the dirham. So, for example I'm just gonna talk about it I'm gonna go to the big one, which is 200 dirhams. 200 dirhams really is the equivalent to 20 dollars USD. Then, when we move to 100 dirhams, that's the equivalent to 10 USD. 50 dirhams is the equivalent to 5 USD and then 20 dirhams is the equivalent to 2 USD. Now I'll give you the colors, but we also we're gonna have them on show notes, so you can see it 200 dirhams the color is blue. 100 dirhams the color is kind of brownish. Then the 50 dirhams is greenish, then the 20 dirhams, which is the two dollars, it's a red color.

AZDEAN: 24:33

So I would say, stay away as much as you can from the 200 dirhams and use mainly the 100 dirhams. 50 dirhams and your best friend should be the 20 dirhams, because that's the one that you're gonna use quite a bit, and then, in addition to the coins. So those are gonna be really your best friend on a day-to-day activities, because if you don't have the right money or the right coin amount or the right change, then it's gonna cost you more. So instead of giving somebody, for example, 2 USD, you're gonna give him 20 USD, which is, you know, it's a lot of money, and this is the again, this is the benefit of booking with us. We take care of all of this for you. You don't have to worry about anything. You don't have to figure out hey, what do we need to go? What do we need to do? How do we need to do this. We give it to you straight up. Hopefully, this guide will be helpful and beneficial to anybody who's traveling tomorrow, or not just to one the travelers that are going to be booking with us, but this is for everyone. It helps. It really, really helps for me. If I were going somewhere and I have this kind of guide or guidelines, I'd definitely appreciate it.

AZDEAN: 25:35

Now, moving from the tipping part in Morocco, then we go into the ultimate guide of shopping in Morocco and shopping. I have to be honest, this is very painful subject for us as a company in many different ways, because as a tour operator, we don't control everything from A to Z. We do our best and sometimes things happen, and this is one of the worst experiences that can happen and it did happen with us. Sometimes you have a tour, you have a family traveling, you have everything goes perfectly fine, and then you know three months, four months, after the tour is completed. Then we get a phone call, a text message or email. Hey, you know, everything that I shopped in Morocco did not make it yet.

AZDEAN: 26:18

First of all, we don't know anything about your shopping experience or anything that you have shopped. So the number one thing that I would recommend if you're gonna shop in Morocco, you must let us know, because you have a lot of things going against you, and I'll give you examples. Keep in mind the shopping experiences. That's where the local guides, that's where the tour guides, that's where the tour leaders or the national guides they make extra money. So when I say extra money, the sky is the beginning. It can be from few hundred bucks to few thousand dollars. Yes, that is right, few thousand dollars. So we don't want you to be taken advantage of. So, basically, you really have to be very careful, and you can do it number one by communicating it to us and we can make recommendations, or at least we can follow up.

AZDEAN: 27:07

If you have bought something, we need to make sure that it's done the right way, and one of the issues that we've had in the past is the shop owner or the clerk. They'll tell the client okay, we'll take care of it for you, shipping is included and everything is taken care of. Then again, four months later, when we contact, we reach out to the shop and say no, they did not pay for the shipping. Then you ask how much is the shipping? Then the shipping is an average of $1,000 or more. So it's really, really important for you, the traveler.

AZDEAN: 27:38

If you're going with us, we'll really have to know if you're going to shop. And I'm not talking about souvenirs and stuff like that, I'm talking about the carpet. If you're going to buy carpet, we can make recommendations the best place to buy a carpet. If you need to get ceramics, there's beautiful places where you can get them. We need to make recommendations for you. This is the person to go to. This is the shop. This is the owner shop. This is their information. If you need leather goods, the same thing. If you need woodcraftsmanship in a sauerkraut definitely is the best. If you need ergan oil, some people they love honey, olive oil.

AZDEAN: 28:10

So when it comes to shopping, it is one of the biggest opportunities for some of the vendors that we use to take advantage of you, and I'm so sorry to say that Just recently we've had guests having the same issue and bringing it to our attention and even though we talk to the local guide, then you know say hey, you're not supposed to be doing this, but I just don't understand why they do that Even though we say hey, no shopping, no shopping. Unfortunately, lauren had that experience. They were doing a food tasting, and a food tasting tour is at night time, but he still want to take them shopping, or took them shopping Actually, I mean, come on. Anyways, we share this information because we don't want you to fall into the same trap. The local guides that we use are extremely knowledgeable, but it's just a bad habit and this is one of the biggest issues that we have in Morocco in the tourism sector, tourism industry.

AZDEAN: 29:06

This is the worst part of it, which is shopping. Tipping is okay, it's, I understand, but shopping it can turn everything around. So we do the best that we can to minimize those incidents, but we cannot control them 100%. We'll make sure. Hey, if you're not going to buy anything, we make sure to let everybody know they're not shopping, they're not going to buy. So don't waste your time because, again, they make extra money doing that. You know, an additional 15% of the cost, whatever you paid for, an additional maybe 20% or 30%, but that can add up.

AZDEAN: 29:38

We're here for you. Let us know if we can help and how we can help, and also we would love for you to share your experience. If you want to come to the podcast and talk about the experience in Morocco, you're more than welcome. I know this happens every day and I've seen it, and it hurts, but we would love to share some of the experiences of the listeners somebody that has gone through this. And how did they overcome that situation? What did they do in that situation? So for us it's a constant battle. If he would, we'll intervene. If we have to call the shop right away, we'll call the shop. If we have to call the local guide or the tour leader, we'll call, but we need to know about it when it's happening at that moment. So, thank you the listeners. It's always amazing. I haven't done an episode in quite some time and this is really, really nice. Thank you so much for being with us today. We really appreciate you and have a wonderful day.