It tends to surface within minutes of touchdown — a porter reaches for your case in the CMN hall, a driver waits with your name on a card. In Morocco the tip — baksheesh — belongs to the everyday currency of courtesy, not to some surcharge invented for visitors. Handled with a light touch it is quiet, warm and modest. Handled clumsily it turns a small kindness into a scene. What follows is the same briefing we give our own guests: precise numbers, traced from the arrivals hall outward.
Your licensed guide
Earning the badge in Morocco means years of study and a set of state exams, so the work is skilled work. A full day in a guide's company is worth US$15–25 per guest per day, passed across at the close of the day as a folded note or in an envelope. Where a single driver-guide carries you over several days, US$10–20 per guest per day reads as handsome — collect it together and give it at the very end.
Behind the wheel
A solo run to or from the airport is settled with US$3–5. A driver who keeps you company for a whole day earns US$10–15 from the group. Across a multi-day chauffeured loop, set aside US$10–15 per day from everyone combined and hand it over as you part at the final drop-off.
Riad & hotel staff
- The porter who carries up: US$1–2 per bag.
- Housekeeping: US$2–3 per night, tucked under the pillow.
- The front-of-house lead: US$5–10 as you check out, when they have been the one booking your cabs, your dinners and your detours.
- Whoever sets out breakfast: round the tab up, or leave MAD 10.
Cafés, brasseries & the Corniche
The bill nearly always carries service already. Top it up by 5–10% when the table was looked after properly. At a pavement café — say, a coffee facing the Atlantic on the Corniche — leaving the coins is enough. In a proper Casablanca brasserie with white linen, 10% is a warm gesture.
Desert crews & camel handlers
For a night out under the dunes, gather US$10–15 per guest as you leave and place it with the camp manager to split among the cooks, the musicians and the tent crew. The handler walking your camel is glad of US$2–3 in hand.
Hammam, cooking class & workshop hosts
After a private hammam, leave the therapist MAD 50–100. A half-day at the stove with a chef in a family kitchen calls for US$10 per guest. Where an artisan has walked you through zellige, weaving or leatherwork, add US$5–10 per guest beyond whatever the session itself cost.
Cash, currency & the unwritten rules
- Make it cash, every time — a tip added to a card almost never reaches the person who earned it.
- Dirhams (MAD) first. A small dollar or euro note will do in a pinch; coins minted outside the Eurozone are dead weight, since no bank here will take them.
- Fold the note or slip it into an envelope, and never tally it out loud in front of the person receiving it.
- Poor service genuinely earns nothing, and staff here will not be surprised if you leave empty-handed.
- Resist tipping at every turn. Reward an unbidden "helper" in the medina and you have just bought yourself a shadow for the next hour.
The whole thing on one card
| Service | Suggested tip |
|---|---|
| Licensed guide, full day | US$15–25 / guest / day |
| Driver-guide, multi-day | US$10–20 / guest / day |
| CMN airport transfer | US$3–5 |
| Housekeeping | US$2–3 / night |
| Front-of-house lead, at checkout | US$5–10 |
| Cafés & brasseries | 5–10% on top |
| Desert camp crew, per night | US$10–15 / guest |
| Camel handler | US$2–3 |
| Hammam therapist | MAD 50–100 |