Are there public toilets in Morocco, and what are they like?

Let's talk honestly about toilets, because it's the practical detail nobody mentions but everyone wonders about. Dedicated public toilets in the street are not abundant in Morocco, and where they exist their standard varies a lot. You'll encounter two main types: the Western-style seated toilet you know from home, common in hotels, modern cafés, restaurants and tourist sites, and the traditional squat toilet — a porcelain pan set into the floor — which you'll still meet in older establishments, rural areas, bus stations and some public facilities. Neither is a problem once you know what to expect.

A near-universal feature of paid public toilets is the attendant. Many facilities — in markets, transport hubs, near major sights — have someone seated at the entrance who keeps the place clean and to whom you pay a small fee, usually around 1–2 MAD (occasionally a bit more). It's worth always having a few coins on you for exactly this. The attendant often hands you a few sheets of toilet paper as you go in, which matters because — and this is the key thing to internalise — toilet paper is frequently not provided inside the cubicle itself.

So the golden rule, which seasoned travellers never forget, is to carry your own supplies. Always have a pack of tissues or a small roll of toilet paper and a bottle of hand sanitiser in your day bag, every single day. Soap and paper towels can be absent even where there's a sink, and squat toilets traditionally pair with a water hose or bucket rather than paper. With your own tissues and sanitiser you're self-sufficient and unbothered by whatever you find; without them you can be caught out at the worst moment.

For the most comfortable experience, be strategic about where you go. Use the facilities at restaurants and cafés when you stop to eat or have a mint tea (a perfectly normal thing to do, especially if you're a customer), at your hotel or riad before heading out, at museums and major attractions, and at the larger, more modern petrol stations on road trips — these motorway-style stations often have the cleanest, most reliable toilets you'll find when travelling between cities. I tell guests to simply "go when you can, not when you must," topping up at every good opportunity.

My reassurance: this is genuinely a minor adjustment, not a hardship. Keep coins for attendants, carry your own tissues and sanitiser religiously, lean on cafés, hotels and petrol stations for the nicer facilities, and don't be thrown by an occasional squat toilet — it's simply different, not difficult. A little preparation and the whole topic stops being a worry and becomes a non-event.