Will I get sick in Morocco, and how do I avoid traveller's diarrhoea ("Marrakech belly")?

Let me be honest and reassuring at the same time: a lot of guests do get a mild tummy upset somewhere in their trip, but the dramatic "I was bedridden for days" stories are the exception, not the rule. In my experience, what people call "Marrakech belly" is usually a one or two day grumble — looser stools, a bit of bloating — rather than anything dangerous. Your gut is meeting new water, new spices, and a richer, oilier cuisine than it's used to, and it just needs a moment to adjust.

The single biggest thing I tell every traveller: drink bottled or properly filtered water, and use it for brushing your teeth too. It is widely and cheaply available everywhere, and good riads and hotels provide it. Skip ice in small or quiet cafés where you can't be sure of the source — though in established hotels, riads and busy restaurants, ice is almost always made from purified water and perfectly fine. I also gently steer first-timers away from the very tempting fresh-squeezed juice stalls on day one, not because they're bad, but because cold drinks plus a brand-new bacterial environment is a lot to ask of your stomach on arrival.

For food, my rule is "busy, fresh and hot." A packed eatery with high turnover is your friend — the food hasn't been sitting around, and locals voting with their feet is the best hygiene certificate there is. Eat tagines and grilled meats while they're piping hot, peel any fruit yourself (bananas, oranges and clementines are perfect), and be a little cautious with raw salads and room-temperature buffet items in budget places. In good restaurants and riads, salads are washed in purified water and I eat them happily.

Pack a small kit and you'll feel calm about the whole thing: oral rehydration salts (the most important item — they fix you faster than anything), loperamide (Imodium) for when you have a long drive ahead, and maybe a probiotic you start a few days before travel. If symptoms are mild, rest, hydrate, and eat plain — bread, rice, plain couscous. Mint tea genuinely helps settle the stomach. See a doctor or pharmacist only if you have a high fever, blood in your stool, or symptoms lasting beyond two or three days, which is uncommon.

One practical tip from years of trips: ease in. Your first dinner doesn't need to be the spiciest street-food crawl in the medina. Start gentle, let your system find its feet, and by day three most people are eating everything with gusto. A little common sense, a bottle of water in your bag, and you'll likely sail through.