Do I need travel insurance for Morocco and what should it cover?

Travel insurance is not legally required to enter Morocco for most visitors, but I would treat it as essential rather than optional. The two things you are really insuring against are a medical emergency far from home and losing the money you have prepaid if your trip falls apart. Both are low-probability and high-cost, which is exactly what insurance is for.

The most important cover is medical, including emergency evacuation. Good private clinics exist in Marrakech, Casablanca, and other cities, but you may be paying up front, and if something serious happens in the desert or mountains, evacuation is expensive. Make sure your policy covers overseas medical treatment and repatriation with a sensible limit — this is the line item that genuinely protects you.

After that, look for trip cancellation and interruption cover, which refunds non-refundable costs if you have to cancel for a covered reason (illness, family emergency, and so on) — this is what pairs with the operator deposit you cannot get back. Add baggage loss and delay, and crucially check the adventure-activity clause: camel trekking, quad biking, sandboarding, and Atlas hiking are sometimes excluded by default and need an active-pursuits add-on.

One practical tip that saves people real money: buy the policy soon after you book, not the week you fly. Cancellation cover only protects you for things that happen after the policy starts, so buying early means a sudden illness weeks before departure is covered. Keep the policy number and the insurer's emergency line saved offline on your phone.