Do I need cash, and how much, for the desert or rural areas?

Cash is king the moment you leave the cities, and the desert is the clearest example. Out at the dunes and in rural villages, card machines are essentially non-existent — and where one exists it may be offline, since the connection isn't reliable. So the simple rule I give every client heading into the Sahara or deep Atlas: sort your cash in a city, before you go, because you cannot count on topping up out there.

How much depends on your style, but for a typical few-day desert excursion I suggest roughly 500 to 1,000 dirhams per person as a comfortable buffer (about 50–100 USD). What's it for? Tips, mostly — the camp staff, your camel guide, the driver, the cook who made that tagine over coals — and tipping is genuinely expected and appreciated here. Then bottled drinks and snacks at roadside stops, the small handicrafts and rugs you'll be tempted by in villages, entry to little local sights, and the odd argan-oil cooperative or fossil shop along the route. None of these take cards.

Bring it in the right denominations, which is the part people miss. Stock up on small notes — 20s, 50s, 100s — and a handful of coins, because nobody in a village can break a 200-dirham note for a 10-dirham tea, and 'no change' is a very real conversation. I tell people to deliberately keep small bills aside as their 'tips and tea' stash so they're not flashing a big wad or stuck unable to pay. Note too that dirhams are a closed currency you generally can't get before arriving, so plan to withdraw on day one or two in a city.

A few safety habits make this painless: split your cash between a couple of places (some in a money belt, a day's worth in your pocket), don't carry your entire trip's budget into the desert at once, and keep a card as backup for when you're back in town. Withdraw from ATMs attached to actual banks in the cities, take out a sensible lump sum to limit fees, and you'll glide through the rural stretches while the under-prepared are awkwardly explaining they only have a card. In the desert, cash isn't a preference — it's the only thing that works.