Is it OK to drink alcohol publicly in Morocco?

Yes, you can drink in Morocco, and a lot of visitors are surprised by how available alcohol is in a Muslim country. The key word is discreet. Alcohol is legal for non-Muslims and produced domestically — Morocco makes perfectly good wine in the Meknes and coastal regions, plus the local Casablanca and Flag beers — and you will find it in licensed restaurants, hotel and riad bars, dedicated bars and clubs in the cities, and in the alcohol sections of larger supermarkets such as Carrefour and Marjane. So the supply is there; it is the setting and the manner that matter.

Where it differs from home is that drinking is not a public, visible activity here. You will not see people wandering the medina with a beer or picnicking in a park with wine, and you should not either — drinking in the street and in public squares is both frowned upon and can attract trouble. Keep it to licensed venues and the privacy of your riad or hotel. Many traditional restaurants, especially smaller local ones, simply do not serve alcohol at all, so if a drink with dinner matters to you, it is worth checking or choosing a place with a licence rather than assuming.

Two timing-and-place sensitivities are worth holding in mind. The first is Ramadan: during the holy month, alcohol sales to locals are restricted, some bars close or go quiet, and supermarket alcohol sections may be roped off — venues catering to tourists usually still serve, but the whole subject becomes more sensitive, so be especially low-key. The second is geography and audience: in conservative rural areas and small towns alcohol is far less available and far less accepted than in cosmopolitan Marrakech or Casablanca, so calibrate to where you are.

My practical advice is to treat alcohol the way well-mannered Moroccans and seasoned travellers do: enjoy a glass of local wine on your riad terrace, a beer by the hotel pool, cocktails in a rooftop bar, but keep it contained, moderate and out of public, religious and family-oriented settings. Do not offer alcohol to Moroccans unless you know they drink, never drink and drive (police checks are common and penalties serious), and read the room around mosques and during prayer and Ramadan. Handled with that small amount of awareness, a drink is no problem at all.