Is parking easy in Moroccan cities?

Parking is one of the bigger frictions of self-driving in Morocco, and it's worth understanding before you commit to a rental car for a city-heavy trip. The fundamental issue is that the old cities — the medinas of Marrakech, Fes, Meknes, Tetouan — are medieval, walled and largely impassable to cars. You cannot drive to your riad's door; you park on the perimeter and walk (or a porter wheels your bags in on a cart).

In the new cities (the villes nouvelles) you'll find a mix of metered street parking, paid lots and informal arrangements. The most common thing you'll encounter is the gardien — a man, often in a blue or yellow coat, who 'manages' a stretch of street. You hand him a few dirhams (5–10 for a short stop, perhaps 20 for the day or overnight), he watches your car and waves you into a space. It's semi-official, ubiquitous, and genuinely useful: a watched car is a safe car.

For peace of mind, especially overnight, use a proper guarded car park (parking gardé) or a hotel with secure parking. Many riads can direct you to a trusted nearby lot, and some have an arrangement where a porter meets you. Paying for secure parking is money well spent — you avoid the anxiety of leaving a rental on a random street and the small risk of a scrape in tight, busy lanes.

Spaces near major sights and medina gates fill up, and the streets immediately around them can be a slow-moving scrum of cars, mopeds, handcarts and pedestrians. My advice is to arrive at off-peak times, accept that you may park a ten-minute walk away, and not to fight for a spot right at the entrance — it rarely exists.

This is genuinely one of the strongest arguments for not having a car in the cities at all. Many of our guests do their city days entirely on foot and by petit taxi, and only pick up a car (or a driver) for the open-road legs between cities. If your itinerary is two or three medinas with desert in between, parking alone might tip you toward a driver — you'll never circle a block looking for a gardien again.