Should I book accommodation in advance in Morocco?

My straightforward advice is to book ahead, and the reason is simple: the very properties you most want — the well-reviewed riads in the heart of the Marrakech and Fes medinas, and the good desert camps — are small, with only a handful of rooms or tents, so they sell out fast. There is no large block of inventory to fall back on the way there is with a 300-room hotel. When a fifteen-room riad is full, it is full, and in peak season the best ones are spoken for months in advance. Booking early secures the place you actually want rather than whatever is left.

Timing matters by season. For travel in spring (roughly March to May) and autumn (September to November), which are the busiest months, I would book the headline riads and camps as early as you reasonably can — three to six months out for the popular ones is not excessive over Easter, holiday weeks and the shoulder peaks. Christmas and New Year are the most competitive of all. If you are travelling in the quieter heat of high summer or the depths of winter, you have considerably more flexibility and can book closer in, sometimes even on the road.

The desert camp deserves a special mention. There are a finite number of well-run camps at Merzouga and in the Erg Chigaga, and demand is heavy in peak season, so this is the single element I most strongly urge guests to lock in early — particularly the luxury en-suite camps and any sole-use arrangement. The same goes for full-moon nights and major holidays, when everyone wants to be in the dunes at once. Leaving the camp to chance is the one gamble I genuinely advise against.

That said, I am not telling you to over-schedule. A common compromise that works well is to firmly book your first couple of nights, the desert camp, and any specific riad you have your heart set on, while leaving a little flexibility in smaller towns where rooms are easier to find last-minute. If you would rather not juggle it yourself, this is exactly the kind of thing a trip designer handles — holding the right riads and the best camp on the right dates so you simply arrive to a plan that fits together.