What do first-time visitors to Morocco get wrong?

The mistake I correct most often is the over-stuffed itinerary. People look at a map, see Marrakech, Fes, Chefchaouen and the Sahara all on one page, and try to do it in five days. The map lies — Morocco's distances are mountain distances, and what looks like a short hop is a winding six-hour drive over a pass. I'd far rather a client deeply enjoy three places than glimpse seven through a car window, exhausted. The single best edit to almost every first draft itinerary is to cut a destination and add a night.

The second thing people get wrong is their stance toward locals, in both directions. Nervous travellers go rigid and suspicious, refusing every offer of tea and treating a genuinely kind person like a threat — and they miss the best of Morocco. Over-trusting travellers swing the other way, follow a "student" who "just wants to practise English" into the carpet shop, and feel burned. The healthy middle is warm but boundaried: smile, say a friendly "la shukran" (no thank you), don't accept unsolicited guiding, and let the relaxed, no-pressure encounters unfold naturally. They will.

Packing is a quieter mistake with real consequences. People pack for a heat fantasy and freeze in a desert camp or a riad in February, or they bring shorts and strappy tops and feel uncomfortable and conspicuous in conservative towns. Morocco rewards modest layers — covered shoulders and knees keep you both warm and at ease, and a fleece plus a scarf solves the temperature swings between a 35°C afternoon and a 5°C night. Comfortable closed shoes for the uneven medina lanes save more trips than anything else I recommend.

Finally, almost everyone underestimates cash. Cards work in upmarket restaurants and hotels, but the taxi, the medina stall, the tip, the rural café and the public toilet all want dirhams — ideally small notes and coins, because nobody wants to break a 200 for a 10-dirham purchase. Get a SIM or eSIM at the airport, carry a stash of small cash, build in buffer time, and keep your expectations loose. Morocco runs on relationships and improvisation more than on schedules, and the visitors who relax into that have a wildly better trip than the ones fighting it.