Will I get hassled constantly in Morocco?

I want to be honest before I reassure you, because pretending it does not happen is how people end up feeling ambushed. Yes — in the medina of Marrakech around Jemaa el-Fnaa, in the tanneries of Fes, near major monuments, you will be approached. Someone will tell you the square is closed and offer to lead you another way. Someone will press a sprig of mint into your hand or want to put a snake near you for a photo. This is not your imagination and it is not "a few bad apples" — in those specific hotspots it is a genuine feature of the landscape, and a first-timer can find it relentless on day one.

Here is the honest context, though, and it changes everything: it is overwhelmingly commercial, not threatening. These are people trying to earn a commission or a few dirhams, not to harm you. I have walked these same streets hundreds of times. The "hassle" is a transaction someone is trying to start, and you have the absolute right to not start it. A calm, unbothered "la, shukran," eyes forward, no slowing down, no apology — and you keep moving. The mistake almost every nervous first-timer makes is over-explaining, stopping to debate, or feeling rude. You owe no one a conversation. Politeness in Morocco does not require you to engage with a sales pitch.

The other honest truth is that it is intensely geographical. Step three streets off the main tourist artery and it largely evaporates — in residential medina lanes, in Chefchaouen, in the Atlas villages, in the desert, on the coast at Essaouira, people mostly leave you completely alone or are simply, warmly curious about you. I have had travellers brace themselves for a week of pressure and then spend most of the trip wondering where it went. The intensity you read about online is real but it is a thin crust over a country that, the moment you are off the tourist conveyor belt, is remarkably relaxed.

Practically: don't accept unsolicited "help" with directions (that's the most common paid setup), use your phone's offline map so you never look lost, agree any price before a service happens, and consider a licensed guide for your first medina day — a good guide instantly dissolves the touts because you visibly already have someone. Within forty-eight hours almost everyone finds their rhythm and stops noticing it. It is a skill, not a wall, and you will have it by day two.