Spicy B

I am taking a trip to Morocco soon, and was thinking about renting a car. Does anybody know about these two issues:

1. I am coming from China and only have my New Jersey driver's license. Is that enough to rent a car and drive?
2. I don't speak/read any French or Arabic. Will I be ok getting around?

stimpy

No problem renting or driving with a US license. I speak French, but I think it would be ok with English. The thing that you have to be very careful with is to drive slow in towns. The local police are always looking for money and will flag you down if you are moving fast and tell you that you have to give them some dirhams.

chgoeditor

NJ driver's license should be fine.

Can you give us a sense of the routes you're planning to take? And will you have a phone with GPS?

In my experience, getting from city to city is easy -- most minor and major routes are well marked with signs showing the next town/city and the next major city. The challenge -- particularly if you're staying in the medina/old parts of towns where cars are prohibited -- is finding your way from the city limits to your destination. In these instances, French or GPS does help. Most riads within the medina will advise you on which car park is closest to the medina gate closest to the riad. (Hiring a cab to lead the way if you're lost also works well.)

As Stimpy mentioned, police checkpoints are common. Six or seven years ago, my Mom and I drove extensively for about a week. She's a pretty careful driver, but was still pulled over once, though not ticketed or fined. I was there again in 2015 and we hired a driver through a tour company. Over the course of three days, I'd estimate he was stopped about five times. That said, the conversation between police and driver was in Arabic, so it's hard to know if he was pulled over for speeding, a paper check or simply because the police knew him and wanted to say hi.

corky

If you are planning on driving through the Atlas Mountains, you should know that it is a lot of 1 lane narrow and windy roads without turnoffs for slow drivers/trucks etc.
And parking in the cities is nuts.
I just came back from a wonderful trip to Morocco--amazing place. But I am so glad that we had a driver. I would never consider driving myself there---I am an admitted chicken but I say leave the driving to someone who really knows their way around and just enjoy the scenery!

Doc Savage

I'd also advise a first time visitor to not drive, particularly in the cities.

Road signs, signals, and rules appeared to me to be mere suggestions.

stimpy

There's a first time for everybody and everything. I drove my first time there and other than a couple of relatively tiny police bribes, it went fine.

And I grew up in an America where signs and rules were treated as suggestions as well. Who doesn't exceed the speed limit in America? Ever? Roll a stop sign? We used to call those Hollywood stop's.

MSPeconomist

Even though an international driver's license isn't required, it can be easier if you have one. They cost about $10 for a year from an auto club. You might want to check whether the Chinese equivalent of AAA can sell you one in some major city in China.

flyingfkb

Three years ago I did a two week road trip with a friend through Morocco from Casablanca - Rabat - Fez - Erg Chebbi - Ait-Ben-Haddou - Imli/Toubkal - Marrakesch - El Jadida and back to Casablanca.

During the day driving is no problem but don't drive at night. Driving in cities is a bit of a challenge, just stay really alert and use the horn frequently. Overall the roads are in good shape in Morocco, especially the toll highways.

Roadsigns are in French and Arabic. I only had basic French in school and it was no problem to read the signs.

Speeding is an issue in Morocco so the police has regular checkpoints. So stay within the speedlimit and jusst slow down at a checkpoint and as soon as they see you are a tourist they let you through. I never had an issue with them. They were always nice and correct.