UKC

Does anybody have experience with car rental in Morocco? Any tips, good experiences/bad experiences, recommended companies? 
 

Thanks in advance. 

Used a few companies up to now. Frankly there's little difference between afaics. Used a local firm the first time and was good as gold, the next time was Europecar which had a couple of niggles but was otherwise fine. I think it's probably as much who you happen to speak to as much as anything else.  

Help yourself though. Check the car properly, check the spare and check the tracking if you're doing some decent miles. If it's out badly at least you know to keep an eye on the tyres before they get down to the cords.

Edit for spelling

Thank you, I thought that might be the case! Good tips on tracking, that one hadn’t occurred to me. 

Used Avis last time, no complaints. Pricier option but I have a discount.

Avoid Hertz at all costs! They rented us a car with a previous badly-repaired puncture, which failed. Rather than compensating us for the hassle they charged £400 for the privilege. Total rip-off and completely impossible to extract a fair outcome from Hertz. Be warned! 

Recently hired several cars from AirCar at Marrakesh airport. All as advertised, no pressure to buy their extended insurance, no problems with any of the cars in over 1000km of driving, no attempt to rip us off - one of the group ended up with quite a bad scuff on the front bumper, which they were relaxed about and only charged £50 for the damage (happily provided the paperwork needed to claim that back off our excess insurance).

That sounds promising. Thanks, I’ll see if I can find their website.

Funnily enough, I had a similar experience with Hertz in Canada this time last year! 

Slightly unrelated but from my experience of driving around Morrocco you really need to watch out for the Police checkpoints. They won't do anything particularly sinister but they will stop you if you don't stop at the very small stop signs and they will fine you a few hundred Dhiram. 

Not the end of the world but a big pain in the arse.

Yeah - my sister had a run in with them in Australia when a kangaroo hit them (jumped out of bush with no warning). Thought they were ok with the extra insurance, but dozy girl at pick up hadn't properly added it, which caused quite an argument with them!

We used 1 Service Car back in November, they were really good. The rep was available on WhatsApp throughout our trip and didn't seem fussed about the car being returned covered in dust and with a few new scuffs. 

Thanks for the heads up, will keep an eye out. 

Check the spare wheel, we had one that was knackered.
Really really check the car, a regular poster was saying on here how he had a car knocked back into shape after crashing it at a back yard mechanic and had cracked the sump, but wiped off the dripping oil before returning. I would be having a look underneath.
Really watch your speed limits, they are quite hot with the speed guns.
Chances are when you return the car they will ask you for a small cleaning fee, its a few quid, not worth stressing.

SIM cards in the Airport are €10 or £10 so worth taking a ten euro note if you have one, and the google maps and rock fax work well for getting to crags, so Internet access worthwhile.

Third party CDW waiver insurance, one company includes Morrocco in Europe, so works out cheaper, but TBH cannot recall which one it is.

My tips would be:

1. Take a video of the car before you drive away with it and after you returned it.

2. Check that there is a spare wheel and a kit(!) to replace the wheel with. - We got a puncture and the kit was missing... Luckily it still happened in Tafraout, 70m away from a garage, but it could have been a lot worse.

You could download maps.me and the relevant maps inside the app, for navigation away from phone signal / in airplane mode (with GPS turned on).

You can download offline maps in google maps, works fine there.

I used AirCar last month when we flew in to Agadir. Pick up and hand-off was quick and easy, no hard sell (as others have mentioned) to buy their excess cover etc, and they were relaxed about the condition of the car on hand-back. That said, the car we were given was covered in scratches and had a large dent in the rear bumper, plus all the warning lights came on when we started it up but were told by the company rep that this was fine..(!), so it wasn't surprising that they were very chill about the state of the car when we returned it. It took a bit of time to figure out which bit of the carpark they were based in as only Europcar has an obvious sign/flag. Whichever company you go with, make sure to ask them which part of the carpark to go to. If you're arriving in the evening, have a headtorch handy for the initial inspection when you pick up the car and check that the headlights aren't too dipped before you get onto the main road as it will be pitch black once the sun has set and there won't be anywhere you can conveniently turn off the road to adjust the lights.

Another warning about Hertz - some of our group booked with them and it took a long time to pick up the car and they were given a hard time at the hand-back for allegedly scratching the car, despite photos showing the scratches were previously there. 

Spot on, thanks for the info about head torch, useful to know.

Good beta. The car park is totally unmarked in terms of where the hire cars and their companies are located... Go to the single lone Europcar flag and ask someone.

Also, another warning about Hertz, I (yesterday) got the scratch scam treatment too. We had gone down a track with some bushes which left long marks along the side of the car. These were superficial and rubbed off so just just affected the wax or whatever the top layer is. You couldn't even feel anything when you ran your fingernail over the line... Anyway, they claimed it was damage and I argued against it. Eventually they main guy came out and after more arguing he said fine, no damage, just sign the contract.... Nice bit of stress at the end of the holiday. Anyway, although my deposit has been fully refunded I just got an email from Hertz Maroc to say they found damage and will be deducting money from my deposit. They attached a damage report which circled loads of other things that were there before our rental (I have photos). No money had been taken but I have since frozen my credit card. All very confusing and shady.... Not sure what will happen next.

Friends have previously used Aircar there with no problem. I have used Budget who were also very good....

We've used most of the ones with a desk in the airport and Aircar is the one I'd go back to now. By far the most laid back, stress free approach. I've always booked with them through a third party e.g. Rentalcars. Don't know if cheaper to go direct. 

Hertz couldn't come up with the car we wanted (Dacia Logan) and we got something with insufficient ground clearance - and that was after waiting for over half an hour at their unmanned kiosk!

Arriving at night is referred to above. Might I suggest caution? I do drive in the dark there but I have friends who won't and book a hotel night near Agadir in preference. The trouble is a lack of street lighting and the likelihood of black clad persons wandering about and/or the invisible guy on an unlit push bike on your side of the road  who's as likely to be coming towards you as going your way. The consequences of injuring someone don't bear thinking about - either on legal or human grounds.

Another recommendation: if you intend to exchange some cash on arrival don't do it in the arrivals hall - you'll get a better rate at one of the exchange desks dotted between the car rental kiosks after you've gone through security.

Have a great trip.

I'm interested in any experiences on driving / rental in Morocco. We're going to Todra Gorge next month and are trying decide whether to use the bus or hire a car. We're flying to Marrakesh - any feed back on driving in Marrakesh? Heard it's pretty hairy! Thanks, Bill

It is definitely hairy but as long as you're confident driving and stay focussed there should be no issue. Quite fun when you get used to it really.

Marrakesh isn't that bad, you'll be past the worst of it in the first 15 minutes. If the sat nav tries to take you along Rue Bab El Arhdar, change it before setting off to go around the north of the city on the larger roads instead. It is quite manic in places with scooters, bicycles, camels, horses, people stepping out into the road in front of you but in the very centre you can't go that quickly anyway.

The rest of the drive is much easier. They're rebuilding the N9 at the moment, and the bits they've finished are much improved. It is still a long drive, realistically 8 hours - there are places to stop all the way, I find Tizi n'Tichka and Skoura convenient. I would try to get to Skoura in the light if possible, nothing difficult after that. The roads in the Atlas had quite a bit of snow a few years ago in February, and they are quite twisty, so watch out for that.

Last time, we drove down to Merzouga for a rest day. I was worried it would be a bit of a push at 3 hours each way, but a very easy drive on wide, quiet, straight roads and was well worth doing.

I have driven a few times, and think it's handy having a car to reach upper gorge.

If there's a guy hanging around during handover that appears to work for the car rental company and he tells you. "That road is closed follow me i know how to get around it" hes a fraud and he prefers to be paid in euros! Ha

Really useful thanks, the car it is! What's the climbing like at Todra? We're after easy multi pitch routes 4's, 5's maybe 6 at a push. Can't wait!

Thanks we'll definitely give him a miss! 

Without wishing to completely derail the thread...

Plenty to do at that grade range - Arete Nord is very good, although the descent isn't obvious. Tik Sab much shorter at a mere 4 pitches, but also worthwhile (and there is another long, easy climb adjacent to it). Depending on how confident you are at those grades, you may want to take some extra protection, Arete Nord has all the actual climbing very well protected but where it turns more into hard scrambling at the top there are no bolts between the belays.

Most stuff is reasonably bolted, but we did come across some single pitch routes opposite the stalls in the main gorge which felt more like climbing E1 than 5+ (unusual rock for the area though)!