Tipping in Morocco: how much to tip guides, drivers, riads and restaurants

Tipping in Morocco is customary and appreciated, but never compulsory. Round up for small services, leave about 10% in sit-down restaurants, and give guides and drivers a daily amount at the end of the trip, in dirhams. Below are the usual amounts for each situation, with euro equivalents at about 11 dirhams to the euro (autumn 2026).

The short answer

These ranges come from several recent travel guides and Moroccan sources. They don't always agree, so treat them as guidance, not rules: give more for excellent service, less or nothing when it was poor.

Situation	Usual tip	Good to know
Café	round up, or 2–5 MAD	about 10 MAD if you ate
Sit-down restaurant	about 10%	check the bill for service
Street-food stall	not expected
Porter carting luggage to your riad	20–30 MAD (about €2–3)	more for heavy bags
Housekeeping	10–20 MAD a day (about €1–2)	or one shared tip
Private driver-guide	100–200 MAD a day per group (about €9–18)	at the end of the trip
Licensed city guide	100–200 MAD half day, 150–300 MAD full day, per group	about €9–18 / €14–27
Camel handler	20–50 MAD per person (about €2–5)	for the ride out and back
Desert-camp staff	20–50 MAD per person (about €2–5)	often a shared box
Trekking team	150–600 MAD per trekker for 4 days (about €14–55)	pooled, on the last day
Hammam attendant	20–50 MAD (about €2–5)	to the person who scrubbed you
Petit taxi	not expected	round up to the next 5 or 10 MAD
Parking guardian	3–10 MAD
Toilet attendant	1–2 MAD
Photo of a performer	10–20 MAD (about €1–2)	agree before you shoot

Restaurants and cafés

In mid-range and upscale restaurants, check the bill first. Some add a service charge, usually 10%, marked "service" or "service compris": then anything extra is up to you, though a few dirhams for the waiter are always welcome. The TVA line (10% on restaurant meals) is VAT, not service.

Without a service charge, about 10% is the norm, up to 15% in upscale places according to some guides. You usually can't add a tip to a card payment, so leave cash, ideally handed to your waiter.

In cafés, round up or leave 2 to 5 dirhams after a mint tea, around 10 if you ate. At street-food stalls nobody expects a tip. Our guide to the Jemaa el-Fna food stalls explains how the night market works and how not to overpay.

Riads and hotels

Cars can't enter most of the medina, so a porter often wheels your luggage to the riad on a cart. Count 20 to 30 dirhams, more for heavy bags or a long walk. If he isn't sent by the riad but waiting at the car park, agree the price before he loads anything. In a hotel, the porter who carries your bags to the room gets 10 to 20 dirhams.

Housekeeping: 10 to 20 dirhams a day, left in the room. In a riad the same few people often clean, serve breakfast and cook, and many keep a shared tip box, so ask at reception whether they pool tips. If they do, one envelope at the end is simpler: travel guides suggest roughly 50 to 100 dirhams per room per night for the whole team. A cook who made a dinner you ordered can also be thanked directly with 20 to 50 dirhams.

Guides, drivers and the desert team

Tips are not included in the price of our trips: every trip page lists them under "not included". Whether to tip our guides and drivers, and how much, is entirely at your discretion.

Private driver-guide

On a multi-day private tour, the usual tip for a driver-guide is about 100 to 200 dirhams a day for the group, given at the end: 300 to 600 dirhams (about €27–55) for three days. Tipping a little each evening is fine too.

Local guides in cities and at Ait Ben Haddou

Licensed city guides usually get 100 to 200 dirhams for a half day and 150 to 300 for a full day, per group, as on our private guided tour of Marrakech. At Ait Ben Haddou the local guide is optional and not included in our tours: agree his fee before you start; a tip on top is your choice.

Camel handlers and desert-camp staff

On our 3-day Merzouga desert tour you ride about two hours into the dunes of Erg Chebbi at sunset and back after sunrise. The camel handler who leads you usually gets 20 to 50 dirhams per person. The camp's cooks, waiters and musicians are often tipped through a shared box or the camp manager, again about 20 to 50 dirhams per person. If you don't see a box, ask, so the people behind the scenes get their share.

Trekking: guide, muleteers and cook

On an Atlas trek, the group usually tips the team together on the last day, with the largest share for the guide and the rest split between the muleteers and the cook. Suggestions vary widely, from 150–200 dirhams per trekker for a whole trek of four to seven days to 100–150 dirhams per trekker per day. On our 4-day Toubkal trek, that means about 150 to 600 dirhams per trekker. Why a licensed guide is compulsory on Toubkal is explained in our guide to climbing Mount Toubkal.

How to hand it over

Fold the notes or put them in an envelope, and give them directly to each person with a word of thanks, rather than everything to one person, unless the team tells you they pool it.

Small everyday tips

• Parking guardians (gardiens de voitures): about 3 to 10 dirhams, depending on the area and how long you stayed.
• Toilet attendants: 1 or 2 dirhams in the dish.
• Hammam attendants: 20 to 50 dirhams to the person who scrubs you. More in our guide to the Moroccan hammam.
• Help you asked for, such as someone carrying a heavy bag or walking you to a door you couldn't find: 5 to 10 dirhams.
• Performers at Jemaa el-Fna: musicians and snake charmers expect a coin for a photo; agree the amount first, usually 10 to 20 dirhams.
• Animals: decline photos with monkeys and snakes. The monkeys are Barbary macaques, an endangered species taken from the wild for this trade, and a report covered by Hespress in January 2026 notes that handlers sometimes put animals on visitors without asking, then demand money.

Taxis

Taxi drivers don't expect a tip. In a petit taxi, ask for the meter and round up to the next 5 or 10 dirhams if you like: 36 on the meter, give 40. Marrakech airport taxis charge fixed fares by zone: you pay the set fare, nothing more. Fares and the airport taxi counter are in our guide to getting around Morocco.

Cash, currency and etiquette

Tips are paid in cash. Notes come in 20, 50, 100 and 200 dirhams, coins up to 10 dirhams: keep 20-dirham notes and 5- and 10-dirham coins, because a 200-dirham note is hard to break in a café or a taxi. Our article on money in Morocco covers ATMs and getting change.

Tip in dirhams, not euros: foreign coins can't be spent in a Moroccan shop, so they are of little use to the person who receives them.

Hand it over discreetly, with your right hand and a shukran ("thank you"). A tip is a thank-you, not a fee: after poor service, you don't owe one.

When not to tip

• Help you didn't ask for. Someone who offers directions unasked, or says a street or monument is "closed" and steers you elsewhere, is often earning a commission from a shop. You owe nothing.
• Unofficial guides. The UK government's travel advice for Morocco warns that people posing as official guides harass tourists; a medina guide should carry an official badge.
• Pressure or guilt. A demand for more after an agreed price deserves a calm la, shukran ("no, thank you") as you walk on.

Our article on whether Morocco is safe for tourists covers the common scams.

How much to set aside

These examples simply add up the ranges above.

A 3-day desert tour for two:

• driver-guide: 3 days × 100–200 MAD = 300–600 MAD
• camel handler: 2 × 20–50 MAD = 40–100 MAD
• camp staff: 2 × 20–50 MAD = 40–100 MAD
• total: about 380–800 MAD (€35–75), plus about 10% on lunches

A week in Marrakech for two, one riad room:

• riad team: 7 nights × 50–100 MAD = 350–700 MAD
• a full-day city guide: 150–300 MAD
• porters on arrival and departure: 40–60 MAD
• one hammam each: 40–100 MAD
• cafés, toilets and taxis: about 10–20 MAD a day = 70–140 MAD
• total: about 650–1,300 MAD (€60–120), plus about 10% on restaurant meals

The rest of the budget is in our guide to what a trip to Morocco costs.

Not sure what to plan for on a particular trip? Ask us on WhatsApp before you leave, and we'll tell you who will look after you along the way.