Tips on visiting Morocco: Arriving at Marrakech’s Menara airport

Travelling through Marrakech’s newly-built, gleaming white Menara airport last week for the first time since its reopening in 2009, I was struck by how much first impressions for those visiting Morocco have changedrecent years.

The old Menara airport was a sad affair, unapologetically looking back to an age when foreign visitors to Morocco consisted of diplomats, businessmen, bohemians and genuinely intrepid travellers.

The new airport sets out Morocco’s stall to be a modern and stylish tourist destination, and with its lofty arrival hall, elegant white concrete and glass geometric patterned shell, air-conditioning and series of local boutiques it does this all rather well.

Some things, however, don’t change and if you are travelling to stay in Moroccan hotels or riads, a few simple pointers will make your transition through the airport an easier one.

There is still a certain amount of confusion in passing passport control and in buying purchasing money (which still cannot be bought outside of the country due to currency restrictions). So here are some tips to navigating your arrival.

Once you have collected your bags and before queuing for passport control, all EU including UK visitors have to fill in a small white landing cards (called ‘carte debarquement’).

You’ll find these cards on shelves around the structural pillars of the passport control areas. It’s worth knowing that there won’t be any pens in the near vicinity, so be sure to have one to hand.

To complete the card you’ll need to know the name, address and telephone number of the hotel in which you’ll be staying, as well as your passport and flight details. Fill the card in before you begin to queue; thankfully, the queues move quickly.

It’s worth noting that you will need to fill one of these cards in upon departure too – again make sure you have a pen handy on the way home.

Once through passport control, the next thing to do is buy some currency, called dirhams. As you enter the arrival hall, the money desks are on your right-hand side and currently consist of two foreign exchange desks and two ATMs.

Note that the foreign exchange desks only accept cash, not credit cards, so you need to bring either Sterling, Euros etc to use them.

If you want to use the cash machines, it’s a good idea to work out what you need first as you will be asked what you want in dirhams.

When we tested the machines in May 2010, the right hand machine didn’t accept international Switch/Maestro or Visa, but the BMCE bank worked with all cards. The BMCE bank machine also asks which account you want to take money out of – Savings, Checking or Other. In our experience, it made no difference which we selected.

Finally, for the first time visitors to Morocco it’s worth noting there are cash machines throughout the main towns and cities managed by the well-known Moroccan and French banks (Credit Agricole, Credit Lyonnais etc) – so you can take more money out later.

For more information about hotels and riads in Morocco, check out our hotels section.

Picture credits – CCA: Menara Airport by Mark Chapman.