Licensed guide or fake guide?

The one thing to ask for

A licensed guide in Morocco carries a card issued by the Ministry of Tourism, with a photograph, a name and a number. Asking to see it is normal and nobody takes offence. A real guide will show it before you have finished the sentence, often with a certain pride. Someone who changes the subject, says the card is at home, or explains that he is a student who simply loves his city, is not a licensed guide.

You can ask for the number in advance, by message, before you meet. Adil’s is 2706, and it appears on this site and on his Tripadvisor listing.

Why the card is not a formality

Three practical consequences follow from it.

Access to the monuments. The Bahia Palace, the Ben Youssef Medersa, the Saadian Tombs and the museums admit licensed guides. An unlicensed guide will walk you to the entrance and wait outside, or invent a reason why the visit is not worth it today.

How he earns his living. A licensed guide is paid by you, at a rate agreed in advance. An unlicensed guide is usually paid by the shops. That is why the day drifts towards a carpet showroom, a herbalist and an argan cooperative, with an hour lost in each. The prices are inflated to cover his commission, which you pay without seeing it.

Recourse if something goes wrong. A licence can be suspended. It is the only real leverage a visitor has. With an unlicensed guide there is no name, no registration and nobody to complain to.

Where the approach usually happens

Around Jemaa el-Fna, at the gates of the medina, near the Koutoubia and outside the big riads. The opening line varies: this street is closed today, the tanneries are only open this morning, there is a Berber market that finishes at noon. None of it is true, and all of it is designed to get you walking in a direction you did not choose.

A polite, firm no in French or English works. Do not argue and do not explain yourself. Keep walking. If someone follows for a few streets, step into a shop or a café; the approach stops at the door.

Signs that should make you careful

• He approaches you in the street rather than the other way round.
• He does not give a price before setting off, or says you will decide at the end.
• He insists on a shop that is closing soon, or on a workshop belonging to his cousin.
• He has no card, no website, and no reviews under his own name.
• He offers a price far below the market, which is recovered elsewhere.

What a normal booking looks like

You write before your trip, you say your dates and how many of you there are, you get a route and a price in return, and you agree on a meeting place. The price is settled before the day, not during it. Entrance tickets are stated as included or not. The guide gives his licence number without being pushed.

That is how it works with a real guide, and it is worth setting up before you arrive rather than in the street on the first morning.