How much should you tip in Fes and Morocco?

A Fassi guide earns a licence the hard way — years of study and state exams — and the best of them can turn nine thousand confusing lanes into a story you remember for life. For a full day on foot through Fes el-Bali, the figure the city itself uses is US$15–25 per guest per day, slipped over folded at the door as you part. When a guide-driver carries you across the imperial north for several days, pool US$10–20 per guest per day and hand it over together at the end.

One simple shuttle from Fès–Saïs airport to your riad: US$3–5 covers it. A whole day behind the wheel — out to the Roman mosaics of Volubilis and Moulay Ismail's Meknès and back — is US$10–15 from the group. Spread a chauffeured route over several days and budget US$10–15 per day from everyone together, settled at the final drop-off.

• The person who shoulders your bag up the stepped derb: US$1–2 per bag.
• Housekeeping: US$2–3 per night, tucked under the pillow.
• Riad host or front of house: US$5–10 on departure if they fixed your taxis, dinner tables and the names of the right maâlems to visit.
• The breakfast cook: round the tab up, or leave 10 MAD on the tray.

A service charge is usually already sitting on the bill. Add 5–10% when the kitchen has done well by you. In a tiled café watching the crowds pour down Talaa Kbira, leaving the coins is plenty. In a grand riad dining room, 10% reads as handsome.

After a night under the dunes, collect US$10–15 per guest and give it to the camp manager to split among the cooks, the drummers and the crew who pitched your tent. The men leading the camels are glad of US$2–3 placed in the hand.

For a private hammam scrub, 50–100 MAD per attendant. For a morning learning pastilla and tagine in a family kitchen, US$10 per guest. And for the maâlems who open their benches to you — the zellige cutter, the weaver, the tanner of Chouara — US$5–10 per guest on top of whatever the visit cost.

• Tip in cash only — a tip added to a card never finds the staff.
• Dirhams (MAD) sit best in the hand. Small dollar or euro notes pass; coins from beyond the Eurozone are worthless here.
• Pass notes folded, or in an envelope, and don't make a show of counting them.
• If the service genuinely let you down, leaving nothing is understood — no one will be wounded by it.
• Resist tipping at every turn. Reward an unasked-for "guide" in the lanes and you will collect a tail of them for the rest of the afternoon.