Last verified: October 11, 2026. On 11 October I read the reports of Morocco’s 2026 decree that ended the Ramadan clock change, and the UK and Canadian travel advice. I read the press reports of the 2026 Ramadan timetables for trains and government offices, and the article of the Penal Code that covers eating in public. I computed the fasting times for five cities and checked the method against the Ministry of Habous’s own prayer timetable. Then I priced the same Marrakech riads for five three-night stays, from late January to late March 2027. I re-read all of it every 60 days, and again in early February.
Ramadan in Morocco doesn’t empty the country. In March 2026, a month Ramadan covered for 19 of its 31 days, Morocco received nearly 1.6 million tourists, 18% more than in March 2025 (Médias24, citing the tourism ministry, 4 April 2026). What it changes is the shape of the day.
Disclosure: Some links in this guide may earn us a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what we recommend.
Ramadan 2027 runs from about 8 February to 9 March, subject to the moon sighting; the best time to visit Morocco has the full calendar. Your dates overlap it? Good. This is what actually changes, with the number behind each change: seven things, then the question of price.
Key Takeaways
- Visitors don’t have to fast. The law targets people known to be Muslim who break the fast openly in public
- A February fast lasts 12 to 13 hours, ending at 18:16 to 18:39 in Marrakech
- Offices worked 09:00 to 15:00 in Ramadan 2026
- No clock change in 2027: Morocco has kept GMT since 20 September 2026
- No Ramadan discount on the Marrakech riads I priced
Table of Contents
Can tourists eat in public during Ramadan in Morocco?
Legally, the ban doesn’t name visitors. Article 222 of the Penal Code punishes a person “notoirement connu pour son appartenance à la religion musulmane” who openly breaks the fast in a public place during Ramadan, without a reason the religion accepts. The penalty is one to six months in prison and a fine of 200 to 500 dirhams (Médias24, quoting the article, 12 March 2024).
The Koutoubia minaret in Marrakech at night. Photo: Anass Sedrati, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Read the article word by word and three limits appear. It covers people known to be Muslim. It covers breaking the fast openly. And it covers a public place. It doesn’t punish anyone for not fasting, and it doesn’t mention visitors at all. The test is being known to be Muslim, not your passport, so a Muslim visitor, including one of Moroccan origin, is within its wording. It’s argued over every Ramadan, but I found no amendment to it as of 2026.
Etiquette reaches further than the law. The UK’s advice says that “eating or drinking, swearing, smoking or chewing gum in public in the daytime may cause offence” (FCDO, Morocco travel advice, updated 19 August 2026). Canada asks visitors to refrain from drinking, eating and smoking in public between sunrise and sunset (Government of Canada).
So what do you actually do? Carry water, and drink it indoors or in a car. Eat at your riad or in a restaurant, not walking through the souk. On a fasting afternoon even a sip on a bus is noticed, so drink out of sight.
The same FCDO page adds a line on clothes: follow local dress codes, because “clothing that does not meet local dress codes may cause more offence at this time”. What that means city by city is in what to wear in Morocco.
Are restaurants open during Ramadan?
Some are, but check first. The UK government advises travelers to “check opening hours of shops and restaurants” and to “be aware that hotels and restaurants serving food or drink in fasting hours may separate you from Muslim guests, for example with screens” (FCDO, 19 August 2026). Fewer may serve by day, and those that do may seat you behind a screen.
Chebakia, the sesame and honey pastry that appears on nearly every ftour table. Photo: Indif, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
I can’t give you a list of which restaurants stay open, because I found no reliable source that publishes one. What I can tell you is how to plan. Breakfast at your riad or hotel is the safest meal of the day. Lunch is the one to sort out the evening before: ask your host where foreigners eat at midday.
The meal that matters is ftour, the breakfast at sunset. It’s the moment the call to prayer sounds and the city sits down at once. Harira, the tomato and lentil soup, dates, boiled eggs, msemen flatbread and chebakia are the classic table. If your riad offers ftour, ask the price when you book.
Ramadan changes when you eat. What a meal costs, from a street stall to a terrace, is in food prices in Morocco.
How long is the fast, and when does it end?
About 12 hours 20 minutes on the first day of Ramadan 2027, rising to about 13 hours 15 on the last. That’s dawn to the sunset prayer, and it’s nearly the same in every city. I computed it with NOAA’s solar equations, using the method of the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs’ prayer timetable, which my figures match to within a minute.
A winter Ramadan is a short one. The same fast in mid-July would last about 15.8 hours in Marrakech and more than 16 in Tangier. That’s why a February trip is easier on the people around you than a summer one, and on you.
The day runs to that clock. The hour before ftour is when everyone is heading home, which is why the roads are at their worst then (more on that below). Then the call to prayer sounds and the street goes quiet while the city eats. Plan your own day the same way: sights and errands in the morning, a slow afternoon, and the evening for walking.
The same figures by city, computed as above:
| City | Fast ends, 8 Feb | Fast ends, 9 Mar | Fast, first day | Fast, last day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tangier | 18:01 | 18:29 | 12 h 15 | 13 h 16 |
| Fes | 18:01 | 18:26 | 12 h 19 | 13 h 16 |
| Merzouga | 18:01 | 18:24 | 12 h 25 | 13 h 15 |
| Marrakech | 18:16 | 18:39 | 12 h 24 | 13 h 15 |
| Agadir | 18:24 | 18:46 | 12 h 26 | 13 h 15 |
The times on your phone are the right ones. Morocco went back to GMT for good on 20 September 2026, under decree 2.26.530 (Hespress, 5 July 2026). Until then the country ran an hour ahead of GMT all year, and switched back for the month of Ramadan. In 2026 that switch ran from 15 February to 22 March (Le360, 10 February 2026). In 2027 there’s nothing to switch. If you’ve read that the clocks go back for Ramadan, that stopped being true last September.
Jemaa el-Fna at dusk, when the evening market sets up. Photo: Forbes Johnston, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
One night stands out. Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Power, falls on the 27th night, around the evening of 5 March 2027. Mosques are full late into the night. It isn’t on Morocco’s public holiday list (timeanddate, Morocco holidays 2027), so there’s no extra day off the next day.
Are offices, banks and sights open during Ramadan?
Government offices are, on shorter hours. Public administrations, public institutions and local authorities ran “a continuous schedule from 09:00 to 15:00 during Ramadan” in 2026 (Hespress English, 18 February 2026). The 2027 hours are announced just before Ramadan; I’ll update them here.
The rule for anything official is simple: do it in the morning. A visa question, a lost passport, a police report for an insurer: go before noon, not at 14:30.
Banks are harder to pin down. I found no published Ramadan schedule from the banks’ association, so I won’t give you one. Cash machines don’t keep Ramadan hours, though, so draw what you need from an ATM and don’t plan your day around a counter.
Sights are the same story. Museums, palaces and monuments set their own Ramadan hours, and I found no single published schedule for them. Check the day before, at your riad or on the site’s own page.
Do trains and buses run normally during Ramadan?
They run, on a Ramadan timetable built around the shorter working day. In Ramadan 2026 ONCF ran 22 Al Boraq high-speed trains a day, added a 22:00 train after ftour from Tangier and Casablanca Voyageurs, plus an extra 21:00 departure every Sunday. Twenty-two of its 52 daily Atlas trains served the Fes-Casablanca-Marrakech axis from 04:30 to 17:30 (Hespress English, 17 February 2026).
Al Boraq at Tangier. In Ramadan 2026 ONCF added a late train after ftour. Photo: SpreeTom, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The 2027 timetable isn’t out yet. In 2026 ONCF announced it on 17 February, two days before Ramadan began. So book your legs on the normal timetable, then check the times again in the week before you travel. I’ll update the figures here when the 2027 timetable appears.
For coaches, CTM and Supratours published no Ramadan statement I could find. Treat their times the same way: book, then check.
The road is where Ramadan shows most. The FCDO warns that fasting “can cause tiredness, particularly during the later afternoon and early evening” and that “driving may be erratic, particularly when people are trying to get home” before ftour. If you’re driving, don’t plan a long stretch that arrives at sunset. Stop somewhere for ftour and drive on after it.
Can you drink alcohol during Ramadan in Morocco?
Plan on not being able to. In 2015 the wali, or regional governor, of Greater Casablanca closed bottle shops, bars and nightclubs from a few days before Ramadan until just after it (TelQuel, 17 June 2015). That’s one documented local order, not a national rule, and the full answer, with the 1967 law behind it, is in alcohol in Morocco.
What I’d do is narrower than any rule. If a drink matters to your trip, ask your hotel what it will serve during Ramadan before you book, and get the answer in writing. And whatever you read about special exceptions for foreigners, I found no source I trust for any of them.
What happens at Eid al-Fitr in Morocco?
Ramadan ends with Eid al-Fitr, two official public holidays. In 2026 Morocco celebrated it on Friday 20 March, with Saturday 21 March as the second day (timeanddate, Morocco holidays). The government then added Monday 23 March as an exceptional day off for public administrations (maroc.ma, MAP). In 2027 Eid is expected on Wednesday 10 March.
The date that matters most is the one nobody can give you yet. Morocco fixes Ramadan and Eid by its own sighting of the new moon, and the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs announces the result the evening before. In 2026 it began Ramadan on Thursday 19 February (Médias24, 18 February 2026), a day after Saudi Arabia (Morocco World News, 17 February 2026).
Then Eid came a day earlier than forecast. Astronomers had expected Saturday 21 March, but the crescent was seen on the Thursday evening, so Eid fell on the Friday (Médias24, 24 March 2026). That’s a holiday moved with one evening’s notice.
So treat every 2027 date as plus or minus a day. Eid is a family holiday, and it’s when Moroccans go home. Book any intercity train, coach or flight around it well ahead, and don’t put a non-refundable transfer on the two days either side of 10 March.
Is Ramadan in Morocco cheaper or quieter?
Not on a riad. On 11 October 2026 I priced the same Marrakech medina riads on Booking.com, four to five months ahead. I read three-night stays in three Ramadan and Eid windows, and in late January and late March, 25 riads per window. Against late March, the riads on both lists quoted a median price change of 0%, most of them to the dirham. There’s no Ramadan discount on the booking page.
The chart’s medians move a little, from 686 to 787 dirhams a night for two. That movement is about which riads make the first page, not about Ramadan. When I compared the same riad with itself, the Ramadan stays and the late-March stay were identical for 7, 9 and 10 riads out of 12.
The one step in the data comes earlier. The same riads charged 6 to 13% more from February than in late January, in Ramadan or not. At four to five months out, most riads quote one standing rate; closer in, prices move more.
Is it quieter? By day, yes. By the numbers, not really. March 2026 arrivals were 18% above March 2025, and January to March 2026 brought 4.3 million visitors, up 7% (Médias24). Ramadan 2027 also lands inside the spring booking season, so book early whatever the month.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Ramadan 2027 in Morocco?
Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin on Monday 8 February and end on Tuesday 9 March, with Eid al-Fitr on Wednesday 10 March. Morocco confirms each date by its own moon sighting the evening before. In 2026 it started a day after Saudi Arabia, and Eid came a day earlier than forecast.
Do tourists have to fast in Morocco?
No. Article 222 of the Penal Code punishes only people known to be Muslim who openly break the fast in a public place, with one to six months in prison and a 200 to 500 dirham fine. It tests religion, not passport, and visitors aren’t named. Eating in the street by day can cause offense.
Does Morocco change its clocks for Ramadan?
Not any more. Morocco returned to GMT permanently on 20 September 2026 under decree 2.26.530, ending the system that ran an hour ahead all year and dropped back for Ramadan. In 2027 there is no switch: the clock stays the same before, during and after Ramadan.
Is it a good idea to visit Morocco during Ramadan?
Yes, if you plan around three things. Do official business before 15:00, when offices closed in 2026. Eat and drink indoors by day. And keep the two days either side of Eid, expected 10 March 2027, free of tight transfers. March 2026 still brought 18% more tourists than March 2025.
How long is Eid al-Fitr in Morocco?
Two days are official public holidays, the first and second days of the new month. In 2026 they fell on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 March, and the government added Monday 23 March as an extra day off for public administrations. In 2027 they’re expected on Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 March, give or take a day.
Where to start
Three things for Ramadan in Morocco. Check your dates against Ramadan and Eid, and leave a day of slack either side of 10 March. Keep water in your bag and drink it indoors. And book every intercity leg early, then re-check its time the week before.
The rest of the trip, from how long to stay to what it costs, starts in the Morocco travel guide. For the risks that actually matter on any trip, Ramadan or not, read whether Morocco is safe.
