Alcohol in Marrakech: where to drink and buy, drinking in the street, Ramadan

The rule in short

Alcohol is not banned in Morocco for visitors, but it is tightly regulated:

• It is drunk in authorised places: bars, hotels, licensed restaurants, nightclubs, or in your room or riad.
• The street is off limits: the British Foreign Office states that drinking alcohol in the street and anywhere other than a licensed restaurant or bar is illegal and can lead to arrest.
• Selling to Muslim Moroccans is forbidden by law (1967 dahir), which is why many restaurants and cafes in the medina do not serve it.

Where to drink in Marrakech

• Hotels and palaces, including the Mamounia, almost all have a licensed bar or restaurant, open to non-guests.
• Hivernage concentrates lounges and nightclubs around the hotels.
• Gueliz, the new town, has restaurants and bars that serve alcohol.
• The medina: very few venues, mostly riad restaurants and a few licensed rooftops. Most terraces around Jemaa el-Fna square do not serve it; check the menu before sitting down.

Exact venues, with hours and budgets, are in Marrakech at night and in the Gueliz and Hivernage guide.

Buying alcohol to take away

Supermarkets in the new town sell beer, wine and spirits in a separate aisle, often away from the entrance. Small medina grocery shops do not sell it. Drink what you buy in your accommodation, not outside.

In the street, on a public terrace, in a car

Do not drink on the square, on a bench, in a garden or on the pavement, and do not leave a bar with a glass in your hand. A cafe or restaurant terrace without a licence is not an authorised place either. As for drugs, Morocco has a zero-tolerance approach, cannabis included, with heavy penalties (Foreign Office).

Bringing alcohol in your luggage

According to Moroccan customs, a non-resident traveller may bring in one one-litre bottle of wine and one one-litre bottle of spirits, with no formalities or duties, for personal consumption.

During Ramadan

Fasting changes the landscape: many bars close for the month, supermarket alcohol aisles are closed, and only some hotels keep serving their foreign guests. In the daytime, the Foreign Office notes that eating, drinking, smoking or chewing gum in public may cause offence. Full details are in our Ramadan in Marrakech guide.

At a glance

Rules observed in October 2026 from the British Foreign Office and Moroccan customs.

Further reading

Find all the behaviour rules in our rules and etiquette in Marrakech guide, and clothing in what to wear in Marrakech.