Morocco is the second-most visited destination in Africa (behind Egypt and ahead of South Africa).
And it is understandable why travelers flock to the country because it is stunning.
From impressive deserts to colorful markets, from stunning mosques to delightful food, the country has a lot to offer.
With fast swaths of desert land, staying connected is crucial while exploring Morocco.
So, while trying to find the best way to stay in Morocco, I tried out six travel eSIMs from various eSIM providers, including Airalo's Discover (global) eSIM, and three Moroccan SIM cards.
In most countries, getting a local SIM card is the cheapest way to stay connected (and you will have a local phone number, something you often do not get with a travel eSIM).
But installing an eSIM is quick, easy & convenient, as you do not have to queue up upon landing (after a long flight) or deal with SIM card registration requirements (such as getting your passport details captured in Morocco – mandated by law).
And travel eSIMs, like Airalo's Discover(+), are relatively affordable (especially when you plan to visit multiple African/Middle Eastern countries or other ones globally).
But what matters is how the eSIM performed in Morocco – especially compared to the local mobile operators (and the network Discover(+) uses in the country).
Let's find out.
Original publication: 2nd of January 2024. Last updated: 29th of February 2024.
Table of Contents
Airalo's List of Compatible eSIM-Supported Phones
Before I even focus on Airalo's Discover(+) eSIM (in Morocco), does your phone support Airalo eSIMs?
If you have an eSIM-compatible smartphone, it is almost guaranteed that you can use an Airalo eSIM.
While Airalo had to certify phones in the past, almost all are supported nowadays.
As of December 2023, the phones shown in the infographic below are compatible with Airalo eSIMs:
Now we can actually focus on the Discover(+) eSIM (in Morocco).
Airalo Discover(+) eSIM Prices
You can get the Airalo Discover(+) eSIM for between 9 USD (1 GB for 7 days) and 89 USD (20 GB with 200 international minutes and 200 international SMS for 365 days).
You should know that Airalo's Discover eSIM has two variants: Discover and Discover+.
The Discover eSIMs are your standard data-only Airalo eSIMs – but they can be used in 125+ countries globally.
The Discover+ eSIMs, the ones I always get, can also be used in the same 125+ countries. Still, you also get an Austrian (+43) phone number, an international call allowance (up to 200 minutes) & an international SMS allowance (up to 200 SMS).
And you can call and text to any country you want. It does not have to be one of the 125+ supported countries. I confirmed this by calling a random airport in Russia (you cannot use the allowance from the Discover+ eSIM in Russia) from Australia, and it went through.
The eSIM has been a lifesaver in case I need to contact a foreign-based airline or hotel before arrival.
Or even calling back to Australia or the Netherlands while overseas (both my Australian and Dutch mobile operators would charge me an arm and a leg for calling back home!).
The price difference between the two variants is up to 20 USD, and the data allowances will stay the same.
This is an incredible deal, especially when you remember that the previous global offering by Airalo, Discover Global, charged about the same prices as the new one.
But you only got data (up to 20 GB), validity was up to 180 days (instead of 365 days/1 year) & was restricted to 4G/LTE (compared to up to 5G NR access).
Here is a list of all the 12 Airalo Discover(+) eSIM options:
- Discover 1 GB eSIM for 7 days, costing 9 USD
- Discover+ 1 GB (with 10 minutes and 10 SMS) eSIM for 7 days, costing 15 USD
- Discover 2 GB eSIM for 15 days, costing 17 USD
- Discover+ 2 GB (with 20 minutes and 20 SMS) eSIM for 15 days, costing 27 USD
- Discover 3 GB eSIM for 30 days, costing 24 USD
- Discover+ 3 GB (with 30 minutes and 30 SMS) eSIM for 30 days, costing 36 USD – very popular with Phone Travel Wiz readers
- Discover 5 GB eSIM for 60 days, costing 35 USD – very popular with Phone Travel Wiz readers
- Discover+ 5 GB (with 50 minutes and 50 SMS) eSIM for 60 days, costing 50 USD
- Discover 10 GB eSIM for 180 days, costing 59 USD
- Discover+ 10 GB (with 100 minutes and 100 SMS) eSIM for 180 days, costing 79 USD
- Discover 20 GB eSIM for 365 days, costing 69 USD – most popular with Phone Travel Wiz readers
- Discover+ 20 GB (with 200 minutes and 200 SMS) eSIM for 365 days, costing 89 USD
>>> Get your Airalo Discover(+) eSIM now! <<<
Note: Phone Travel Wiz reader popularity ranking was updated in December based on data up to the 30th of December (2023 data only).
In general, purchasing a Discover(+) eSIM does not make sense if you plan to visit only one country (only Morocco, for example).
For example, 3 GB of data for Airalo's Morocco eSIM, Choukran (review), costs 20.50 USD.
This would be 24 USD (Discover) or 36 USD (Discover+).
Okay… not a difference between Choukran and Discover, but you get the point 🗿.
However, the eSIM becomes interesting if you visit multiple countries within the same region during your trip or numerous globally within a year.
If you stay within the same region, regional eSIMs will be much more exciting and cheaper (in the case of the Middle East, Airalo's Menalink eSIM (Morocco review) covers Morocco and 14 other countries).
But none of them give you a phone number for global use.
If that is important for you, the Discover+ eSIM is for you.
Anyway, the links from earlier will bring you to the product page of the Discover(+) eSIM.
And if you already have the Airalo app installed on your phone, the links will open the respective app (Android or iOS).
Regardless of the currency used in your country, Airalo will always charge you in USD (US Dollar).
If your credit/debit card charges you foreign exchange fees, get yourself a Wise Borderless Account and Debit Card.
Their fees are MUCH lower than banks and credit card companies charge you (and Wise is transparent about their fees, unlike banks).
I have saved THOUSANDS of Australian Dollars and Euros, my main currencies, when using Wise abroad when traveling compared to my debit and credit cards.
What if you buy the 20 GB Discover+ eSIM, as I did, and realize you need another 10 GB of data close to exhausting your data allowance or need more minutes/SMS?
Would you need to purchase a new eSIM? Not at all.
You can top up your Airalo Discover(+) eSIM for the same amount of data and prices as listed earlier.
The 10 GB top-up would still cost 50 USD (or 35 USD for Discover) as if you bought the 10 GB eSIM from the start.
And you can purchase as many top-ups as you wish/need.
That way, you will never run out of data.
A handful of Airalo eSIMs do not allow for top-ups. But that does not apply to the Discover(+) eSIM – so worry not.
You can top-up on the Airalo website or its apps.
And if you buy a top-up before you have fully exhausted your data, call, or text allowance, Airalo will not use your top-up yet.
As a result, the validity of the top-up will not start until you start using the top-up (which is not the case with all travel eSIMs).
But if you run out of data, the top-up will start, regardless of whether you still have enough minutes or SMS left if you have the Discover+ eSIM, like in my case. Just be mindful of this, though.
>>> Get your Airalo Discover(+) eSIM now! <<<
Airalo Discover(+) eSIM Country List
The Airalo Discover(+) eSIM can be used in 125+ countries worldwide, including Morocco.
The eSIM can also be used in some of Morocco's (in)direct neighboring countries (Gibraltar, Portugal & Spain – not in Algeria and Mauritania).
Below is a complete overview of countries where the Airalo Discover(+) eSIM works:
- Åland Islands 3
- Albania
- Argentina
- Armenia (new)
- Australia 5
- Austria 3
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain (new) 3
- Bangladesh (new)
Belarus1- Belgium 3
- Bolivia (new)
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Botswana (new) 2
- Brazil 5
- Brunei (new) 1
- Bulgaria 5
Cambodia- Canada 5
- Central African Republic (new) 1
- Chad (new)
- Chile
- China 3
- Colombia
- Congo, Democratic Republic of (new)
- Congo, Republic of (new)
- Costa Rica (new)
- Croatia 3
- Cyprus 5
- Czech Republic 3
- Denmark 5
Dominican Republic1- Ecuador
- Egypt (new)
- El Salvador (new) 1
- Estonia 5
- Eswatini (new) 1
- Finland 5
- France 3
- French West Indies (new) 3
- Gabon (new)
- Georgia
- Germany 3
- Ghana (new)
- Gibraltar 1
- Greece 3
Greenland (new)1- Guatemala (new) 1
- Guernsey (new)
- Guinea-Bissau (new) 1
- Honduras (new) 1
- Hong Kong 3
- Hungary 5
- Iceland 3
- India
- Indonesia 3
- Ireland 3
- Isle of Man (new)
Iraq1- Israel 5
- Italy 5
- Ivory Coast
- Japan 3
- Jersey
- Jordan (new)
- Kazakhstan (new)
- Kenya (new)
- Kosovo
- Kuwait 3
- Kyrgyzstan (new)
- Latvia 3
Liberia1- Liechtenstein 4
- Lithuania 5
- Luxembourg 3
- Macau
- Madagascar (new)
- Malawi (new)
- Malaysia
- Mali
- Malta 3
- Mexico 5
- Moldova
- Monaco (new)
- Montenegro 5
- Morocco (new)
- Netherlands 5
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua (new)
- Niger (new) 1
- Nigeria (new) 2
- North Macedonia
- Norway 5
- Oman (new)
- Pakistan (new)
- Panama
- Paraguay 1
- Peru
- Philippines 3
- Poland 3
- Portugal 3
- Puerto Rico
- Qatar 5
- Réunion (new)
- Romania 5
Russia- Saudi Arabia 5
- Senegal (new) 1
- Serbia
- Seychelles (new)
- Singapore
- Slovakia 3
- Slovenia 5
- South Africa
- South Korea 3
- Spain 5
- Sri Lanka
Sudan- Sweden 5
- Switzerland 3
- Taiwan 3
- Tanzania (new)
Tajikistan1- Thailand 5
- Tunisia (new)
- Turkey 3
- Uganda (new)
- Ukraine (new)
- United Arab Emirates (new) 3
- United Kingdom 5
- United States 5
- Uruguay (new)
- Uzbekistan (new)
U.S. Virgin Islands- Vietnam
Yemen (new)1- Zambia (new) 1
* “(new)” is compared to the previous Discover Global eSIM (discontinued) or recently added countries
1 on 3G only
2 check the networks section on the Airalo website or app because at least one of the available networks is on 3G only (while the others are up to 4G/LTE)
3 5G NR access for all available networks
4 even if your phone does not support 5G NR, select FL1 Telecom/Telecom Liechtenstein for 4G/LTE access because Salt Liechtenstein is restricted to 3G only
5 check the networks section on the Airalo website or app because at least one of the available networks is up to 4G/LTE (while the others are up to 5G NR)
As I mentioned, you can save a lot of money by skipping the initial SIM card costs per country you visit, especially if you explore several countries on multiple continents during your trip or within a year.
Moreover, you will save a lot of time and do not have to deal with each country's individual SIM card registration requirements.
>>> Get your Airalo Discover(+) eSIM now! <<<
My Airalo Discover+ eSIM in Morocco Experience
I used my Morocco Discover+ (global) eSIM in Casablanca, Marrakesh & Rabat.
Initially, I planned on staying in Casablanca only… but it was not as exciting as I expected it to be 🗿.
Subsequently, the results per city are much lower than most of my reviews.
But they should still give you an idea of what to expect regarding speed in Morocco's biggest cities.
Travel eSIMs, including the Discover(+) eSIM, roam on the networks of local mobile operators.
Airalo is not a mobile (network) operator (MNO), so it partners with various MNOs, which roam on local MNOs' networks.
Okay, that may sound a bit confusing – all you need to know is that you will be treated as a guest on one of the Moroccan mobile networks while using another network to make this system work.
Airalo's global eSIM uses the Inwi network while being powered by Drei Austria (so your phone, some apps, or sites you visit may claim you are on Drei instead of Airalo – that is correct).
Is Inwi any good? We have to find out.
The Morocco mobile operators, including Maroc Telecom and Orange Morocco, have yet to launch 5G NR technology, so you can expect to be on 3G occasionally.
When looking at general network availability (2G, 3G & 4G/LTE), the three mobile operators are doing well (93.4% for Maroc Telecom and Orange and 94.3% for Inwi).
But when we focus specifically on 4G/LTE, Inwi is leading the pack (81.5%), closely followed by Orange (81.4%) & Maroc Telecom (80.1%).
Basically, you can expect 4G/LTE access in urban and populated areas.
What about speeds?
Maroc Telecom is the clear winner, with an average download speed of 29.6 Mbps. It is followed by Orange (18.4 Mbps) and Inwi (16.9 Mbps).
The ranking changes slightly when looking at upload speeds.
Maroc Telecom still leads the pack (8.5 Mbps), followed by Inwi instead (6.6 Mbps) and Orange (5.7 Mbps).
These are not the highest figures out there, but they are on the higher end in Africa (but low compared to other countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA)).
I did speed tests with the Speedtest app throughout Morocco.
For reference, I consider an average download speed of 25 Mbps and an average upload speed of 10 Mbps fast enough.
Why is that? A more than 25 Mbps download speed is enough to video stream content @ 4k resolution.
Social media sites that do live streaming, like Facebook Live, recommend an upload speed of at least 10 Mbps.
I have way higher standards, but not everyone demands a download speed of 500 Mbps 🤪.
In the section below, you will find various colors and formatting.
Results in dark green mean that the result was the fastest download or upload among all SIM cards and travel eSIMs I tested at that location.
Whereas results in light green were the fastest download or upload within the category (among all SIM cards OR all travel eSIMs) but not the fastest when considering the other category.
The same applies to dark red and light orange results – the slowest download or upload among all (dark red) or the slowest within a category (light orange).
All underlined results are on 5G NR, while results in italics are on 3G – results without additional formatting are on 4G/LTE.
That should clear up the colorful speed test results in the next section.
For now, let's see how the Airalo Discover(+) eSIM performed in Morocco.
>>> Get your Airalo Discover(+) eSIM now! <<<
Airalo Discover(+) eSIM in Casablanca, Marrakesh & Rabat Speed Test Results
I used my Airalo Discover+ (global) eSIM in Casablanca, Marrakesh & Rabat.
But I tested it mainly in Casablanca because I was supposed to stay there only.
However, we (Majed and I) got bored quickly 🗿.
Most travel eSIMs could only use one network, which was often Orange Morocco.
Together with the Nomad Morocco eSIM (product page), the Discover(+) eSIM was the only one on the Inwi network
So, the next section will mainly compare the Airalo Discover(+) eSIM with Inwi and Nomad Morocco.
But also with Airalo Choukran (Morocco – review) and Airalo Menalink (Middle East – Morocco review).
Below are the results:
Decent speeds with the Airalo Discover+ eSIM.
I would have gotten the same/similar results if I used the Discover eSIM instead of the Discover+ eSIM. There is no difference between the two, except for the + variant having call and text features.
While Morocco has a robust mobile network, especially for African standards, you should not expect the speeds you can get in other parts of the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) area, especially Gulf states.
The United Arab Emirates, Qatar & Kuwait dominate the leaderboard, having median download speeds of 303.21 Mbps, 244.44 Mbps & 183.83 Mbps, respectively (December 2023 data).
Morocco was on spot 68 (37.56 Mbps) of 146, so it is doing better than most nations (and it had no 5G NR networks yet).
However, it could not beat the global median of 49.25 Mbps (only 50 countries did, and none were African).
Anyway, let's focus on the Discover+ results.
The eSIM was the fastest among eSIMs at four locations: Morocco Mall in Casablanca (93.49 Mbps), Dar el Medina in Rabar (37.98 Mbps), Kasbah of the Udayas in Rabat (18.18 Mbps) & Afriquia Aire de Repos in Settat (142.90 Mbps).
The latter was actually the fastest speed I got with any eSIM in Morocco 😎.
I am not sure what was going on at Kasbah of the Udayas, but speeds were slow with all eSIMs (even on different networks).
Except for my Maroc Telecom SIM card – 126.18 Mbps.
I did notice that speeds in Marrakesh were on the slower end compared to Casablanca and Rabat.
While 18.46 Mbps at Jardin Majorelle is decent, 8.80 Mbps at Menara Mall and 8.68 Mbps at Yves Saint Laurent Museum were unimpressive.
Surprisingly, the Nomad Morocco eSIM, also using Inwi and powered by Drei Austria, did alright at these locations (36.70 Mbps, 141.91 Mbps & 9.53 Mbps, respectively).
What about the other Airalo eSIMs, Choukran and Menalink, using Orange instead?
They had similar performances as the Discover+ eSIM.
The latter had an average download speed of 39.16 Mbps.
The other two had averages of 39.84 Mbps (Choukran) and 33.24 Mbps (Menalink).
Let's have a quick look at upload speeds.
Honestly… there is not much to say because they are not fast in Morocco.
Although Inwi did surprisingly well in upload speeds, with an average of 20.64 Mbps.
Discover+ had one of the highest averages among eSIMs (Nomad Morocco had the highest), but it was still only 12.06 Mbps.
It did manage to beat Inwi at Dar el Medina – 5.87 Mbps vs 3.07 Mbps.
But honestly, that is nothing to celebrate 🗿.
However, the Discover+ eSIM was the fastest at McDonald's @ Bouznika in Casablanca (16.84 Mbps), Yves Saint Laurent Museum (1.76 Mbps) & Rabat Old Market (25.09 Mbps).
Overall, the Discover+ eSIM did well in Morocco, especially for the network it used (Inwi).
>>> Get your Airalo Discover(+) eSIM now! <<<
My Overall Experience with the Airalo Discover+ eSIM in Morocco – Is It Worth Your Money?
I would recommend the Airalo Discover(+) eSIM, and it would be one of my top recommendations for anyone wanting to buy a global travel eSIM (but not if you only visit Morocco).
Getting the Airalo Discover(+) eSIM or any other Airalo eSIM is extremely easy.
Airalo is one of the few eSIM providers that allow you to install an eSIM directly to your phone (without the need to scan a QR code), which makes the installation process a piece of cake (hence, I did not spend any time on how to install in this review – it is easy!).
Moreover, you do not have to adjust the APN settings with the Airalo Discover(+) eSIM, making it more manageable.
Few eSIM providers have eSIMs that either adequately cover the world or are somewhat affordable.
Fortunately, Airalo nailed it with its pricing and allowances, making it my go-to global eSIM.
As I mentioned way earlier, Airalo's former global offering, Discover Global, was alright… but not great.
But even that one did its job – and the upgrade is even better.
The prices for the new Discover(+) eSIMs are competitive for global eSIMs.
So much so that I do not even bother recommending other global eSIMs out there because they are way too expensive.
You get access to the Inwi network, the worst mobile operator in Morocco.
I got an average download speed of 39.16 Mbps, the third-fastest with the six eSIMs tested.
The fastest, Nomad Morocco (product page), was also on Inwi, while the second-fastest (Airalo Choukran (Morocco – review) was on Orange Morocco instead.
Not bad for the worst network, huh? 😜.
However, regarding coverage and reception, I had no issues with the Discover+ eSIM on the Inwi network.
I used the eSIM in a few other Middle Eastern/Northern African countries before Morocco (Turkey, Egypt, Qatar & Saudi Arabia), and it severely underperformed in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
I am not too surprised about Egypt because the mobile networks are not stellar, but the Discover+ eSIM was horrible there.
In Saudi Arabia (review in case you visit KSA too), a country with fantastic mobile network infrastructure, the eSIM was the worst I tested.
While in Qatar, another country where the infrastructure is fantastic, it did well.
So, it surprised me that it worked so well in Morocco.
I would still not recommend the Discover(+) eSIM if you only visit Morocco (even though Airalo's Morocco eSIM is not much cheaper than the Discover(+) eSIMs.
But if you plan on having one eSIM for your travels and do not want to worry about installing an eSIM for each destination you visit, including Morocco, you can expect it to work well.