Best Morocco guide book

I liked the Cadogan Guide for Morocco. Advice: skip the ferry, skip the "bordertowns" on the coast, and fly straight to the good stuff: Marrakech and/or Fes. There are lots of cheap flights from all over Europe. I've been there twice. My priorities for Morocco would be: 1 & 2. (tie): Marrakech, Fes (both are great, each has something the other doesn't). Both are worth seeing if you can manage it. 3. A night on one of the Grand Ergs (sand seas) - requires some time to get to (I have yet to get there) 4. Ait Benhaddou (on the road to Ourzazate) 5. Essouaria - charming beach town on the Atlantic. 6. Meknes. Another ancient walled city.
7. Volubilis - Great Roman ruins. There's lots more. Todra Gorge, High Atlas Mountains... Have fun.

Lorenzo, You might also have a look at the Lonely Planet Guidebooks. They're not always updated every year, but the information is usually fairly comprehensive. I believe they offer PDF "Mini Guides" on their website.

Ken: I've been looking at the Lonely Planet Morocco and indeed the information it contains is pretty good. I think I'm going with that. David: thanks for sharing your personal advice about Morocco. Some of those places I've heard of, most I haven't. I'll read up on them in the coming weeks. But you're definitely right, I want to see the Morocco outside of the tourist trap border towns. Since it seems you have more experience travelling around Morocco, I was wondering what I should expect for accommodations. Did you go for hotels or do hostels? How about in less touristy places?

Hotels or hostels? I've done both. Stayed in a few pretty sketchy hostels, but that was 15 years ago and a couple of of them were well off the tourist circuit. For hostels, I'd expect things to be more or less like other hostels, but at a lower standard (especially off the tourist trail) as this is a developing country, but not too scary. Hotels run the gamut from 5 star palaces to rough-around-the-edges cheap - it all depends on your tastes, budget and preferences. In recent years, as tourism has blossomed, there are more and more upscale places, some of which are amazing and memorable. Last time I was in Fes, I stayed in a spectacular, restored old Raid. My wife described it as "It's like sleeping in the Alhambra!" and I'd have to agree - that's only a slight exaggeration. Not cheap, but amazingly beautiful. In contrast, on my first visit to Fes a decade before, I was befriended by some locals on the train, and they insisted I stay at their home. We used a large tin can as a toilet, and it was a far cry from the Alhambra. Someone in their house had gone through my backpack while I slept and pilfered a couple of small items (I only discovered this later after I had moved on). The missing items were not expensive, my camera, passport, money, etc. were not taken - I suspect it was a young sibling, and it wasn't a disaster...but I learned to be more careful about such things. OTOH, they did lead me through the medina and when they asked what I wanted to see/do in fes, I told them I wanted to go to a hamam. They were incredulous, but eventually they agreed to take me to their hamam, which was quite an experience and one that I'll never forget. Anyway, the point is, there are a very wide range of accommodations available. If you try to get off the tourist circuit you can, and there will be places where there are few options there.

Chris on this site recommended Around Morocco Travels (http://www.aroundmorocco.com/) for tours. It has great reviews on Trip Advisor. We were considering a trip to Morocco but read the State Department's "Threats to Safety and Security" section and decided to wait awhile. Would anyone else think of delaying a trip to Morocco or are we being overly cautious?

Well everyone has to make up their own mind on such things, but if you listen to the US State Department you would spend most of your life cowering under your bed at home. They tend to go into CYA mode and issue scary (and completely unjustified) travel warnings about all sorts of places. IMHO, there's no reason to skip Morocco - at least not out of concern over...what, political violence? Not realistic, to me. Also, I see no need for a "guide" in Morocco - no more than you would need a guide in Spain or Italy. Sure, some people want guides anyplace and that's OK, but if you don't feel like you need a guide in, say, Rome, then you probably don't need a guide in Marrakech either. Most Americans don't realize that Morocco is a mass tourism destination for Europeans. Yes, it feels exotic - it is. Yes, it's a different culture, and most of us cannot make any sense of the spoken or written language. But they get vast numbers of Europeans on cheap vacations, French is widely spoken (bad French, so many of us feel right at home), and if you're going to a place where they get tourists (which is probably exactly where you want to go), you won't even have to bother using your rusty high school French - many people you'll deal with speak English. YMMV, but it's really not a scary place.

Thanks for all the advice so far!