Stamps can sometimes be bought alongside postcards, or from some Tabacs as well as at the PTT, where there may be a dedicated window or counter (labelled timbres ), and where stamps should be sold too in the phone section, if there is one.

At the PTT, there is a separate window for parcels , where the officials will want to examine the goods you are sending. Always take them unwrapped; alongside the parcels counter, there is usually someone (on a franchise) to supply wrapping paper, string and all the trimmings, or wrap your parcel, if you want.

Post office hours are Monday to Friday, 8am-12.15pm (11.30am on Friday) & 3-6.30pm in winter, 8am-3.30pm in summer (usually 15 July to 30 September), 9am-3.30pm during Ramadan; closed Saturday and Sunday. Central post offices in big cities will be open longer hours (typically 8am-6.30pm Monday to Friday, 8am-noon Saturday, but the same weekday hours as small offices in summer and during Ramadan), and they usually have a separate phone section, open longer hours, where stamps and phonecards are sold too.

Phones
There is a telephone section in each city's main post office (PTT Centrale), which often has a separate entrance and stays open longer hours - 24 hours a day in some of the main cities, but it is usually easier to use téléboutiques , which you'll find in abundance in all towns, great and small. You can dial abroad from almost all of these (some use coins, others have their own cards), the exception being in the Western Sahara, where you either have to use the PTT, or else (in Smara) call the operator from a téléboutique and ask for a connection. Some public phone boxes ( cabines ), especially in the Villes Nouvelles of large cities, will take phonecards issued by Itissalat al-Maghrib (the main phone company), which are available from some newsagents and tobacconists, and from post offices. These work out cheaper than calling from a PTT or téléboutique , but the phones don't usually seem to work (except for those outside the PTT itself). Alternatively, you can make calls through a hotel . Even fairly small places will normally do this; however, it'll cost you, so be sure to ask in advance both of possible surcharges and the chargeable rate. Note that international calls from a PTT or a hotel are usually charged for each three-minute period . If you go one second over, you're charged for the next period. If phoning from a PTT, you can request the operator to cut you off after a three-minute period.

To make a call from a cabine , you place the phonecard - or coins - into the slot on the phoneset and then dial. Using coins, a few dirhams are enough for a call within Morocco; for international calls you need at least four 5dh coins for Europe or the British Isles, and eight or more for North America or Australasia. Some phones take the old 5dh coins, others use the new ones ( téléboutiques will supply whichever ones you need); a few take 10dh coins.

Some téléboutiques will send a fax for you - and, by arrangement, receive one for you. A few also have a photocopier , but they are not well maintained and you may have to visit several to find one which works. Newsagents, stationers and bookshops may also do photocopies.

Mobile phones can be used from most places in Morocco (the country now has about 90 percent coverage), but note that prepaid cards from abroad cannot be charged up or replaced in Morocco, so remember to bring enough credit with you.

Email and the Internet
Internet clubs and cybercafés are springing up all over Morocco, and can be found in any town. You can send, and usually receive, email at any of these. A useful way of keeping in touch is to set up an email account with a firm like Yahoo or Hotmail that can be accessed via the Internet from anywhere. To set up such or access an account, visit the Web sites www.yahoo.com or www.hotmail.com . We've listed useful Web sites on Morocco.

The media
A selection of European newspapers (usually including some British dailies) and the International Herald Tribune are available in all the main cities. Le Monde is the most common. The British Guardian Weekly is also usually available, as occasionally is USA Today , and more commonly Time, Newsweek and The Economist . Also often available, though of limited value as a serious source of news, is the Saudi Gazette , whose content is, needless to say, slavishly favourable to the Saudi regime.

If you take a short-wave radio, you can pick up the BBC World Service , which is broadcast on various frequencies through the day, from 6am to midnight local time. The most consistent reception is generally on 9.41 and 12.095 MHz (31m and 25m bands), plus 3.955, 6.195 and 7.325 MHz after dark, 15.485, 17.64 and 17.705 MHz during the day; full programme listings are available from the BBC or the British Council in Rabat. You can also pick up the Voice of America during the day on 1.197MHz, at night on 15.205MHz, afternoons on 1.548MHz, and evenings on 9.76MHz, among other frequencies.

Some of the pricier hotels these days can receive satellite TV - CNN, the French TV5, and occasionally the UK Sky channels. In the north of the country you can also get Spanish TV stations and, in Tangier, the English-language Gibraltar TV and radio broadcasts.

Morocco's own two TV channels broadcast in Arabic, but include some French programmes - plus news bulletins in Arabic, French, Spanish and, more recently, Berber.

Note that videotapes recorded in Morocco use the French SECAM system which means that they won't be playable on machines in Britain, Ireland, North America, Australasia and most of western Europe.