How to Get Around Morocco: An Honest Local Guide to Every Option

The short version: Morocco's trains connect the big northern cities cheaply and comfortably, the long-distance buses reach almost everywhere the train doesn't, and a private driver wins for the desert, the mountains and any route with no rail line. Almost nobody uses just one of these. A normal two-week trip ends up mixing a train, a bus or two, a handful of taxis and maybe a driver for the Sahara stretch.

We're a Marrakech-based transfer company that's been moving people around the country since 2004, so we've watched travellers get this right and get it wrong. This guide runs through every option honestly (what each one costs you in time, comfort and hassle) and tells you when we'd actually pick which. No prices, because they change with the season and the year, but real distances and times you can plan around.

The quick answer: which option for which journey

If you read nothing else, read this list. We explain every line in detail further down.

• Big city to big city (Casablanca, Rabat, Fes, Tangier, Marrakech): Train (ONCF). City centre to city centre, no traffic, comfortable.
• Tangier to Casablanca in a hurry: Al Boraq high-speed train. The fastest way up the coast, about 2 hours 10 minutes.
• A town with no train (Essaouira, Chefchaouen, Merzouga): CTM or Supratours bus, or a private driver. The bus is cheapest, the driver is door to door.
• Airport to your riad: Private transfer. Fixed price, meets you in arrivals, no late-night haggling.
• Sahara or desert (Merzouga, Zagora): Private driver. No train and no comfortable bus reaches it, and you will want stops.
• Atlas Mountains, Ourika, Ouzoud waterfalls: Private driver. Winding roads, scattered stops, little public transport.
• Short hop inside a city: Petit taxi (insist on the meter). Cheap and everywhere.
• Long jump south (Dakhla, Laâyoune): Domestic flight. Driving takes days, flying takes a couple of hours.

That's the whole guide in one place. Now the detail, mode by mode.

Trains in Morocco (ONCF): excellent, but only on the main line

Morocco's national rail operator is ONCF, and on its network the trains are genuinely good: clean, air-conditioned, punctual enough, and far more comfortable than first-time visitors expect. First and second class are both perfectly fine; first class mainly buys you a guaranteed reserved seat and a little more elbow room.

The catch is the map. The network runs roughly in an L-shape linking the big northern and central cities: Tangier, Kenitra, Rabat, Casablanca, Fes, Meknes and Marrakech. Between any two of those, the train is usually the best choice you have. You travel centre to centre with no traffic, no parking and nobody to negotiate with.

The headline is Al Boraq, Africa's first high-speed line, running Tangier to Kenitra to Rabat to Casablanca. It turned the old Tangier to Casablanca slog into a trip of about 2 hours 10 minutes. For the classic tourist triangle the train is the obvious pick, and you book a few days ahead in high season because the good departures sell out.

Where the train fails you: it does not go to Essaouira, it does not go to Chefchaouen, and it gets nowhere near the Sahara or the Atlas Mountains. The line south of Marrakech simply doesn't exist. So the moment your plan involves the desert, the mountains or the Atlantic coast below Casablanca, the train drops out and you're choosing between a bus and a driver.

Honest pros: cheap, comfortable, reliable, scenic, no traffic. Honest cons: covers only the main cities; useless for the desert, the mountains, Essaouira and Chefchaouen.

CTM & Supratours buses: how you reach everywhere else

When the rail map runs out, the buses take over, and Morocco's long-distance buses are better than the word "bus" suggests. The two names to know are CTM and Supratours (the latter run by ONCF as a feeder to the trains). Both are a different world from the cheap, chaotic local buses: assigned seats, air conditioning, a hold for luggage (you pay a small fee per bag) and fixed timetables you can book online ahead of time.

This is how budget travellers reach the places the train can't. CTM and Supratours run to Essaouira, Chefchaouen, Merzouga, Ouarzazate, Agadir and dozens of other towns. For Marrakech to Essaouira, for example, the bus is a comfortable run of roughly 2h40 and costs a fraction of a private car.

The trade-offs are the ones you'd expect. Buses keep their own schedule, not yours: miss the morning departure and you may wait hours for the next. They stop only at the bus station, which can be a taxi ride from your riad. And on long hauls the rest stops come whenever the driver decides, not when your kids need them. For the very long routes the time adds up fast: a bus south toward the desert is an all-day commitment.

Honest pros: cheap, reliable, reaches towns with no train, bookable ahead. Honest cons: fixed timetable, station-to-station only, slow on long routes, limited stops.

Grand taxis: shared rides between towns

Between towns you'll come across grand taxis, shared cars that run set routes and set off once their seats are taken. You pay for a seat rather than the whole car, which makes them one of the most affordable ways to cover a short hop between neighbouring towns, and they're a genuine part of everyday Moroccan life.

They suit a flexible, light-packing traveller making a quick trip between nearby towns. When you want more room, a departure time that fits your plans, and proper space for your luggage, a private car is the natural step up, and it makes an obvious difference on longer routes or when you're travelling as a family.

Good for: short hops between towns, an affordable and authentic local ride. Step up to a private car when: you want space, your own schedule, or you're carrying luggage or travelling with family.

Petit taxis: getting around inside a city

Inside a city, the workhorse is the petit taxi: the small, colour-coded city cabs (beige in Marrakech, red in Casablanca, blue in Rabat, and so on). They're metered, capped at three passengers, and they can't legally leave the city limits. For nipping across town they're cheap and everywhere.

One rule above all others: insist on the meter. "Compteur, s'il vous plaît" as you get in. The meter (plus a modest night surcharge after dark) is the legal fare, and it's almost always cheaper than the flat price a driver will quote a tourist. If the meter is mysteriously "broken," either agree a firm price out loud before you move or wait for the next cab, because there's always another one. Keep small notes handy, because "no change" is a familiar way to round the fare up.

Honest pros: cheap, metered, everywhere, no booking. Honest cons: three passengers max, city-only, you have to push for the meter.

Private driver & transfers: door-to-door, on your schedule

This is us, so take the bias as read, but we'll be straight about when a private driver is genuinely worth it and when it isn't.

A private transfer is a car and driver booked just for you, at a fixed all-inclusive price agreed before you travel. The driver meets you at the door (or in arrivals, holding your name), carries the bags, and goes when you're ready, stopping where you like along the way. Our drivers speak English, French and Spanish, we run 24/7, and you can cancel free up to 24 hours before.

Where a driver clearly beats the alternatives:

• The desert. There's no train and no comfortable direct bus to the dunes. Marrakech to Merzouga is a long 9-hour crossing over the Atlas, and in a private car it becomes the trip itself: you stop at Aït Benhaddou, the Tizi n'Tichka pass, a roadside mint tea, instead of a day spent staring out of a coach window.
• The mountains. The Atlas valleys, the Ourika, the Ouzoud waterfalls: winding roads and scattered stops that public transport barely serves.
• Routes with no rail line. Marrakech to Tangier is roughly 6h30 by road; Marrakech to Fes is about 6h if you'd rather stop along the way than take the train; Marrakech to Agadir is around 3h door to door.
• Families and first-timers. Child seats, your own schedule, no rank haggling at midnight, no working out which bus station is which after a long flight.

Where it isn't worth it: between two big cities on the train line, in daylight, travelling light. Marrakech to Casablanca is about 2h50 by road, but the train does it comfortably for far less and you skip the Casablanca traffic. We'll happily drive you, but if the train fits your plan, take the train. For the deeper case, we wrote a whole piece on when a private driver in Morocco actually pays off, and a head-to-head on Marrakech to Tangier: train vs transfer.

Honest pros: door-to-door, your schedule, fixed price, stops on request, best for desert, mountains and families. Honest cons: costs more than the bus or train; overkill on a simple city-to-city run with a good rail link.

Car rental & self-driving: the honest take

Plenty of travellers picture themselves with a hire car and the open road, and on the right trip it works. The toll motorways (the autoroutes) are modern and easy, fuel is reasonable, and out in the south the freedom to stop wherever you like is genuinely lovely.

Now the honest part, because it's the bit the rental ads skip. City driving is genuinely chaotic: Marrakech and Fes in particular are a swirl of scooters, carts, pedestrians and unwritten rules, and the medinas are car-free mazes where your hire car is useless anyway. Police checkpoints are routine on the open road; they're nothing to fear if your papers are in order, but they're frequent and you slow for every one. Parking in the cities means finding a guarded lot and a gardien. And if there's a scrape or a dispute, you're the foreigner sorting out paperwork in a language you may not speak.

Our honest take: a hire car can be great for a self-drive loop through the south if you're a confident driver and you skip driving inside the big medinas. For most first-time visitors, a mix of trains, buses and the occasional private driver is less stressful and often no more expensive once you add up fuel, tolls, parking and the insurance excess.

Honest pros: total freedom, good motorways, great for southern road trips. Honest cons: chaotic city driving, useless in the medina, frequent checkpoints, parking hassle, you own any problems.

Domestic flights: for the long jumps only

Morocco is bigger than it looks on the map, and for the genuinely long hauls a flight saves you a day or more. Royal Air Maroc and low-cost Air Arabia Maroc connect the main cities, and the route that really earns its keep is anything down to the deep south (Dakhla or Laâyoune) where driving is a multi-day expedition and a flight is a couple of hours.

For most tourist routes, though, flying makes less sense than it first appears. Once you add the trip to the airport, the check-in, the security and the wait, a one-hour hop between, say, Marrakech and Casablanca is barely faster than the train and far less pleasant. We'd reach for a flight only when the road alternative is measured in days, not hours.

Honest pros: saves days on the longest routes; cheap fares if you book early. Honest cons: airport faff cancels the time saving on short hops; fewer routes than you'd hope.

"Is there Uber in Morocco?": ride apps, honestly

Short answer: yes, now. After a few years away, Uber relaunched in Marrakech and Casablanca in late 2025, working through licensed drivers, and apps like Careem, inDrive and Heetch run too. So you can hail a ride from your phone in the big cities again.

Two things to know, though. These apps are for in-city rides: they will not take you city to city or out to the desert, and coverage drops off fast outside the main cities. And for an airport arrival with luggage, or any long trip, you still want the certainty of a pre-booked private transfer or a metered petit taxi rather than hoping a driver accepts late at night. For getting across a city, the apps are genuinely handy again.

Which to choose by traveller type

Budget backpacker. Trains between the big cities, CTM or Supratours buses to everywhere else, grand taxis for the short local hops, petit taxis with the meter inside town. You can cross the whole country this way for very little. Accept that it runs on the timetable's clock, not yours, and that the desert will still mean joining a tour or splitting a driver with others.

Family or comfort traveller. Take the train where it goes (kids love it and it's easy). For everything off the rail line, and for the airport, a private transfer removes the day's biggest friction points: no haggling with bags and tired children, child seats fitted, door to door, a fixed price you knew before you left home. Mix and match: train for Marrakech to Fes, a driver for the desert loop, taxis around town.

Desert and mountain travellers. This is the clear case for a private driver. No train reaches the dunes and no comfortable direct bus does either, so a car and driver turns a brutal transfer into the best day of the trip, with the stops, the photos and the mint tea built in. The Merzouga route is the textbook example.

Most people land somewhere in between, and that's the right answer. Use the train when it fits, the bus when it's the cheap sensible option, and a driver when the journey is the point or the logistics would otherwise eat your day.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best way to get around Morocco? There's no single best way, it depends on the route. Between the big northern and central cities (Casablanca, Rabat, Fes, Tangier, Marrakech), the train is usually best: cheap, comfortable and centre to centre. For towns off the rail line, take a CTM or Supratours bus or a private driver. For the desert and the mountains, a private driver is the only comfortable option. Most travellers mix all three on one trip.

Do you need a car in Morocco? No, you don't. Between the trains, the long-distance buses, shared grand taxis and private transfers, you can reach everywhere a visitor wants to go without ever renting one. A hire car suits a confident driver doing a self-drive loop through the south, but it's more hassle than help in the cities and useless inside the car-free medinas.

Is it safe to drive in Morocco? The open roads and modern toll motorways are fine, and police checkpoints, though frequent, are routine and nothing to worry about if your papers are in order. The hard part is the cities: traffic in places like Marrakech and Fes is chaotic, parking is awkward, and the medinas are off-limits to cars anyway. If you're not a confident, assertive driver, a private driver or public transport is the calmer choice.

Are there trains in Morocco? Yes, Morocco has a good national rail network run by ONCF, including Al Boraq, Africa's first high-speed line, between Tangier, Rabat and Casablanca. The trains are clean, comfortable and reliable. The limitation is coverage: they link the big northern and central cities only, and don't reach Essaouira, Chefchaouen, the Sahara or the Atlas Mountains.

Is Uber available in Morocco? Yes. Uber relaunched in Marrakech and Casablanca in late 2025 (through licensed drivers), and Careem, inDrive and Heetch operate too, but only for in-city rides. They will not do intercity or desert trips, and coverage is thin outside the big cities. For getting across a city a ride app or a metered petit taxi works well; for airport pickups and intercity trips, book a private transfer in advance.

MTS Transfers has run private, door-to-door transfers across Morocco since 2004, with English, French and Spanish-speaking drivers, fixed all-inclusive prices and free cancellation up to 24 hours. Message us on WhatsApp at +212 619 150150 or email contact@mts-transfers.com, and see every route on the private transfers hub.