Morocco travel guide

Book in the ONCF app or at oncf-voyages.ma (foreign cards mostly work; the station counter takes cash if not). Al Boraq (Tangier–Kenitra–Rabat–Casablanca) is a TGV: Tangier–Rabat 1 h 20, Tangier–Casablanca 2 h 10, about €20–25 second class, €30–35 first, with cheaper advance fares. Conventional Al Atlas trains: Casablanca–Marrakech 2 h 40–3 h for about €10–14, Rabat–Fes 2 h 40 for about €9, Casablanca–Fes 3 h 30–4 h. First class is worth the few euros for the reserved seat and the air conditioning. Marrakech–Fes by rail is 7 h via Casablanca — fly or bus it.

Rule of thumb: Between any two of Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca, Fes, Meknes and Marrakech, under four hours on ONCF's own timetable → train, first class. Marrakech–Fes or Marrakech–Tangier → fly.

Two reliable national operators with online booking (ctm.ma, supratours.ma), air conditioning and fixed departures from their own terminals — not the chaotic gare routière, where the local companies live. Supratours is ONCF's bus arm and departs from next to train stations to fill the rail gaps: Marrakech–Essaouira 3 h for about €9, Fes–Chefchaouen 4 h for about €8, Chefchaouen–Tangier 2 h 30 for about €5, Marrakech–Agadir 3 h 30 for about €12. Overnight CTM to Merzouga (Marrakech 12 h, Fes 9 h) exists and is grim. Luggage is a small extra, paid at the counter.

Rule of thumb: Where there is no railway and the journey is under five hours (Essaouira, Chefchaouen, Agadir, Ouarzazate) → CTM or Supratours, booked a day or two ahead. Over that, or for the desert circuit → driver, car or plane.

A hire car is €20–35 a day for a Dacia from a local firm, €40–60 from the majors, an EU or UK licence is accepted (an IDP is recommended, rarely asked for), and the roads are good: a tolled motorway spine from Tangier through Rabat and Casablanca to Marrakech and Agadir (Casablanca–Marrakech about €7), then two-lane national roads with lorries and donkeys. Police checkpoints and speed traps are constant and fines are on the spot. Never drive into a medina, and do not drive after dark outside the cities. The alternative most people take for the south is a car and driver, about €90–130 a day for the vehicle including fuel and the driver's board, arranged through a riad or a Marrakech agency: it turns the four-day desert circuit into the best part of the trip.

Rule of thumb: Atlas, Drâa and Dadès, the desert circuit, the Anti-Atlas → car or car-and-driver; for two people or more the driver costs about the same and removes the risk. Never for city-to-city hops the train covers.

Royal Air Maroc hubs at Casablanca and connects everything through it; Air Arabia Maroc and Ryanair fly a handful of point-to-point domestic legs (Marrakech–Tangier, Marrakech–Fes, Agadir–Tangier among them, the exact map changes each season). About 1 h, €30–70 booked a few weeks out. Getting into the country: Marrakech (RAK) has the widest low-cost network from Europe; Casablanca (CMN) is the long-haul hub; Fes, Tangier, Agadir, Rabat and Essaouira all have direct European low-cost flights, so open-jaw (into Marrakech, out of Fes or Tangier) is easy and avoids the doubling back.

Rule of thumb: Marrakech ↔ Tangier or Fes → fly, 1 h against 6–7 h by rail. Book open-jaw international flights so no domestic leg is needed at all.

Tarifa–Tangier Ville is the one to take on foot: 1 h with FRS (now under DFDS) or Intershipping, about €40–50 one way, docking in the city centre a ten-minute walk from the medina and the train station. Algeciras–Tangier Med (1 h 30, several operators, about €150–250 return with a car) docks 45 km east of Tangier at a container port — fine with a car, a €35 taxi or shuttle without one. Long-haul from Sète, Barcelona and Genoa with GNV takes 24–50 h and is for people bringing a car for a month.

Rule of thumb: On foot from Spain → Tarifa to Tangier Ville. With a car → Algeciras to Tangier Med. Never confuse the two Tangier ports.

Petit taxis (small, city-coloured — beige in Marrakech, red in Casablanca, blue in Rabat) are metered by law: insist on the meter or agree a price, €1.50–4 for most rides, 50 % more after 8 pm, three passengers maximum. Grand taxis (shared, six-seater, fixed price per seat) run between towns and to the suburbs; buy all the seats to make one private. Ride-hailing exists in a legal grey zone — inDrive, Careem and Heetch have worked in Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech, the roster changes, and the driver may ask you to sit in front. Casablanca and Rabat have modern tramways at under €1 a ride; Casablanca's airport is 45 min by train from Casa Port for about €5. Marrakech airport: bus 19 for €3, or ask the riad to send a driver for about €15 rather than fight the taxi rank, which quotes double the posted rate.

Rule of thumb: Inside a medina → on foot, always. Across town → petit taxi on the meter, three people maximum. Airport → riad-arranged driver, not the rank.