By bus through Morocco

In the north of the country, the rail network between the big cities is well developed, which is why you should only use the bus as a means of transport in exceptional cases. During our trip through Morocco, we took both the Supratours and CTM buses. Our longest journey time was 5 hours.

Supratours buses

Supratours is part of the Moroccan railway group (ONCF) and the buses run as a supplement to the rail network. Our bus was comparatively modern and there was even free WiFi.

You can see the timetables on the website at www.supratours.ma. Since the website has not been fully translated into English, a rudimentary knowledge of French will definitely help. The Supratours connections can also be found on the railway website at www.oncf.ma.

Tickets for Supratours and the train are available online (with a local bank card), otherwise, you can buy them at the departure point. For popular routes (and times) it is worthwhile to get the tickets one to two days in advance.

To transport suitcases, you have to buy an extra suitcase ticket from Supratours. We paid 10 MAD per suitcase for the route Marrakech – Essaouira.

CTM buses

You can also cover long distances with the CTM buses ( www.ctm.ma ). These also run on routes that Supratours does not operate on or on the desired day. You can find out more about the timetable and fare on the CTM website.

As with Supratours, suitcases are charged separately. For the drive from Essaouira to El-Jadida (5 hours), we paid 5 MAD for two pieces of luggage together. On the route, CTM used the same buses as Supratours, only in our case the CTM bus was no longer in as good shape as the competitors. The seats were a bit wobbly, but that was bearable.

Other bus companies

In addition to the two “big ones” mentioned, there are a number of smaller bus companies that also connect large cities. You can get tickets for these companies directly at the major bus stations. The tickets are usually cheaper, but comfort is not necessarily a given. From our point of view, traveling with smaller companies is more for the die-hard.

Tips for the bus trip

During the day, the sun is merciless in Morocco. Although there are curtains on the buses, they only keep out the sun’s rays to a limited extent. At Supratours you will be assigned a permanent place.

In order not to sizzle in the sun, it is helpful when traveling

• to the west in the direction of travel right
• to the east in the direction of travel left

to sit. If you ask kindly, with a little luck you will get a place on the shady side.

On all longer journeys, there is at least one mandatory stop, which takes just under half an hour. This gives you enough time to eat something or to stretch your legs.

By train through Morocco

In the north of Morocco, there is a well-developed rail network with regular trains. You can take tickets both at the counter and at the ticket machine. Both processes run very well and, in contrast to Germany, we had no problems feeding the machines with bills 🙂

The longest distance we traveled by train was from Fez to Marrakech. For the 7.5-hour journey you pay 195 MAD in the second class and 295 MAD in the first class. Because of the duration, we decided on first class , in which the seats are correspondingly more comfortable. Here you will also be assigned a fixed seat. If you want to travel by train in Morocco, then you can watch on the departure times at www.oncf.ma inform.

Traveling through Morocco by train is quite relaxed. If there is anything to improve, it is the announcement of the next train station. As a non-local, it is a bit difficult to find out where you are and how many stops there are to your destination.

{Small tip} : If you search for “Casablanca” on www.oncf.ma , you won’t find anything. This is because there is no station with that name. You come to Casablanca if you enter Casa Voyageurs as the station. However, this is only one of several train stations in Casablanca.