Rent a Car in Morocco

Morocco rewards drivers more than almost anywhere in North Africa. Trains link the big cities along the coast and the CTM and Supratours buses cover the rest, but neither gets you to the Tizi n'Tichka pass at sunrise, into the kasbahs of the Draa Valley, or along the back roads to the Ouzoud Waterfalls. Casablanca, the country's economic hub, sits on the Atlantic coast with the international airport Mohammed V as many visitors' first stop, while Marrakech, roughly three hours south, is the classic gateway to the High Atlas and the Sahara road. Between the two, and beyond them, is where a hire car earns its keep.

Distances are manageable and fuel is cheap by European standards, so a two-week loop from Casablanca down through Marrakech, over the mountains to Ouarzazate and the Draa Valley, then back via the Atlantic coast at Essaouira is a realistic and popular route. Add the medieval medina of Fes, the blue-washed lanes of Chefchaouen in the Rif mountains, or the Sahara dunes near Merzouga, and a car turns Morocco from a single-city stopover into a genuine road trip across a country that changes character every few hours of driving.