MARRAKECH BUS HUB
Marrakech runs its coaches from the rail-station quarter: CTM and Supratours sit beside the Gare de Marrakech, while the gare routière at Bab Doukkala absorbs the local fleets — pick the right door before you pick the seat.
CTM’s terminal stands right by the Gare de Marrakech, and Supratours — the ONCF railway’s own bus arm — boards beside the station too, ten minutes apart on foot. Both run clean, air-conditioned coaches with assigned seats, online booking and a quirks tax: a five-dirham luggage sticker, sold at a separate counter, without which your suitcase does not board. The classic first-timer error is Bab Doukkala: tell a taxi “bus station” and you may land at the gare routière outside the medina gate, where the older local companies depart — cheaper, slower, and a different world. Name the operator, not the building.
The timetable splits by brand. Supratours owns the tourist triangle: Essaouira about three hours, Agadir about the same, with rail-feeder logic at both ends. CTM covers the country — Casablanca in roughly three hours, Rabat four, Fez seven, plus Merzouga and the desert gateways overnight. Local companies from Bab Doukkala reach the Atlas valleys and souk towns the big two skip. Practical notes: tickets open about a month out and weekend departures to the coast sell through; at the rank outside, ignore the 100-dirham opening quote — a metered petit taxi to the medina is around thirty.
THE TIO READ
Pay the small premium for Supratours or CTM every time: assigned seat, working air conditioning, a station you can find again. Essaouira on the 8:30 Supratours is the single best bus ride in Morocco — argan hills, goats in trees, and the sea appearing exactly at hour three.
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