Where driving yourself is fine
The motorways between Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech and Agadir are good, quiet and tolled. Driving there feels like southern Europe.
Driving yourself works if you stay in one place and make trips out from it, or if you do the coastal route. The car then sits at your hotel during the day and you drive short stretches on good roads.
Two things people underestimate: you can pay by card at almost every filling station, but not all of them, and the police run identity checks regularly, especially on the way in and out of cities. Always carry your passport or a copy and follow instructions.
Where it gets hard
- The High Atlas passes are narrow, winding and in many places have no crash barrier. The Tizi n’Tichka between Marrakech and Ouarzazate is the best known. It is doable, but it is three hours of concentrated driving and no looking at the scenery.
- In the cities the real problem is parking near the medinas. The Fès medina is largely car-free; you cannot get in and you end up parked a long way off.
- The Sahara is far. Marrakech to Merzouga is about 560 kilometres over mountain roads: nine to ten hours. To Zagora it is around 350 kilometres and six to seven hours. That is too much to drive yourself in a day and still want to do something that evening.
- If there is damage or a collision, you as the hirer are the point of contact, in French or Arabic, with an insurance policy you have to explain on the spot.
What a driver actually gives you
All our tours include a private air-conditioned car with a regular driver. That is not a smart extra; it is what makes a tour of Morocco workable.
You do not navigate, you do not park and you do not haggle. You get out at the medina gate and the car is waiting somewhere else later. Your luggage stays in the car. If something goes wrong on the way, it is handled by someone who speaks the language and knows the road.
If you do hire a car anyway, pick one with enough engine for the passes, check that the insurance excess is one you can carry, and do not put the long legs on your arrival or departure day.
