Do I need a private driver or can I use public transport?

Honestly, you do not need a private driver for a lot of Morocco. The train handles the city corridor — Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca, Fes and down to Marrakech — cleanly and cheaply, and CTM and Supratours coaches are comfortable, air-conditioned and reach plenty of places trains do not, including Essaouira and Chefchaouen. Independent travellers on a budget get around the country perfectly well this way.

Where public transport falls short is the part of Morocco most people come for. There is no bus that meanders over the Tizi n’Tichka stopping at Ait Ben Haddou and the gorges on the way to the Sahara; there is no train into the desert or the Atlas valleys. For those journeys the route is the experience, and a private driver lets you stop for photos, linger at a kasbah, and reach camps and villages that scheduled transport simply bypasses.

There is also the question of time and energy. A private driver turns a day of bus stations, connections and luggage-hauling into a door-to-door journey where you arrive relaxed. On a tight one- or two-week trip, that recovered time is often the difference between seeing two regions properly and rushing through three. For families and groups, splitting a driver’s cost can also work out comparable to several separate fares.

So my real-world advice is to mix the two. Take the train or a coach for the big, straight city-to-city legs where they shine — Casablanca to Marrakech, Tangier to Fes. Then hire a private driver for the southern loop into the desert and the mountains, where the freedom to stop is worth everything. That blend gives you both the affordability of public transport and the access of a driver, and it is exactly how I plan most of our guests’ trips.