Is a public bus or a grand taxi better for short hops in Morocco?

For getting around Morocco on a budget without a private driver, these are your two workhorses, and they suit different distances. A grand taxi is usually an old Mercedes or Dacia that runs a fixed route between two towns, leaving when it fills up — which in practice means six passengers crammed in (two in front, four in back) plus the driver. They're the lifeblood of short inter-town travel: cheap, frequent, no timetable to miss, and they'll often drop you closer to where you actually want to be than a bus station on the edge of town.

A public bus — and here I mean the proper companies, CTM and Supratours, not the rougher local lines — is the better tool for longer hauls. You get an assigned seat, real legroom, air conditioning, a hold for your luggage, and a fixed schedule you can book ahead online. For a three- or four-hour run between cities, the comfort and the guaranteed seat are worth a great deal, and the price is still very reasonable. The cheaper local buses exist too, but they're slow, crowded, and stop constantly, so I generally steer visitors to CTM/Supratours.

The honest trade-offs cut both ways. Grand taxis are gloriously flexible but genuinely cramped — six adults in a sedan is intimate, and you may wait at the rank until enough passengers gather to fill it, which can be ten minutes or an hour. Fares should be a shared fixed rate, but as a visitor you'll sometimes be quoted the price of the whole car, so confirm whether you're paying per seat or buying out the taxi. Buses remove all that haggling and discomfort, but they run to a timetable and depart from stations that can be inconveniently placed.

My rule is distance-based and simple. Short hops — a neighbouring town, an airport run, a village twenty minutes up the valley — take a grand taxi; it's faster, more frequent, and built exactly for that. Longer legs between major cities — Marrakech to Essaouira, Fes to Chefchaouen — take a CTM or Supratours bus for the comfort and the booked seat. And if you're travelling as a couple or family with luggage and you value not negotiating, remember a private transfer or chauffeur often costs less than you'd think and removes the whole question; I arrange those when the savings of public transport stop being worth the hassle.