Is it better to do a loop or a one-way route in Morocco?

This is one of the most useful planning decisions to get right, because it quietly shapes how much of your trip you spend in the car. The short version: loops suit short, single-base trips, and one-way (open-jaw) routes suit longer trips that span the country. Which one is 'better' depends entirely on how many days you have and whether Fes is in the plan.

A loop makes great sense for shorter Marrakech-based trips — say up to a week focused on the south. You fly in and out of Marrakech, keep the same comfortable riad as your base, do the desert as a there-and-back journey, slot in day trips to the Atlas or Essaouira, and never have to repack and relocate constantly. It's simpler to book (one round-trip flight), and the desert loops are specifically designed to return you to Marrakech via slightly different roads so you're not staring at the identical scenery both ways.

But the moment your trip includes both Marrakech and Fes, a one-way route becomes clearly better, and this is the mistake I most often help people avoid. Marrakech and Fes are far apart, with the Sahara essentially between them; if you loop, you have to drive all the way back from Fes to Marrakech at the end — a long, dull day mostly retracing ground. Instead, fly into Marrakech and out of Fes (or the reverse), and your whole route becomes a forward-moving line: Marrakech, desert, Fes, done. Open-jaw flights cost about the same as a round trip and save you a full travel day.

So my rule of thumb: under a week and Marrakech-centric, loop it and enjoy the simplicity; a week or more taking in both imperial cities or the far north (Chefchaouen, Tangier), go one-way and book open-jaw flights. The longer and more end-to-end your trip, the more a one-way route pays off — it turns 'getting back' into 'getting somewhere new,' which is exactly what you want every day of a Morocco journey.