Is it easy to buy transport tickets as a tourist?

On the whole, buying transport tickets in Morocco is straightforward, and I reassure nervous first-timers about this constantly. The organised modes — ONCF trains, and the CTM and Supratours coaches — all have proper ticketing you can use without speaking Arabic. You can book online with an international card through their websites and apps, or buy in person at staffed counters in the stations, where you'll get a printed or digital ticket with a seat where relevant. Station staff and machines work in French, often with English understood, and the process feels familiar to anyone who's bought a train ticket anywhere.

There are a couple of honest friction points to plan around. The biggest is that foreign cards occasionally get declined on the Moroccan booking websites — it's intermittent and not a sign of anything sinister, just patchy payment gateways. The reliable workaround is to buy at the station counter, where cash and cards both work and a human can help, or to try the operator's app rather than the website. I tell travellers not to leave essential holiday-weekend tickets to the very last minute online for exactly this reason.

Taxis are a different system that catches people out, not because tickets are hard but because there are no tickets — it's cash and negotiation. Petit taxis in cities should use a meter but often won't for tourists, and grand taxis run on fixed per-seat fares you confirm before boarding. The 'ease' here is really about knowing the norm: agree the price first, carry small denomination notes for change, and don't be shy about stating the local fare. Once you internalise that, taxis are quick and cheap; it's only the unprepared who get overcharged.

City trams in Casablanca and Rabat are the easiest of all — platform machines sell single tickets or rechargeable cards for a few dirhams, you tap and ride, no language needed. So my summary for travellers is encouraging: trains, coaches, and trams have clean, tourist-friendly ticketing you'll find simple, with online booking as a convenience and station counters as a dependable fallback. Just carry some cash for taxis and the informal stuff, agree fares before you ride, and you'll find getting around Morocco far less daunting than the guidebooks sometimes imply.