Is Morocco walkable / do I need transport?

Within a single city, Morocco is wonderfully walkable — and in the old medinas you have no choice, because the lanes are too narrow for cars. Marrakech, Fes, and Essaouira are made for wandering, and honestly that is the only way to experience them properly: getting half-lost among the stalls is the point, not a problem.

For hops across town that are too far to walk — your riad to the train station, the new city to the medina gate — petit taxis are the answer. They are small, cheap, plentiful, and metered in most cities. I rarely wait more than a minute on a main street, and a cross-town ride costs only a few dirhams, so I never feel tethered to one neighbourhood.

Between cities is where you genuinely need transport, and the good news is the options are solid. The train network linking Casablanca, Rabat, Fes, and Marrakech is comfortable and punctual, with a high-speed line on the Tangier–Casablanca stretch. Long-distance buses (CTM and Supratours) reach the towns trains miss. For these legs, public transport is perfectly viable for confident travellers.

The desert and the deeper Atlas, though, are not a public-transport job. The dunes, the kasbah road, and the mountain passes have scattered or no scheduled service, and the drive itself — winding through the High Atlas with photo stops — is part of the trip. For those routes I always recommend a private driver: you trade a little money for huge gains in comfort, flexibility, and not missing the view while reading a timetable.