What is Supratours vs CTM bus (which is better)?

If you're taking a coach in Morocco, you really want one of two companies: CTM or Supratours. These are the dependable ones — modern air-conditioned coaches, assigned seats, fixed timetables, proper stations, and a luggage hold with tickets for your bags. Everything else tends to be the cheaper local lines, which are fine for hardy budget travellers but slower, more crowded, and far less predictable. So the real choice for most visitors isn't 'which bus' but 'CTM or Supratours', and the answer usually comes down to route.

CTM is the grand old name — Morocco's long-standing private intercity operator with the broadest national network, reaching towns trains simply don't go near. If you're crossing the country between smaller cities, CTM often has the most direct service. Supratours, by contrast, is owned by ONCF, the railway, and its whole logic is to extend the train: it picks up where the tracks end and carries you onward. The classic example is Marrakech to Essaouira, which has no rail line, or rail-then-coach combinations down toward the desert gateways. Because it's rail-linked, you can sometimes buy a through train-plus-coach ticket.

In day-to-day comfort there's honestly little between them — both run clean, reliable, reservable coaches with similar fares, and I happily put travellers on either. CTM's online booking and CTM/Supratours station presence are both straightforward; you book on their websites or apps, or at the station counter, and you turn up with a seat number. I'd nudge you to book ahead on popular routes and around holidays, because the good coaches sell out while the chaotic local ones never do.

My practical rule: check both for your specific journey and take whichever has the better timing and most direct routing that day. For anything radiating off the rail network — Essaouira, certain desert and southern connections — Supratours is often the natural pick precisely because it's built to dovetail with trains. For broad cross-country hops between cities, CTM frequently wins on coverage. Either way you're getting Morocco's two safest, most comfortable coach options, which is exactly what you want.