By Bus, Marrakesh

A great way to see the city if you are short on time is by jumping on the hop on/hop off Bus Touristique. You can purchase two types of tickets: 24h and 48h and are good for a full 24 and 48 hours from the exact time of purchase. Ticket prices as of Sept 2011 are 80/150 (child/adult)Dirhams for 24h and 100/200 Dirhams (child/adult) for 48h. Headphones are included in the price and you can plug in at each seat. Audio Tour is provided in English, Moroccan, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese and Portugese.

There are two different routes. Tour Historique which stops at all the famous spots such as: La Koutoubia, Place Jemaa El Fna, Palais La Bahia, La Menara and the Palais Badii (and others) and Tour Oasis which stops at a number of Palmeraie's as well as the Jardin Majorelle.

During the summer, peak hours Tour Historique buses run every 20 to 30 minutes from 9:00 to 18:30h. Duration of the loop is 1h30min. Tour Oasis buses run every 1h10min from 12:00h to 17:30h

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The most convenient way to travel from Marrakech to Ouarzazate is by CTM bus. Tickets cost 80 dirham (also for children) and can be purchased at the busstation or in advance. We bought our bustickets at an internetcafe at Rue Bab Agnaou street.
The bus will make a stop from 30 minutes halfway in the Atlas mountain village of Taddert.

The busstation is somewhat out of town, in the Menara (close to the airport), so you probably have to take a petit taxi.
Luggage is chequed in, and sometimes you have to pay 5 ot 10 dirhams for the baggage.
We wanted to go to Ait Ben Haddou, which is not a busstop.
We asked the busdriver to drop us at the roadjunction about 25 km before Ouarzazate.
From there you can take a grand taxi to Ait Ben Haddou.

We boarded a hop on/hop off bus at JEF to get a feel for the city. The entire route took about 90 minutes and we went around both the old city and the new city. If you plan on doing/seeing anything outside the old city it's a good idea to use this bus for transportation (Menara Gardens, Le Meridien hotel, McDonalds!). The distance can be a little far.

There are two routes - one is the monumental route that stops at the main sights (palaces, msoque). Sorry didn't take the other route so not sure where it goes.

Your pass is good for 24 hours and costs less than $20. The buses run between 9:30 and 7 p.m.

The No. 19 bus DOES run on the hour and half hour from the airport.
Quarter past and quarter to each hour to the airport from roughly stance 8, next to the gardens at the 'bottom' of Jamaa El Fna, across the road from Kentucky Fried Chicken. This is just round the corner from the long line of horse drawn 'caleches' outside club Med. Sorry if this sounds like a long winded explanation but NO ONE wants to tell you where you get the bus from the town for the airport! I hope the map will reproduce big enough for you to see that the bus covers quite a bit of the new town on its way back to the airport on its circular route.

Before going to Morocco I tried to find information about bus timetables. It was not easy at all.
When I was there, I took some photos of CTM bus timetables (different from online) from Marrakesh to other places. You can see them below (as of 28th Nov 2010).

Dakhla 5:15; 14:30
Boujdour 5:15; 14:30
Laayoune 5:15; 14:30; 16:30; 18:30; 19:30
Smara 15:30
Tan tan 5:15; 14:30; 15:30; 16:30; 18:00; 19:30
Goulmime 5:15; 14:30; 15:30; 16:30; 18:00; 19:30; 23:45
Tiznit 2:15; 10:45; 15:30; 16:30; 18:00; 19:30; 23:45
Tafraoute 10:45
Taroudant 2:10
Agadir 5:15; 8:00; 10:45; 12:00; 15:30; 16:30; 18:00; 19:30; 23:45
Ouarzazate 2:45; 7:00; 12:15; 16:30; 23:45
Agdez (Agdz?) 12:15; 23:45
Zagora 12:15; 23:45
Lamhamid (MHamid, M'Hamid) 12:15
Casablanca 1:30; 6:00; 10:15; 12:00; 15:30; 16:30
Rabat 1:30; 2:15; 6:00; 12:00; 15:30
Tanger (Tangier) 2:15; 6:00; 12:00; 16:30
Tetouane 2:15; 6:00; 16:30
Mekness (Meknes) 1:30; 6:00; 12:00
Nador 12:00; 15:30
Al Hoceima 15:30
Oujda 15:30
Skoura 7:00
K.Magouna 7:00
Boumalene 7:00
Tinghir (Tinerhir?) 7:00
Tinjdad 7:00
Goulmima 7:00
Errachidia 7:00
Fes (Fez) 7:00; 12:00; 15:30; 23:30
Ifrane 7:00; 23:30
Azrou 7:00; 23:30
Mrirt 7:00; 23:30
Khenifra 7:00; 23:30
Z.Echeikh 7:00; 23:30
K.Tadla (Kasba Tadla?) 7:00
B.Mellal (Beni Mellal) 7:00; 23:30
K.Sraghna (Kasba Sraghna?) 7:00; 23:30
Essaouira: Aller 8:00; 12:00; Retour 12:30; 17:00

We took bus 12:15 to Ouarzazate. Ticket cost 90MAD per person. The cashier charged us 10MAD per backpack, however, as we noticed later, only gave us 1 ticket for all bags for 5MAD (or probably 10). But I also read in some smallprint on their wall that all bags > size xyz, where one of them was 10cm are charged 5 (or 10)Dh

Bus was good. It stopped once before crossing Atlas mountains, but it didn't stop near Tizzi'n'Tichka as we expected.

There's also a good bus called Ahlan Wa Sahlan. It leaves Marrakesh every 2nd day normally and goes through Ouarzazate to M'Hamid. We took it on 30th November from Ouarzazate, tickets cost 80MAD/person +5Dh/bag

There are three types of inter-city buses to and from Marrakech. Firstly, at the bus station, opposite Bab Doukkala, there are the private bus companies, which operate to all major cities, including many every day to Tangier, Agadir, Essaouira, Goulimine and Casablanca. The buses look fine, but they don't use airconditioning and they stop frequently to pick up passengers and sometimes just to do a bit of shopping in local markets. Only use these buses, if there is no alternative. The passengers who use them are more than 95% locals.

Then there are the Supra Tours buses, which are run by the state rail company. They are fast, direct and use their airconditioning. More than 90% of their passengers are foreign tourists, but usually these buses are full. So, it is essential that you go to the Supra Tours office, next to the train station, and book your ticket the day before you plan to travel. They run to Agadir, Essaouira, Smara and Goulimine

Thirdly, there is the state-run CTM company, which operates from an office in the centre of Gueliz. The passengers on these are about a 70/30 split between locals and foreigners. They are fast, direct and use their airconditioning and, in my opinion, they are even better than Supra Tours. They run buses to many destinations, including Agadir, Casablanca, Fes, Rabat, Taroudannt, Ouarzazate, Zagora and Goulimine.

To give you some idea of times and prices, a CTM bus to Ouarzazate cost DH70 and took more than 4 hours; a Supra Tours bus to Essaouira cost DH65 and took just under 4 hours. On all of these buses, you will have to pay at least DH5 extra for each piece of heavy baggage.

CTM have 1 bus departing for Madrid on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday.

Journey time 36 hours.

Tickets are around 800 dirhams plus 5 dirhams for luggage.

All buses depart from the CTM Bus Station not the Main Bus Station.

CTM BUS STATION
Address: Station Road CTM, Rue Abou Baker Seddik-Marrakech.
Phone: 05 24 44 74 20.
Opening hours: 24/24.
Services Offered: Ticketing - Boarding-Drinks.

Please use prices as a rough guide only.

CTM have 1 bus departing for Paris on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday.

Journey time 48 hours.

Tickets are around 900 dirhams plus 5 dirhams for luggage.

All buses depart from the CTM Bus Station not the Main Bus Station.

CTM BUS STATION
Address: Station Road CTM, Rue Abou Baker Seddik-Marrakech.
Phone: 05 24 44 74 20.
Opening hours: 24/24.
Services Offered: Ticketing - Boarding-Drinks.

Please use prices as a rough guide only.