Morocco on a motorcycle

Riding through Morocco feels like stepping into another world — from the cool mountain air of the Atlas to the endless dust of the Sahara. Over ten days and almost 3.000 kilometres, the two of us rode from and to Ksar Sghir (Tanger Med) through mountains, valleys and desert plains. Part of the journey included a stretch of the Trans Morocco Trail, taking us off the beaten track and over rugged pistes that tested both bike and rider. Each day brought a mix of winding tarmac, rough tracks and quiet villages where time seemed to stand still.

The video below shows a few highlights from the journey. In the sections that follow, you’ll also find the full route, downloadable GPS tracks, and some notes on the roads, borders and lessons learnt along the way.

Information about Morocco

Below are some experiences I had in Morocco as a Dutchman. Be sure to buy Chris Scott's book for much more information: Morocco Overland 4 (Chris is also one of the founders of the TMT).

Getting to the south of Spain from The Netherlands

• It's a luxury, but our bikes (including all luggage, motorcycle gear and helmets) were transported by truck to Malaga by Nord Cargo, and we took a plane. We left our bikes in Moerdijk (NL), and the depot in Malaga (ES) was just 5 kilometers from the airport. I can highly recommend this company.

Getting to Morocco by Ferry

• You need to personally 'import' your vehicle into Morocco and also 'export' it yourself when leaving the country. To do this, you must register your motorcycle with customs, where you will receive a SIN code (save the paper). When traveling via Tanger Med, you can do this on the ferry.
• On the Tanger Med ferry, there are two customs offices onboard: one for your passport and one for your motorcycle.
• And that's just the beginning - real checks (and double-checks) happen once you're in Morocco. It took us an hour.
• Take advantage of your motorcycle while in line for customs. The lanes go from 2 to 10 and back to 2, so just go around and squeeze through. This is not Europe anymore!
• If you have a motorcycle registered to a company (or your company), you need a signed and stamped document from the company stating that you are allowed to travel with it. This document must also be stamped by the Chamber of Commerce (this is not cheap).
• There's a reason why Tanger Med has a nickname: "Tanger Wait"... (don't ask us about our experience).
• Chris Scott's book offers more information about the other ferry routes.

Money and Mobile Internet

• Make sure you carry enough cash – most restaurants and even some hotels do not accept cards.
• The ATM withdrawal limit is around 200 euros, except at the Tanger Med harbor, where we were able to withdraw over 1000 euros.
• eSIMs cannot be easily purchased locally (we failed in Fez). Most eSIM providers do not use the Maroc Telecom network (apparently the best), except Saily – but it's not cheap.

Accommodations in Morocco

• Accommodations are cheap and widely available, including via Booking.com.
• If you go cheaper, you'll find B&Bs in the most remote locations. In that case, it is advisable to bring your own sheet bag and towel.
• If you ask (or read the hotel comments), there is always a way to park your motorcycle safely.
• We managed to book most of our accommodations with free cancellation until 18:00 on the day of arrival, giving us flexibility (we had to cancel one location).
• Don't go camping – save the weight of the camping gear.
• It can easily take between 5 and 10 minutes for the shower water to get hot – that's normal.
• Beer is only served in (western-style) big hotels and occasionally, by miracle, in smaller places (we had 5 beers in 10 days).

Traffic in Morocco

• In general: be very careful in traffic – we witnessed two accidents, one of which was fatal.
• No one checks their mirrors (no one sees you).
• On dual-lane roundabouts, the right lane often (read: almost always) cuts inward. People turning right usually position themselves in the left lane.
• On roundabouts with traffic lights, you do not have the right of way while on the roundabout.
• On main roads, people may suddenly swerve to the left lane (due to a pothole or similar hazard).

Planning

• We used OSM maps (even Garmin maps are based on OSM), but they were not as accurate as expected. Many new road sections were missing. (NB: TomTom is useless for off-roading.)
• More problematic is the inaccuracy of travel time estimates compared to Europe (also applies to Google Maps). For main roads it's acceptable, but on smaller roads it's almost impossible to match the estimated times – especially with potholes or poor conditions. An optimistically planned day can quickly become very long.
• Heavy rain can seriously mess up tracks and roads. Be prepared to change your route drastically if necessary.
• Be careful with flooded roads: the day before we drove the N17 from Merzouga to Alnif, a motorcyclist barely managed to bring himself to safety while his motorcycle was washed away.
• The good news about flooding is that it disappears as quickly as it arrives, and the Moroccans are remarkably quick at fixing things when necessary.

Off-road (with Heavy Bikes)

Note: Our skill level is moderate off-road on heavy bikes. We're not yet ready to switch to lighter bikes for the sake of comfort ;-)

• We rode heavy bikes (BMW R1300 GS with Dunlop Mission Raid tyres) and followed two rules: stay out of soft sand and avoid 'fresh' riverbeds (the motorcycle sinks on loose stones). This also meant that certain TMT tracks were not suitable for us.
• I can now also add 'stay away from mud', because the Dunlops were useless in the muddy section (non TMT) we encountered just before Fez (I added a POI warning to the track: 'Do not drive when wet').
• Don't ask me which sections of the TMT are suitable for heavy bikes – conditions and tracks can change, so just use common sense based on your experience and equipment.
• After breaking a bolt on my top case twice on bumpy English roads, I can highly recommend soft bags for Morocco (we both used the Mosko Moto Reckless 80 without aux pox).
• I found my new enduro helmet (with a fixed visor) combined with goggles to be a lifesaver. Riding second in line off-road often means you're in the dust and heat, and the goggles provide extra ventilation and better sun protection—things a visor alone doesn't offer. Switching between the visor and goggles is as simple as lifting the visor and pulling the goggles over the helmet. When putting the helmet on or taking it off (with the goggles), you can just leave them in place.
• My GS is fitted with enduro forged wheels instead of spoked ones, which made me a bit nervous at times with all the potholes, especially knowing that a friend of mine damaged his spoked wheels during our trip (I will not select this option again at the BMW dealership).

Trans Morocco Trail (TMT)

• More information and tracks (KML) on https://transmoroccotrail.org/ (with a redirect to my site for the GPX)
• The TMT has a very active Facebook group for the latest updates.

Information about the Tracks

• The tracks provided (and Google Maps) differ slightly from those in the video. Some roads were closed (due to flooding) and some changes were made due to time constraints.
• All main tracks include POIs (fuel, lunch, etc.).
• Most main tracks have sections that can be skipped to shorten the ride.
• Optional or additional tracks are available for most days.
• Naming convention of the route files:
  • [2 digits: day][1 digit: sort number][name]
  • 040 Merzouga - Dadès (TMT): Main route for day 4 (sort number 0 is the main track)
  • 041 Off-road loop Merzouga 1 (+140 min): Additional off-road loop for day 4
  • 043 RP1504 shortcut (-25 min): Shortcut for day 4 in case you want to skip a part to save time

If you are using a Garmin XT/XT2, please take a look at my articles or use my POI2PIC tool to create one GPX file per day, including POIs with nice icons.