Yes – you can travel Morocco by train

Meanwhile in Africa. My trip across Morocco by train.

Departure station: Gare de Marrakech

Arrival station: Gare de Fes (Fez)

Activity: Exploring the Medinas of Morocco

Journey time: 6.5 hours

Cost: 175 dirhams (£38) each

Language: 1st Arabic, 2nd French, some English

Experience: My most adventurous train ride

Toilets: Interesting. Find out more below

Refreshments: On a trolley. Cash only.

Additional info: Traditional compartments

It is entirely possible to travel to Morocco from the UK by train (and ferry) and I hope one day I get the opportunity to do so but, on this occasion, time and opportunity didn’t align well enough to allow such an epic trip to happen.

But I did get to travel across Morocco by train.

And yes, I was nervous about booking the tickets. I have some experience now of train travel in Europe but taking a train journey in Africa seem at once exciting and daunting.

I needn’t have worried.

There are ticket offices at both Marrakech and Fes train stations but to be on the safe side I decided to buy our train tickets online before we left the UK.

If you’ve travelled overseas by train, you’ll know that booking train tickets in advance can sometimes be frustrating because some tickets are only released a couple of weeks before the travel date.

By far the best resource I’ve found for overseas train travel is The Man in Seat Sixty One and he has a whole page about train travel in Morocco. I read this through, did a bit more online research and decided to book with BookaWay, who handled the gap between booking and confirmation for me. They have an easy-to-use app but I initially booked the tickets on their website.

I carried paper copies of all our tickets and was glad at times that I had done so.

The picture above says it all really. I was beyond excited to have the opportunity to travel by train in Morocco and all thanks are due to my cousin who not only suggested the trip but agreed to swap a one-hour flight for a 6.5 hour unknown train adventure.

And what an experience our train ride turned out to be.

For both of us, events on this train journey between Marrakech and Fez formed the stand-out memory of what can truly be described as an epic and exhilarating trip to Morocco.

And I’m not talking about the train toilets.

Although they perhaps do deserve a mention. If you follow my Instagram account, you’ll have already seen a related video. But if you don’t, please allow me tell you about my Morocco train toilet experience.

I didn’t particularly notice the level of breeze as I left our traditional-style train compartment and headed down the corridor towards the toilet but it got stronger as I neared the carriage end, and I soon realised why.

Apparently in Morocco, the easiest way to keep the train carriages cool isn’t the air conditioning, which we did have a bit of, rather, it’s to keep all the side doors open.

You know, those doors we in the UK have to press a button to open.

We weren’t travelling at any great speed but the perpendicular proximity between the open door and the toilet door led to me doubt my ability to safely enter the cubicle. So I headed instead into the next carriage in search of a less adrenaline-nuanced experience. I found one and entered with (and for) relief.

Everything seemed perfectly normal.

There was a sit-down loo (always good in a swaying environment), a basin and even loo roll (I had come prepared just in case) but a glance inside the toilet bowl (I’m surely not the only person who does that) revealed a slight surprise.

I could see the train track running below me.

Now I know there’s someone out there who is going to tell me that this used to be completely normal here in the UK. And that there was a good reason for all those, ‘Please don’t flush at the station’ signs. But the key word here is ‘flush’. On this train there wasn’t any option for that, just a drop and not a long one at that. I immediately started imaging loo roll blow-back.

I have a history of dropping things down toilets.

Which is why, to be honest, I tend to travel in clothing with zip pockets. I just can’t be trusted. This being the case, I double checked all my pockets and zips before sitting down to waft my nether regions with (not so) fresh Moroccan air. All went well, the experience made me smile a lot and I returned to tell my story to my carriage travelling companions (all women).

But the loo wasn’t the best thing about my Morocco train ride.

It would be a weird world if it had been. No, the absolutely best thing about my train ride in Morocco was the people with whom we shared our carriage. Talk about an international experience. We were women of varying ages from New Zealand, England, Australia and Morocco, and had six hours to talk to each other.

The resulting conversation was an amazing and I would say life-changing discussion about life experiences, racism, and indigenous rights. It was both humbling and uplifting, and I’m sure I will never forget it.

You just don’t get conversations like that on the plane.

I should probably, at this point, tell you about the views from the train. I didn’t see all of them because I was so engaged in conversation but I do stand by my stance that train travel gives you the opportunity to gain a more realistic view of your travel destination than either flying or driving.

And it did exactly that in Morocco. The scenery was beautiful in a stark way, with occasional sage green areas noticeable in a sea of sandy brown desert. It was fascinating to see goatherds with their flocks and notice how their sparse shelters had been built. It was also revealing to observe the contrast between the countryside and opulent areas such as Casablanca.

I would love to visit Morocco again and perhaps next time arrive by train instead of flying.

I haven’t made the whole trip to Morocco by train but it is possible and on our train holiday in Europe on the Pyrenees’ Little Yellow Train, I did get as far south as Toulouse.

Here’s how the journey would go if you did decide to travel from the UK to Morocco by train:

London, (Eurostar), Paris, Barcelona, Algeciras, (Ferry), Tangier.

According to the Man in Seat 61, this trip would involve overnight stays in Barcelona and Algeciras, which both sound exciting to me.