Morocco Motorcycle Tour Companies Compared

Morocco is a rare destination where the company you book with changes the trip more than the route does. Two operators can run the same road south from Marrakech over the High Atlas and deliver completely different weeks: one on a BMW R 1250 GS with a support truck and a four-star hotel every night, the other on a KTM 450 crossing dry riverbeds with a mechanic riding sweep. Same country, same tarmac for part of the day, entirely different holidays.

This guide covers every company with Morocco tours currently listed on Moto Mass, what each one actually does, and how to work out which of them fits the way you ride. Prices quoted are the figures published on our listing pages; always confirm the current rate and departure dates directly with the operator.

What separates Morocco operators from each other

Before the directory, the four questions that decide almost everything:

Surface split. Ask for a percentage. "Adventure tour" in Morocco can mean 100% tarmac on a big GS, or 70% piste with sand sections. Get the number before you get excited.
Bike weight. A fully loaded 1250 is superb on Tizi n'Tichka and miserable on soft sand. A 690 is the opposite. Nobody is going to tell you this after you have paid.
Support vehicle. Almost every Morocco operator runs one. What varies is whether it carries your luggage, your pillion, spare wheels, or all three — and whether it can actually follow you off-road.
What is genuinely included. Moroccan tours are usually more inclusive than European ones. Fuel, tolls, dinners and airport transfers appear in some packages and not others, and the gap between two headline prices often closes completely once you add the extras.

If you want the underlying numbers rather than the marketing, we have run them: see what a Morocco motorcycle tour actually costs for a price-per-day comparison across these same trips.

The operators

Wheels of Morocco (Marrakech)

Wheels of Morocco is the most visible operator in the country and runs the widest spread of trips on Moto Mass — four, from a long weekend to a fortnight. They are based in Marrakech, describe themselves as an official travel partner of BMW Motorrad, and put BMW-certified guides on the front of the group, including certified off-road instructors on the dirt-heavy departures. The fleet is BMW GS throughout.

Their packages are consistently the most loaded in this directory: bike rental with comprehensive insurance, four- and five-star hotels, breakfasts and dinners, support vehicle, road tolls, airport collection and drop-off, a multilingual guide and riding gear on request. That shows in the per-day figure, and it is the reason the company suits riders who want to fly in with a helmet and nothing else.

Sea and Sun Motorcycle Weekend — 5 days, €1,699, Marrakech to Essaouira, Agadir and Paradise Valley. The gentlest introduction here.
Desert and Atlas Motorcycle Tour — 9 days, €2,900, running Marrakech–Bin El Ouidane–Dades–Todra–Sahara.
Trails of the Sahara and Beyond — 9 days, €3,100, their off-road-weighted trip through Tafraoute and Plage Blanche.
Best of Morocco on Motorbike — 14 days, €4,700, the full imperial-cities-plus-desert circuit.

See all four on the Wheels of Morocco operator profile.

Butterfly Motorcycle Tours (Marrakech)

Butterfly is a Moroccan-founded company operating from just outside Marrakech, in business for over two decades. Their positioning is specific and unusually honest: country roads only, no motorways and no tolls, groups capped at a handful of riders, and an all-inclusive package that goes as far as covering petrol and tips. The fleet is BMW GS in a useful spread of sizes, from the F 750 GS up to the R 1250 GS, which means shorter riders and less experienced riders have a genuine option rather than a token one.

All three of their Moto Mass listings are Marrakech loops of increasing length, and usefully, each one publishes a distance figure — 1,800 km, 2,000 km and 2,500 km respectively. That is the clearest indication of daily workload of any operator in this directory.

South West Express — 8 days, €2,300, 1,800 km via Agadir, Taroudant, Tiznit and Essaouira.
South Special — 9 days, €2,640, 2,000 km taking in Merzouga, Tinghir and Skoura.
Full South — 11 days, €3,300, 2,500 km combining the desert circuit with the Atlantic coast.

Full listing set on the Butterfly Motorcycle Tours profile.

Motor Adventures (Marrakech, off-road focus)

Motor Adventures is the dirt specialist of the group and describes itself as the original off-road bike tour company in Morocco. Their tours run on KTM 450 and 690 machinery for mountain and desert work, with BMW GS dual-sports available for mixed on- and off-road itineraries, plus Can-Am buggies for anyone in the party who would rather have four wheels. Support is a Land Cruiser and a pickup rather than a coach.

The riding they advertise is the real thing: rocky mountain tracks, river crossings, high plateau and dune work. If you are choosing between operators on the basis of how sore you want to be at the end of a day, this is the one at the far end of the scale.

High Peaks and Desert — 5 days on enduro bikes, mountains into the Sahara.
Sahara Experience in Morocco — 6 days, their signature dune-and-desert trip.
Buggy and Bike Safari — 6 days mixing bikes and buggies through the south.

These three run price-on-request; enquire through the Motor Adventures profile.

Overland Motorcycle Tours (Marrakech)

Overland is the smallest-bike operator here, and that is a feature rather than a limitation. Their listings run Honda XR250-class and BMW G 310-class machines — light, low, forgiving bikes that make a rutted mountain track or a busy medina approach far less intimidating than a 250-kilo adventure tourer would. Both of their tours are six-day Marrakech round trips, and both lean towards culture and landscape rather than pure mileage.

Imperial Tour — 6 days, Marrakech to Fes, Meknes and Rabat and back.
Moroccan Mountains Adventure Tour — 6 days, Atlas passes down to Ouarzazate and Merzouga.

Both are listed price-on-request on the Overland Motorcycle Tours profile.

IMTBIKE (Morocco from Málaga)

IMTBIKE is the outlier and worth understanding properly. The company is Spanish, based in the Madrid area, and its Morocco programme starts and finishes in Málaga rather than in Morocco. You ride down through Andalusia, cross the Strait of Gibraltar by ferry, tour Morocco, and ride back — so a meaningful slice of the trip is Spanish. The fleet is BMW GS-led, and the whole operation is pitched at comfort and organisation rather than adventure hardship.

That structure suits riders flying into Europe anyway, or anyone who wants Morocco without organising a separate international flight to Marrakech. It suits nobody who wants maximum Moroccan riding days per euro.

Magical Morocco: Mountains, Oases and Casbahs — listed at €6,705, Málaga return.
The Essence of Morocco — listed at €4,030, Málaga return.

See both on the IMTBIKE profile. IMTBIKE also runs Spanish tours; if the Andalusian half is what appeals, look at Spain motorcycle tours instead.

Morocco operators at a glance

OperatorTours on Moto MassDuration rangeListed price rangeBikesCharacter Wheels of Morocco45–14 days€1,699 – €4,700BMW GSFull-service touring, road and off-road options Butterfly Motorcycle Tours38–11 days€2,300 – €3,300BMW F 750/850/1250 GSCountry roads, small groups, all-inclusive Motor Adventures35–6 daysOn requestKTM 450 / 690, GS dual-sportOff-road and desert specialist Overland Motorcycle Tours26 daysOn requestHonda XR250, BMW 310Light bikes, culture-led routes IMTBIKE2Málaga return€4,030 – €6,705BMW GSSpain-based, ferry crossing included

Read the price column carefully. The two operators showing "on request" are not necessarily cheaper or more expensive — they simply quote per departure and group size, which is common for off-road trips where bike choice changes the number substantially.

How to choose

If this is your first trip outside Europe

Take a shorter, road-biased tour with a full support package and a bike you can flat-foot. A five- to eight-day Marrakech loop teaches you how Moroccan traffic, fuel stops and mountain weather work without committing two weeks to it. You can always come back for the dunes.

If you want the Sahara specifically

Check whether "desert" means a tarmac road to a dune-edge hotel or actual sand riding. Both are valid trips and neither is a substitute for the other. The routes are laid out in our Atlas and Sahara route guide.

If you are an experienced off-road rider

Go light and go with a specialist. Prioritise operators running 450- and 690-class singles, ask about the ratio of piste to tarmac, and confirm the support vehicle can reach you where you will actually be riding.

If you are travelling with a non-riding partner

Ask specifically whether the support vehicle carries passengers. Several Morocco operators will let a pillion ride in the truck for a leg or a whole day, which quietly makes the difference between a trip that works and one that does not.

If the dates are fixed and the budget is not

Season is the constraint that beats everything else. Check the best time to ride in Morocco before you shortlist operators, because a July desert departure will be unpleasant regardless of who runs it.

Frequently asked questions

How many motorcycle tour companies operate in Morocco?

Far more than the five listed here — Morocco has a large domestic tour industry plus a steady stream of European operators running seasonal departures. What this directory covers is every company with Morocco trips currently on Moto Mass, which is a useful cross-section: two full-service road operators, one off-road specialist, one small-bike cultural operator, and one Spain-based company that rides in.

Do I need an International Driving Permit for a guided tour in Morocco?

Yes, bring one. UK government travel advice for Morocco states that you need both the 1968 version of the international driving permit and your home driving licence with you, and that the older 1949 permit is no longer accepted. Guided tours do not exempt you: you are still the rider, and a checkpoint or an insurer will ask. Your licence also has to actually cover the capacity of bike you are on. Full current guidance is on the UK Foreign Office Morocco page.

Is a Morocco tour cheaper than renting a bike and riding solo?

Rarely, once you count everything. Moroccan tour packages typically bundle bike, insurance, hotels, most meals, fuel, tolls and transfers, and independent riders pay for all of those separately at retail. The independent route buys freedom, not savings. We break the arithmetic down in the Morocco tour cost guide.

What size group should I expect?

Small. The operators here quote figures in the range of four to a dozen riders, and off-road departures are usually at the lower end because a guide can only realistically watch a handful of bikes on technical ground. If group size matters to you, ask for the maximum rather than the average.

Can I ride my own motorcycle in Morocco instead?

You can, and plenty of European riders take the ferry from Spain every spring. It adds paperwork: your vehicle registration is recorded on entry, and you will need a green card from your insurer proving minimum cover in Morocco. Budget three or four riding days each way through Spain, and be aware that a breakdown in the south is a very different problem without a support truck behind you.

Which operator is best for the Atlas passes specifically?

Any of the road-focused companies, because Tizi n'Tichka and the Dades gorge road are paved and every Marrakech-based itinerary uses them. The differentiator is what happens next: whether the tour drops onto piste after the pass or stays on tarmac all the way to the hotel. Ask that question and the shortlist sorts itself out.

When do most Morocco tours run?

Spring and autumn. Almost every operator concentrates departures between March and May and again from late September into November, with a thinner winter programme on the coast and in the south. Summer departures in the desert are uncommon for good reason.