Costa del Sol to Tangier Day Trip Recommendation Needed

Don't waste your time going to Tangier. Morocco has some great places to visit like Fes, Marrakesh, Rabat and more, but NOT Tangier. Find something else to do in Spain. I have been to Spain several times and Morocco twice.

Hi Blue, Torremolinos is a quite a distance from Tangier for a day trip, I'm not sure if it's practical, you would have to first go all the way down to Tarifa (4 hr bus), before you can even take the ferry across the straights to Tangier. There is also a good chance in January that the ferry will be canceled due to high winds on the straights, happens all the time, so it is a bit of a risk going all the way down there just to be told the ferry crossing has be canceled.

I'd say there are plenty of other very interesting day-trips closer to the Costa del Sol, have you considered visiting the Megalithic Tombs in Antequera? The are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and only about 1 hr from Torremolinos :)

I love Tangier, but don't think this is a great day trip. It's just too long of a day for a place that doesn't really lend itself well to day trips, in spite of the industry surrounding them. And as another reply mentioned, you could show up to find that your crossing was canceled.

Instead, maybe this can be the moment you start planning a longer trip to Morocco, or a future trip including Spain with at least a week devoted to Morocco if you feel strongly about doing a ferry crossing.

Joining the chorus above. Most folks would be better off spending that day in Spain, where there are so many great places that we don't often get to. And Tangier is perhaps the last place in Morocco one should visit to get a real taste of that interesting country. I'd give that day to Spain, and start thinking about a better trip to Morocco (bypassing the coastal ferry ports and flying to Marrakech or Fes, both of which are great, plus cheap, quick and easy to get to from many cities across Spain and western Europe).

So.......no one can recommend a Costa del Sol to Tangier day tour with which you had a positive experience? I sincerely appreciate the replies (so far), but none address my request.

Have you read detailed comments about those negatively-reviewed tours? Some problems are fixable; some are not. If the issue was quality of the guide's commentary, you might be luckier, or you might get helpful input here. The same with utilization of the time in Morocco, though that depends on the company's willingness to forego the kickbacks that entice tours to spend a lot of time on shopping opportunities. I suspect mass-market (less expensive) tours are most likely to focus heavily on shopping. A private tour would be more likely to pay attention to what your group wants to do, though I think there have been complaints on this forum about private tours as well.

Do you see complaints about not enough time in Tangier? That's probably an unavoidable problem. You are staying a very long distance from the ferry port in Tarifa (about 90 miles). It will take a tour bus quite some time to get there, to park and to unload 40+ people. If the tour picks up at hotels rather than requiring you to go to a central pick-up point, a great deal of time can be burned doing that, before the bus actually heads toward Tarifa. Then you have to wait for the ferry to leave. Then you're on the ferry for about an hour. Then you have to get off the ferry and to the bus used on the Moroccan end (unless they put the Spanish bus on the ferry, which I'm guessing could take longer). Only then can you start the visit to Tangier. And the trip back has just as much overhead as the outbound trip. How many hours will be left to be spent seeing Tangier?

Seconding the commenter talking about how part of the problem with people's dissatisfaction may be inherent to the schedule needed to make this happen. Based on the reviews I see that are the ones you mention, it seems like a lot of folks mention the time spent in transit versus at their destination.

Think of the math - If you go on a group tour, you likely need to pick others up unless you're the lucky last, and then the same will happen in reverse when you return. I wouldn't be surprised if it could take 3 hours each way to get to the ferry with pickups, then count maybe 60 - 90 minutes each way for boarding / ferry / disembarking.

So maybe 8 hours total of transit. Lots of tours will say they have a 12-13 hour day; you'll be at about 4-5 hours on the ground in Tangier. You'll probably also drive out to the Cave of Hercules and/or Cap Spartel with photo stops, both pretty, but similar in appearance to the coast on the Spain side where you just were. That may take an hour. You'll almost certainly have a tagine lunch with "traditional dance" for a group, so count 90 minutes for that. That leaves you 2.5 - 3 hours to actually see the city, and there's a good chance there will be some sort of shopping stop taking 45 minutes or so of that time, because that's just the nature of these tours.

It comes down to how much you want to see Tangier. Is there a particular site in mind that you really want to see, or maybe one of the expatriate authors you are a big fan of? Or maybe this will be the one and only chance to dip your toes into Morocco? If so, it could be worth it. It's just that Morocco is so easy to travel in, and has so much great stuff to offer, that sometimes I worry these day trips will really turn people off of the country. I seem to be one of the rare people on this forum who really enjoy Tangier, and I'd be more than happy to offer feedback for a longer time there, or in Morocco in general!

That being said, another way to possibly make this less painful would be to shell out for a private tour, to cut out any of the pick-up / drop-off issues.

So.......no one can recommend a Costa del Sol to Tangier day tour with which you had a positive experience? I sincerely appreciate the replies (so far), but none address my request.

It seems you only want to hear what you want to hear. Your request has been addressed. Why do you think there are so many negative comments? It's not the tours themselves but rather the fact that Tangier is a dirty, grimy port city with little of interest. A tour can only show what there is to show and if that isn't much then reviews are going to be poor.

Why do you want to go? What interests you about Tangier? In my opinion most people visit simply to tell their friends that they've been to Africa.

What else do you have planned for your time there? Perhaps we can suggest alternative trips.

I often feel like I've been to a different city than everyone else based off of the comparisons I've seen on here. People are comfortable labeling it extremely negatively, and it's not always clear if that is based on recent experience.

I keep feeling driven to say - while it's not good bang for your buck to be in transit 8 hours to be in Tangier briefly, it's not unworthy of a visit in general. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's honestly pretty hip (and interestingly, I've heard the same about Tijuana, a city often used alongside Tangier for unfavorable descriptions).

Before our 2017 trip to Spain, I looked for a day trip to Tangier from southern Spain. The reviews on multiple platforms were so bad that I decided against it.

I don't think you're going to find that person who had a positive experience on a day trip to Tangier.

@Estimated Prophet
So far.......you are correct.
I think you win the prize.

We had a positive experience on a day trip to Tangier!!

Our family did this day trip in october and enjoyed it. But started staying the night in Tarifa. We used a guide once we arrived. It was a longish day starting from Tarifa. At the ferry by 8 and back at 6. Was it the most authentic Morocco experience? Maybe not. But it was interesting and the Medina, souk and kasbah were new and different for us. I would do it again. Not sure I would do it from Tormelinos. Dont know about tours from there. Used one of the guide companies listed in RS spain book and was happy.