Side trip to Tangier from Tarifa - is it safe and worth it?

We did a day trip from Spain to Morocco. It was, in retrospect, a very poor experience. Safe yes, but culturally enriching no. From the “spontaneous” stop to have a picture taken with a camel, to a sanitized tour of a market, a westernize lunch and finally a visit to a carpet store.

Go, but try and find some way to get a real experience.

In the same vein, skip Gibraltar. A bit of touristy Britain and while it has historically significance it it really a tourist trap.

I think that you'd get more out of a multi-day experience versus the day trip. Stay at La Tangerina and enjoy one of the best rooftop terraces around - absolute paradise!

I'm always interested in the discourse around not wanting to visit a "border town" - I think places are usually more interesting due to the mixture of cultures and history. Think of the towns and cities of Alsace - those are big destinations, and many are definitely "border towns." The language seems to refer to borders between places perceived as "more developed" and "less developed," and obviously power differences can shift the dynamic between tourist and local, but it doesn't necessarily make the place uninteresting or unworthy of visiting.

Tangier is not worth wasting your time.
We have been to Morocco twice and there are some great places there, but Tangier is no one of them.

a sanitized tour

I did an in-depth independent tour of Morocco, and along with Bangladesh it’s the rare country I regret even visiting. The people are very, very rough. The sanitized tour placing a buffer between you and the locals is actually what you want here.

Tom's assessment is probably on the harsh side of things (not that I dismiss it: every person is entitled to their own opinion!), and many people can have enjoyable visits to Morocco outside of the comfort of a tour - after all, millions of French people, not necessarily of Moroccan origin, enjoy holidays in Morocco every year, and our standards are not much lower than those of Americans. However, it is true that English is not necessarily widely spoken and I imagine it can be much harder to enjoy yourself there if you do not speak any French.

The judgement I do share is the one on Tangier: why not for a few nights, but not as a first trip to Morocco (there are arguably better places to visit for the night), and definitely not just as a day trip. Way too much hassle.

much harder to enjoy yourself there if you do not speak any French.

Je parle français.

millions of French people, not necessarily of Moroccan origin, enjoy holidays in Morocco every year,

If one is on a tour, with a guide, or at a resort, one does not really experience the culture.

I am a very experienced independent, developing world traveler, and I may have been terrifically unlikely. I remember some great sights but the tag-team touts in all the cities who never left my side, despite sometimes ignoring them or sometimes pleading in French for peace, then experiencing 3 different assaults in daylight in the tourist areas of cities (not Tangier) in only 9 days, I had had enough. My recommendation for Morocco is tour only, then more than one person if not on a tour, but never solo independent travel.

Thank you Tom. I've kept my mouth shut until now and won't go into details, but...
We spent two weeks in 1977 with a friend who had been sent by the French government to live and teach in a major city of the Atlas Mountains. Another in our group, a French women, grew up in Marrakech near the major Place. We were in the major cities, villages, mountains, seaside, rubbed elbows with different classes, invited to homes, danced with the women in a village. This was all before the desert overnight-camel ride tourism took hold.
We're French. We were not in a vacation enclave. It was not a good experience at all for many different reasons. Thank you Tom.
The same year we spent five weeks traveling in southern Mexico (well before the drug wars). It was a wonderful experience for many reasons.

(I'm not replying in any official capacity... just as a traveler)

Given the gauntlet of guides that you see upon exiting the ferry in Tangier, it seems easy that you could end up getting a camel "experience", entering a bunch of shops getting kickbacks, etc instead of seeing the town and getting the history. I totally get what others are referring to above.

I want to post to say that I had a great time on a day trip there, and it was the highlight of our two-week Spain trip. We saw the local market, walked (rocked?) the kasbah, entered a shop where locals bring their day's food to be baked in the neighborhood oven, stopped for mint tea in a local cafe, walked another interesting part of town, and had lunch at a place that seemed reasonably authentic and tasty, though comparatively simple in the context of the foodie revolution of the last decade plus.

As we had several more hours to spare and no real plan, we opted to extend the tour and be driven around in the car by our guide. It was a casual view of other parts of the city which I appreciate to get the lay of the land, but it's not like there were any particularly amazing sights. What made it more worthwhile is we took an extra hour or two to drive out to the Hercules Caves around on the west coast. Aside from a nice coastal drive with good conversation, the guide timed it so that sunset would be visible through the hole in the caves out toward the water... which is the sort of thing that's only possible for ~a week at two times each year. It was a nice touch.

The guide was Aziz Begdouri, someone who Rick has recommended over the years as the guy to get for a day trip in our Spain guidebook. The trick is... my experience was ~10 years ago. I recall he was starting work on a new hotel, and it may be that he's not guiding anymore and running the hotel instead. I've also heard various reports that e.g. if he's not available that day, you may get an associate of his who may not have been as engaging on local history (or was too new at the time) or wasn't as responsive, though the planned sights are mostly the same. I'm a bit concerned that some of those reports could have been from someone at the docks that said he was Aziz (or was affiliated with him), but actually wasn't. I tracked down the hotel now that it's open. You might try contacting him there and see if he still offers day tours. See if you can't confirm getting him specifically. If not, and they offer someone else, it may still be worth it... you might just confirm what the planned sights are and state you're not interested in shopping or camels (unless of course... you are), etc. I'd also confirm exactly how you meet your guide at the ferry dock. It's easy to get your own ferry ticket in Tarifa or (I assume) in advance online, so no need to pay extra to have someone else do that for you.

I hope this helps. Tangier can be a great day trip if you have a good guide.