From Lisbon to Gibraltar travel options for quick trip

Don’t waste your time going to Gibraltar.
Lisbon, Sevilla and Granada should be your focus. Add Cordoba too.

We are on our way to Tangier, Morocco. Where would you spend the night to catch an early ferry? Also, what mode of travel? the rental cars are inexpensive except for the huge drop off fee.

Are you saying that you have five days to visit Lisbon, the Algarve, Seville, Granada and Gibraltar? Even with the fastest, most efficient travel method there is absolutely no way that you're going to be able to visit each of those places in any meaningful way.

There is simply no easy, cheap way to do this. You’re facing either a cumbersome itinerary on multiple busses (with a train or two in there) , or an expensive rental car.

Day 1. Train from Lisbon to Faro 1/2 day, at least. Few hours in Algarve (I chose Faro, Lagos is about the same overall)
Day 2. Bus to Sevilla 1/2 day, at least. Few hours there.
Day 3. Train or bus to Granada, 1/3 day, at least. Sightsee for rest of day.
Day 4. Bus/train to Gibraltar, about 1/2 day. Sightsee for rest of day.
Add 1 day to any of your stops.
Day 6. Leave Gibraltar for Tangier

That's what your trip looks like. Lotsa $$$, minimum experience.

Thank you all. Your comments have been very helpful and we are re thinking portions of the trip. Thank you for confirming that the only way to go is by car, given all the train/bus times are not really manageable/enjoyable, and that the drop off expense ($750 plus) is the best we can do. We now plan to arrive Lisbon, tour Sentra and maybe Belem before we leave for Algarve and 3 nights in Lagos. then to Sevilla for one night, 2 nights in Granada, arriving Gibraltar for 1/2 day tour and overnight so we can catch early ferry to Tangier our of Algeciras. Any thoughts on must do's, cool places for tapas, people watching, hiking, places to stay?

Hi!
How much time do you have in total for the trip?
Like, how long did you plan for Lisbon?
And, are you going anywhere else in Morocco besides Tanger? How long are you planning to spend there?

Asking all these questions because I think your itinerary deserves some changes so that it does not turn into a frantic race!

Without any additional information, I would skip the Algarve entirely and spend 3 nights in Seville, 2 in Granada and, if you must go to Tanger, 1 near Gibraltar.

My advice with such time constraints is to drop Tangier and thus Gibraltar and concentrate your time in Portugal and Spain, both of which offer far more than Tangier and Gibraltar.

What is your reason for Tangier? If it's simply to be able to say you've been to Africa then it's an expensive and time consuming exercise for which you'll be 'rewarded' with a dirty, run down city with very little to offer the tourist. I've visited because I've been visiting the Costa Del Sol area for many years and it was one place that I hadn't been that seemed to attract a lot of tourists. My family and I were very disappointed and I've been a naysayer about the place ever since but it continues to remain a constant draw to people with many citing the fact that they want to be able to say they've visited Africa which just comes across as nothing more than bragging rights.

Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I really appreciate them. We are going to Tangier because we have a 5 day tour scheduled in Morocco and then two full days in Marrakesh before we fly home. One of our thoughts is we may get back to Portugal but would likely go north from Lisbon and around to Spain and Barcelona.

If it has to be the Algarve, then to maximise your time there and to minimise travel time, I would suggest that you stay in Tavira rather than Lagos. It’s a similar time from Lisbon, but it’s significantly closer to Seville. The weather is also likely to be better and less windy than Lagos.

We are going to Tangier because we have a 5 day tour scheduled in Morocco and then two full days in Marrakesh before we fly home...

Where does your Morocco tour begin? (Hopefully not in Tangier). I ask because...

1. There are crazy cheap flights to all over Morocco from many cities in western Europe - including from Lisbon. And Seville. And Granada. I'm talking CRAZY cheap. How about 80 bucks, nonstop from Lisbon to Marrakech? Yeah, that crazy. It'll cost you many times that to go the way you are proposing; your way will be slow (you will miss out on other things in Portugal/Spain), much more expensive, (frankly) not terribly pleasant, and lands you in what's arguably one of the less attractive parts of the country. Instead, why not fly, cheap, quick, easy, directly to where the good stuff is?

2. I think to most of us (North Americans, I'm assuming) Morocco sounds like an exotic, extremely foreign destination (and it is all that: it's Africa, it's Islamic, it's Arab, it's the developing world). But for a LOT of folks from western Europe, it's a cheap, "fun in the sun", mass tourism destination, more like Cancun, Cabo, or Key West, than Kabul or Damascus. If you're thinking you're going to need a machete and a pith helmet to get there, I would suggest you re-calibrate your expectations. You'll probably see groups of soccer hooligans, stag parties, and other familiar by-products of mass tourism. And yes, camels and snake-charmers.

3. Because of all the super-cheap flights, you can actually use One Crazy Trick to use Morocco as a "bridge" between two locations on the European continent. For example, I once had to get from Madrid to Paris. I did that by way of Morocco: I caught a super-cheap flight from Madrid to Marrakech, spent a week in Morocco, ending my trip in Fes, then flew from Fes to Paris on another cheap ticket. Cost of the airline tickets was under US$150 total. It was easy, too. Only challenge is that the cheap flights typically do not go every day, so you may need to search plus-or-minus a day or two on some routes. But there are more than a few airports across Morocco that have regular flights to places across Europe, so there are many, many possible combinations.

OK, so you have a tour in Morocco. Where does your tour start, where does the tour end? It sounds like you are coming from Lisbon. Or maybe Seville. Where are you going after Morocco?

There are lots of good ways to make a "side trip to Morocco" work. But working my way to some Spanish ferry port, crossing by ferry, and starting in one of the north coast ferry port cities would not be high on my list of choices. The good stuff is inland.

Hope some of the above is helpful and inspires creative routing options.

Good luck and السلام عليكم

Thank you for confirming that the only way to go is by car, given all the train/bus times are not really manageable/enjoyable

It’s doable by public transport, see example schedule below while it might be that for 4 persons the rental car is the cheaper option. If it’s more enjoyable depends on you and how many of your party will be drivers.

1. Train Lisbon – Tavira (let’s stick with Jennifer’s suggestion) 4:30h
2. Day in Tavira / Algarve
3. Bus to Sevilla 2:00 h
4. Daytrip to Granada (train 2:30h each way), night in Sevilla (or stay in Granada if taking luggage with you and changing accommodation each day does not bother you).
5. Morning train to Cordoba, Evening train to Algeciras, 3:20h
6. Ferry Algeciras – Tanger Med

Or you take the bus from Algeciras to Tarifa and take the ferry from there.
Ferries from Tarifa go directly to Tanger, Ferries from Algeciras and Gibraltar go to “Tanger Med” that is about 40km east of Tanger.
By the way, Tarifa is the southernmost point of Europe mainland and one of the Kite- and Windsurfing hotspots in Europe.

If you prefer to drive a rental car, but want to avoid the international on-way fee you might consider to rent a car for Spain only. That would make sense if you want to see more of the country side and visit some beautiful Andalusian villages. If you stick to Sevilla, Cordoba and Granada a car wouldn’t be necessary.

One night in Seville is just grossly inadequate. I think it's a minimum-four-night city. More time in Seville is a much better idea than going to Gibraltar. Or ferrying to Tangiers. Or going to the Algarve.

Morocco is an amazing place to visit. However, unless your tour starts in Tangier, I agree - just fly to wherever it begins. I looked at a lot of 2 week tours before I chose one. Absolutely none of them included Tangier - even though visit, even overnight, quite near.

Maybe you should reconsider the overall plan. If you return to Spain (and you should) you will surely want to visit Sevilla for more time. It makes more sense to dedicate a trip to Andalucia - and easily add Madrid and/or Barcelona. Why try to squeeze 3 places into 3 days with lots of wasted travel time when you could use it to see more of Portugal? These are two countries that look close on a map but do not have the infrastructure to make visiting both feasible in a single trip.

What time of year are you going? There are times when the Algarve is great (if that's your thing) and other times when it's not. It depends on what you want to see/do there.

Thank you all. You have given us much to think about. We are arriving Lisbon airport 8am on October 10th from Chicago and departing Marrakesh on October 24th to return to Chicago via Lisbon.