Day Trip from Seville - Gibraltar or Tangier worthwhile? Versus Ronda

Go to Cordoba! The Mezquita is incomparable…just to start. The city is lovely and food is fabulous. Ronda is over touristed, over crowded and does not compare. Nor does Gibraltar. Morocco is wonderful but, from experience, deserves a dedicated trip.

We are also going to Cordoba! Just trying to figure out another day trip between the three places mentioned. Thank you.

How are you traveling--will you have a rental car? How many nights are you spending in Madrid, Seville and Granada? All of the potential side trips you mentioned would involve a good bit of travel time from any of your base cities, so I'd first want to be sure I had sufficient time to see those.

No, we do not have a rental car. For any of the 3 side trips mentioned above, we’d be going with a tour company for the day.

Decades ago we did a day tour to Tangier from the area near Cádiz and we were herded from place to place. There was little time to see anything on our own, so while we were there, we didn’t get to really experience it.

If you feel Gibraltar would disappoint, then eliminate it. If the apes are the only things you’ll see on the tour, other than the views, then yes it will disappoint and not worth the time it would take to get there and back.

Ronda is the closest to Sevilla, but like so many destinations it is loaded with tourists during the day.

If you have enough time to see everything in Sevilla that you want to see and still have time for a day trip, I’d choose Ronda.

Sevilla is very far to do a day trip to Tangier.

In September, think about Sanlucar or anywhere on the coast, closer to Cadiz.

I wouldn't choose any of them. You could visit Arcos and Jerez with a driver - Arcos might eat up too much travel time by train and bus, but well worth seeing. Or Cadiz by train, it's definitely doable as a day trip.

It takes way too long to get to Tangier from Sevilla to make it a day trip. Ronda is doable but, as pointed out already, it's likely to be full of tourists during the day and it is a long trip.

You've heard raving reviews about Tangiers? Where? Most people, myself included, found it a waste of time. Dirty, chaotic, unfriendly and with a poor attitude to animals and women.

Of course there are some who enjoyed their time there but they are in the majority.

Of the three, Ronda is the best choice.

Check out Cádiz.
I’ve not been there yet, but considered it during our trip, however, we opted to enjoy Sevilla instead of being on a train close to 2 hours each way.

Enjoy your time in beautiful Spain!

I'd probably say don't do Tangier. I myself am probably not going to go, and I'll even be in Malaga, Spain for a few days (which is much closer to Tangier, compared to Seville, if you use Google or Apple Maps). I'm currently leaning towards just staying in Spain. I talked with my travel agent and she doesn't know anything about the Tangier, Morocco tours + I heard the ferry ride can be quite a pain (customs is quite a lag on the ferry); from Spain (Seville in your case) to Tangier.

Though it sounds very fun to enjoy another culture (I'm even down for), besides European culture, that would be a very long trek on the trains and ferry. the ferry ride even from the southern tip of Spain to Tangier, Morocco is like 4-6 hours one way! I'm still researching and debating if it's worth the time for me. Again, you do you. I did however get some great advice about travel; "Look at it as an experience. If you don't like travelling from Spain to Morocco, you can tell others about it. It's an adventure. It's only a small bit of your travels" (Fellow Rick Steves person on another forum here).

Not to doom scare people on here (I'm just treading on the cautious side of things, based on the state of the world): The flight situation + security may be longer/tighter too. I know that Morocco is pretty safe-ish, talking to people, friends, & family, but be careful of people in the markets/streets asking for money, pick pockets, etc (read this in Rick Steves Spain/Morocco book). I'm going to check the U.S. embassy consulate in Morocco again/contact them to check if it would be safe for me even (due to the whole U.S./Israel vs. Iran) war situation. I'm sure others on here follow the news, but Iran did try to strike Turkey (European/NATO country even) and Turkey was able to defensively blast the missiles down. Middle East = close-ish to Africa + Russia is helping Iran now with intel against the U.S.& its allies. Morocco is an ally of the U.S., but it's not in the top 25 (from what I looked up), so I'd think about that one too.

I would save a visit to Tangiers when you can explore more of Morocco and obtain a well rounded impression of that country. Spending just a few hours there will not provide a true cultural experience.