Day trip to Morocco from Sevilla

Is this your first trip to Andalucia? Seville is a major city with a lot of attractive sights. Two nights there is painfully short. If you can find an extra night (you really need more than one more), it should go to Seville.

The common day-trip from Spain to Morocco is to Tangier, which is not one of Morocco's better destinations. Quite the contrary. Morocco is a very interesting place, but it needs more time than a few hours in a port city. Please postpone Morocco until a later trip when you have more time available. You don't have to travel there from Spain; there are flights to at least two of Morocco's top destinations, Fes and Marrakech, from many cities in Europe. But do allow more than a day or two.

As acraven notes, side trips to Morocco from Spain are not typically done from Sevilla. For a 3-week trip in 2002, we planned to tour southern Spain, and include Tarifa/Gibraltar, plus an excursion to Tangier. We looked at continuing further into Morocco, but we’d need several days to make it worthwhile, not a quickie 2 or 3 day whirlwind, especially with the logistics and travel time needed.

While planning all this during the summer of 2001, the attacks on 9/11 happened. Rick Steves himself made a personal appearance in Denver, and I asked him about Morocco for 2002. He hesitated a moment, and said he didn’t know about heading to a Muslim country in the next few months. So we scratched off Morocco until 2019, and added a week of Portugal to that 2002 trip. You’ve got a good plan - 2 nights in Sevilla on a 2 week trip, you could add a 3rd night, but with just 2 weeks total, where else are you going, besides Portugal? Is Granada on your itinerary? I hope so - the Alhambra is truly one of the world’s wonders!

It's a definite "no": many people are disappointed by day trips to Tangiers, and Sevilla is way too far from the ferry ports to make it worthwhile.

I wouldn't bother. I took my family once a couple of years ago when we were staying in Estepona which is far closer to the ferry port in Tarifa than Seville. We ended up missing our planned ferry due to the difficulty in finding somewhere to park as the ferry port car park is absurdly small and the remaining on street parking was also full. We managed to board the next ferry and met up with our pre-arranged guide in Tangier.

Despite the guide taking us to all the main sights I was decidedly unimpressed. The sights were poor in comparison to the many excellent places to visit in Andalucia, the city was dirty, crowded and poorly maintained. Animal cruelty is rife, the treatment of women is obnoxious and the constant hassle to buy overpriced tat becomes tiring very quickly, I couldn't wait to get back to Spain. Tangier is somewhere that I would never recommend to anyone, don't waste your time and money.

Apart from all the problems mentioned, there is also the issue of Covid which as I interpret the rules makes the trip impossible (assuming you are from US/Canada).

From the current rules:

If you are a third-country national, in order to enter Spain, you must comply with the entry requirements set out by the Ministry of the Interior in Order INT / 657/2020, of July 17 , which modifies the criteria for the application of a temporary restriction of non-essential travel from third countries to the European Union and Schengen partner countries for reasons of public order and public health due to the health crisis caused by COVID-19.

Any third-country national will be subject to denial of entry, for reasons of public order or public health, unless they belong to one of the following categories:

• Residents of third countries listed in the Annex. Provided that they come directly from them, have transited exclusively through other countries included in the list or have carried out only international transits in airports located in countries that do not appear in the annex. For residents of China, , reciprocity is pending.

The US and Canada are both listed in the annex, Morocco is not.

Full text: https://www.mscbs.gob.es/en/profesionales/saludPublica/ccayes/alertasActual/nCov/spth.htm The rules might change, but who knows when and how.

Do Morrocco when you can enjoy it, not a day trip to a place like Tangiers.

Ditto the others’ recommendation to do it when you have more time. Did a day trip there back in the late 70s while stationed in southern Spain. Between the bus and ferry rides there was little time to experience anything. The time we had was, run past the gauntlet of tourist shops and a bus trip with the obligatory stop for the photo opportunity riding a camel. After lunch, with the tourist belly dance show, we had about an hour to shop. Of course, that was at the guide’s recommended shop where he got a nice kickback. Can I say I was there, yes. Can I say I truly experienced Morocco, no.

Thank you all! We are taking the Morocco jaunt off our list. Our itinerary is Barcelona from October 8 (travel from US day) - 12th. Madrid from 10/12-10/15, Sevilla 10/15-10/17. Then to the Algarve area of Portugal (Salema or Lagos?) 10/17-10/19, Then Lisbon from 10/19-10/23. (10/23 fly back to US). We are hoping to do this all without renting a car, using public transportation. Does anybody have input on best way to get from Sevilla to the Algarve and also best town to stay in during October? We would appreciate any recommendations. Also hoping to do one or two wine tours. Not sure which areas are best for this. Thank you.