Granada to Tarifa

The short answer is no.

It’s just over 3 hours driving from Granada to Tarifa. Then you need to get to the ferry, wait for it to depart, cross the straight, spend a couple hours, then return. There’s 8+ hours travel time just getting there and back. You need to consider whether that amount of travel time is worth the very few hour you’d spend there, and that’s if everything goes according to plan.

A few folks on the forum have been to Tangier fairly recently, I think, and they (or some of them) have said Tangier has been cleaned up and is a more worthwhile destination than it used to be. I haven't been there since the 1990s.

What I'd like you to know is that Morocco has cities a lot more interesting than Tangier. Two of them are Fes and Marrakech. There are flights to one or both of those cities from many places in Europe, often on budget airlines, so it is not difficult to include Morocco in a later trip to Europe. You don't have to spend a whole day, or longer, getting to and from Tangier for a visit of a very few hours just because you will be in Spain next year.

I did a guided tour of Tangier a few years ago and really didn't think much of the place. It's a dirty, chaotic city with lots of hassle from vendors, plenty of animal cruelty on display and a poor attitude to women.

Most people visit from Spain just to say that they've been to Africa.

I wouldn't recommend it and certainly not in your case with the amount of travel required. Stay in Spain, it's far better.

We took Rick’s advice and did a day trip to Tangier last month which we really enjoyed. Tangier has been cleaned up and many rulers/leaders have residences there. We enjoyed the coastal views, the food, and of course the markets. However as you found out, between catching the bus, ferry, taxis, it isn’t really doable in a day unless you do a private tour which is pretty expensive. We ended up renting a car and driving from Seville to tarifa, parking the car at the ferry lot (20€ per day, very safe), catching the 4 pm ferry, staying 2 nights in a hotel in tangier. We probably did spend as much as we would have on a tour but we’re able to take our time a bit. The car worked better for us as we also wanted to go to Granada from Seville and then back for our flight home. Anyway I agree with Rick that tangier is worth visiting as it’s different from Spain. But getting there and back quickly is a bit of a trick.

Granada is too far for this to be worthwhile.
If your itinerary spends any time in Seville, you could fly to Marrakesh for 2 days to get a little flavor of Morocco. There are also flights from Malaga. Otherwise, not worth it IMO - even though Tanger is indeed much more spruced up than it used to be.

My thanks to all who responded. I think we are going to take a pass on Tangiers. I'm sure we'd find it interesting but probably not worth the effort to get there and back. That said, a couple of days might make more sense but we don't want to devote that much time in an "out of the way" place.

Thanks again for your comments.

Tom