We have a trip planned to Spain and hoped to take the ferry from Tarifa to Tangiers as Rick Steves suggested as a day trip. However, I found that FRS's ferry service was apparently taken over by the European company DFDS and as of May 5, they are not offering the Tarifa to Tangier Ville Port ferry service. They are now only offering the less convenient Algecirias to Tangiers Med Port ferry which requires a one hour shuttle bus ride.
I was unable to find any service offered by the other ferry company Rick Steves listed, Inter Shipping. Any one know about this?
I did find a company called AML (African Morocco Link) which is offering the Tarifa to Tangier Ville ferry. Does anyone know anything about this company? This is not included in Rick Steves' book.
Thanks for any help,
Charlie
Posted by
new york
719 posts
Just because AML is not in the RS book does not mean it is not reliable.
Surely it may be included in future editions, now that the most popular ferry runs only from Algeciras now:
https://booking.aml.ma/html/ob_step2.jsp
From where will you be reaching Tarifa?
And from where will you go after your Tangier day trip?
Posted by
OP
3 posts
We are following the Rick Steves suggested route except a little slower from Barcelona to Madrid only. We spend a few night in Ronda to see the White Hill Towns area before Tarifa, and then on to Sevilla after, with a stop on the way to see a horse show in Jerez.
The AML ferry company does seem to have a very professional business with good website and good traveler reviews, It may be the only workable option anyway. I don't want to have to do 2 one hour shuttle bus rides in Tangiers on a day trip from the Med Port. Do you know if the other Inter Shipping ferry is still in business?
Posted by
USA
23 posts
We booked with a tour guide for our upcoming trip and didn't hear about any change with the ferry from Tarifa. Thanks for the heads-up!
Posted by
3 posts
Did you learn anything else about this situation? We were hoping to take the ferry in December. Is there another way to get from Tangier to Tangiers?
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Yes, I did find more info. The AML (African Morocco Link) is still available and there is also another company called Balearia ferry, www.balearia.com which is offering service from Tarifa to Tangerville (the Tangiers port).
We also are planning a December trip, but unfortunately AML does not have their December schedule for reservations on the website yet. It looks like they make it available about 1 &1/2 - 2 months out. Also, the earliest ferry they offer is 10AM departure. A little late for a day trip I think.
The Balearia ferry does have it all setup on a very nice website, and has the date we want on their schedule. They also have a earlier 9am departure. But here is the rub, we cannot get their website to accept any credit card we have. We are currently trying to resolve this, probably will have to call them. They only have a Spanish phone number listed though.
Charlie
Posted by
1 posts
We also wanted to do as RS suggested, Tangier as a day trip. But the ferry and bus schedule is not conducive to that, coming from Seville. We decided to spend a couple of nights in Tangier so we could have a full day. I booked Tarifa to Tangier on AML leaving at 18:00 and Tangier back to Tarifa on Baleria leaving at 10:00, 2 days later. I believe I paid with MC, no problem. Also paid the extra few euros to be able to get a refund if needed but after reading the fine print, discovered that you need to cancel 48 hours in advance to get your money back, so it's not for last minute emergency cancellations. Also according to my ticket receipt and the timetable, you must check in at least 2 hours prior to departure from Tarifa. Well, I hope there are no problems driving there from Seville! We also have to find the paid parking lot and then get to the port. I used a website called directferries.com which I don't think charges a fee? Maybe that is why paying with credit card was no problem. When I compared the ticket price on the Baleria website, the price was the same. This is my first time doing this, so I hope there are no problems. Good luck!