My wife and I will be in Andalucia, either in Granada or Cordoba at the end of Semana Santa. We thought that might be a good time to go down to Tarifa and over to Morocco. Here's a few questions in that regard: 1. How should we go to Tarifa - by bus or train? 2. Do you have a good tour guide? 3. We have plenty of time, would you recommend more than just a day trip to Tangier? Perhaps a few nights to see more of Morocco?
4. Do you have any general advice to make the trip to Morocco go smoothly? Thank you, Eddie Green
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Just for Tangier, it isn't really much worth even going. Since, from your other post, you'll be all over Andalusia, you might want to consider a cheap flight from Malaga to Fez. You don't need a guide.
Posted by
Ann Arbor, Mi
3696 posts
I spent a few days in Morocco and although we had a guide (I was taking a group of photographers) I would travel there now without one if I was on my own. It was fun however to hear the perspective of our guide (Mohammad, complete with the white baggy pants and yellow shoes) We also went to Chefchouen (sp) and it was fabulous. Also Asillah was a favorite. I did enjoy Tangiers and if thats all I could have done I still think it would have been fun. We were near the end of our trip so we stayed in the Ramada Inn in Tangiers as we were all looking for a few amenities by that point and it was quite nice. Our hotel in Chefchouen was right in the square and a perfect location to explore that town. Very exotic and unique.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6790 posts
Fly to Marrakech or Fes. Super cheap flights are available from multiple cities in Spain. You don't need a guide. Consider flying in to one city (Fes or Marrakesh), take the train to the other (Moroccan national railway is quite good - inherited from the French, and some stations are like palaces - the station in Marrakech, for example, is beautiful), then fly back to Europe from the other. We used a short (4-5 day) side trip to Morocco as a "bridge" that got us cheaply from Spain to our flight home in Paris (we flew Madrid> Marrakech, train to Fes, then flew Fes>Paris). Flights were about US$75 each way. You will find Morocco is surprisingly easy to travel in. It is a major tourist destination for Europeans (consider this analogy: Morocco is to western Europe as Mexico is to the US: close by, cheap, warm, full of interesting food & culture, and a supplier of low-cost, often undocumented labor...there are a LOT of parallels). Lots of English spoken in the tourist areas (if English fails, badly spoken French will get you through, as many Moroccans speak bad French, too), lots of cheap flights on multiple discount airlines, ATMs available, etc. I really think that "doing Morocco as a day trip" is short-changing yourself (would you do France as a day trip? ). If you can spare a few days out of your trip, skip past all the hustlers waiting for the day trip ferry passengers, and fly easily and cheaply to Marrakech and/or Fes. Walking into the old city (either, but especially Fes) is like stepping through a time machine. Fes is the best preserved medieval city in the Arab world - maybe the whole world. It's not without its rough edges (definitely part of the developing world), but is surprisingly easy to visit and very worthwhile. Hope that helps.