Day trip to Morocco from Barcelona?

Morocco is across from Southern Spain, while Barcelona is almost on the French border. Unless you have a plane, it would be hard to make it a day trip. It would be like a day trip to Sonoma from LA.

I'm betting that it wouldn't even work out flying. Moroc Air, probably has a nonstop to Casablanca which would take a couple of hours. Toss in an hour to and from the arrival and departure airports and a couple more (twice) for the security crap. That's twelve hours of pure logistics. Plus, it'd almost have to be to Casablanca which is at the bottom of the heap. Plus, you'd have to find a direct flight that left Spain real early in the morning and another direct one that left Morocco pretty late in the evening. I'd thing a bunch would go through Madrid, but who knows? If you can noodle a way to do it, shoot for either Fez or Marrakech.

What about a private plane, Ed?

Haha...I don't know that a private plane is quite in our budget, but thanks for the idea! It seems like a bit of a stretch, but it could be a fun little side adventure. If anyone else has some input I'd love to hear it. Melissa

Small Lear: two grand an hour dry, three hours of flight time, no idea what Jet A costs in Spain or Morocco, five hundred per for wait time. Rough guess, $12,000. Big Gulfstream: maybe double or triple. Maybe a balloon if you can talk the winds into acting right. Plan on mittens and earmuffs.

Vueling will fly you BCN to RAK (Marrakech). But the flight leaves Barcelona late morning, arriving 13:25, and the return departs at 14:15, leaving you less than an hour on the ground. I think you need to look at a map. Spain is a large country, and Barcelona is way up in the northeast corner. Morocco is waaaay to the west, as well as south.

Well, obviously you cannot do it as a day trip but why not few overnights. Fez, Marrakesh or both.

Melissa, I'm assuming the friend that suggested the day trip has never looked at a Map, nor have they done that particular day trip from Barcelona. As the others have said, there's no way you'll be doing that trip unless you charter a bizjet as Ed suggested. A smaller jet, perhaps on the low end of the Cessna Citation series should fit the bill. If you really want a day trip to Morocco, spending a few days in Tarifa or Gibraltar would allow that. Happy travels!

Think of taking a "day trip" from San Francisco to Seattle. That's close to the distance your talking about (that's just to Tangiers, Marracech is more like Portland to San Diego) only flying from Barcelona to Morroco won't be as convenient.

A day trip to Morocco is like a day trip to Mexico. Sure, you can go to Tijuana or some other grotesque bordertown for a few hours, but you're not exactly getting to see or experience the country. A day trip to Morocco, such as it is, is really only possible from one of the ferry ports in the extreme south of the country. Honestly, I don't think that's a day well spent. On the other hand, it's quite easy - and surprisingly cheap - to fly from any of a handful of cities around Spain (and most other western European countries) to several cities in Morocco. If you want to go to Morocco, this is the way to do it - assuming you can spend a few days there (highly recommended). It's quick, cheap, easy, and best of all you get to skip the Tijuana experience that day-trippers have to endure when they charge off the ferries and run the gauntlet. There are cheap flights from Barcelona. But not every day. Investigate all the discount airlines that fly between Spain and Morocco - there are more than you think. The tricks to watch for are 1) flights don't go every day - time your trip carefully; and 2) the usual discount airlines gotchas (extra charges for everything). Have fun.

A day trip... more like a day to get there. I have driven from Barcelona to Marbella and it takes 10 hours to drive and then you would have to tack on another hour to get down to Gibraltar so that you could get a ferry over to Morocco. It wouldn't be a day trip but a few days. Spain is a massive country. You could take a train from Barcelona to Valencia and Valencia to Malaga and then somehow get from there down to Gibraltar but that would be a mission. I think its best to forget about considering a DAY trip to Morocco.

It was a friend of ours who travels internationally for business who suggested it. Obviously it's not the best laid plan...we are discarding that idea for now. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions...especially the private jets. Those were entertaining given our budget.
Melissa