Most other Moroccan starting points are airports, but Tangier stands out as a key port entry: the crossing from Tarifa takes 35 minutes, while that from Algeciras takes 70 minutes. You stand on the deck and watch Spain recede and Morocco grow. The medina is already visible from the water before you dock. No other entry into Morocco has that quality of transition: the feeling that you have crossed something, not just landed somewhere.
Tangier itself rewards more than a transit stop. The medina sits above the port on a hill, with views across the Strait on clear days that show the Spanish coastline 14 kilometres away. The Kasbah and its museum occupy the highest point. The Grand Socco and Petit Socco, the two historic squares that anchored the International Zone from 1923 to 1956, are still the social centre of the old city. Paul Bowles lived here for 52 years. Matisse came to paint the light in 1912. The Villa de France, where he stayed, is still standing on the hill above the medina.
As a starting point for a Morocco circuit, Tangier's geography is the most northerly and therefore the most complete. The full country runs south from here: Asilah and Larache on the Atlantic coast, Tetouan and Chefchaouen in the Rif, Fes and Meknes and Volubilis on the Imperial Cities arc, and then the Sahara and Marrakech beyond. A 12-day one-way tour from Tangier to Marrakech covers more of Morocco in proper sequence than any other two-city combination. Ferry in from Spain; fly home from Marrakech. The country, top to bottom, without doubling back.
Unlike agencies operating from Casablanca or Marrakech, our northern operations team knows the Rif Mountain roads in winter, which ferry schedules work best for early departures, and where to cross from Tangier Ville versus Tangier Med depending on where the circuit goes first. We bring fifteen years of private circuits starting at the Strait.
