I don’t think commenters are giving Tangier enough credit. Elsewhere in Morocco is surely better, but if you only have the option of a daytrip (like I did), this place can be a great experience and a taste of life in North Africa.

I was with a private guide, and other people weren’t too too pushy. Sometimes it actually was kind of entertaining, like when a boy tried to sell me his tiny pet turtle. The kids in the street were very cute and polite (a lot of “hola”s).

I loved wandering in the market area—the whole booths filled with piles and piles of olives were incredible, though I was a bit troubled by goats’ heads sitting unrefrigerated on butchers’ counters… Another commenter said the city smelled horrible, but I have actually never been anywhere better-smelling than the old medina. The whole place was fragrant of all the herbs being sold.

It was also interesting to see the contrast between our guide’s efforts to point out everything cosmopolitan about his city (where foreigners lived, where churches/synagogues were, how many languages kids learned in school) and day-to-day life in a developing country (lonely donkeys chained up in dry fields, half-built structures, public bakeries so that women without ovens could cook their bread).