Tanger aka: Tangier

We visited in 2005 with no real plan. We met a guy on the ferry, and ended up hanging out with him most of the time. Our trip consisted of wandering about looking at stuff and drinking gallons mint tea.

I really want to go back.

If you go by boat from Spain, I recommend getting out of the port as quickly as you can, and finding a tour guide once outside (or having them find you!). The tour guides are actually pretty friendly, seriously cheap, and they keep everyone away from you… anyone who might try to sell you things or bother you. They take you to the nice places, and, of course, recommend shops where they get a cut from what you buy, but hey, better than having people bugging you during your entire stay!

hehe, another fun place to visit. hotel manager will try to rip you off though. if you can’t speak arabic, then your spanish might come in handy. visitng hercules cave was quite adventurous. also discovering the partition between the atlantic and mediterranean was a moment when time stood still. camel-backriding was fun too :)

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).

Having read up on Tangier, we knew what we were in for. For the sake of setting foot in the country we figured a day trip was worth it anyway; going with the guided tour offered by our Spanish hotel seemed like the easiest way to deflect the local guides and vendors of cheap crap. It felt like it should be reliable.

What we didn’t expect was that tour guide handing us off to a series of sales pitches of increasing pressure, topped off with a walk through the casbah back to the tour bus being accosted every 3 steps by random guys selling fake watches, cheap tin bracelets, wallets, and other junk.

Okay, so once you come to terms with the fact that the locals feed on tourists, what’s left? A dirty smelly city, but a very different culture and lifestyle. It certainly IS enough to get a taste of how very different Morocco must be from anywhere else in the western world.

The visit left me without desire to return to Tangier, but an increased desire to head inland further and visit Marakech, Fez, and the other likely destinations.

Student “Tour guides” were a pain and the Kasbah was frightening- is you suffer from claustrophobia – forget it. Road on a camel – one hump or two? – either way bloody uncomfortable, especially galloping along the beach on a dark night.
Had the most unforgettable, culinary delight in Lobster thermidor in some beach shack, don’t open your eyes when looking into the kitchen!!

I can definitely see why people would think it’s not worth visiting, as the people are pushy and it can be quite daunting. However I enjoyed the food and watching a snake charmer. However it really doesn’t feel like the real Morocco you should cinsider visiting Marakech, Fez or Casablanca for an authentic Moroccan experience

Tom ;-)

What can you say about Tangier that hasn’t already been said? It’s a city with a lot of history, for sure, but all of that history is impossible to experience, because as soon as you depart from your ferry you are immediately assaulted by a barrage of faux-guides. I am sure it is a wonderful city, but it is impossible to see, because as soon as you are “greeted” by the first locals you meet, you immediately want out. Grab the first taxi/bus/train you can, and head down the coast to the more relaxing and representative parts of Morocco.

NOT the real Morocco. Take the first train out of there.

Our first night in Morocco was interesting to say the least. First we got stopped by this guy who looked like a janitor pestering us to see if we had a place to stay. Next thing we knew this guy in a suit with a official travel guide badge came up to us with his wife and daughter telling us about this camp ground near his house that had hotel rooms and told us he’d get us a taxi “for no more than 6 euros” (about 6.50) Guides are not unheard of, I had even read about it in my guide book, so we agreed “just for the night” since it was getting dark. We got into the taxi and the man proceeded to pile his family in the taxi with us! He dropped his family off up the street from his hotel and came with us to the hotel (similiar to U.S. Motel grounds) where we paid the cab driver 10 euros! (He didn’t pay anything) They showed us 3 rooms and had us “pick” the best one (i.e. he picked the most expensive one 25 euros a night)

After paying for our room he insisted we meet his family for mint tea and dinner. Again, I’d read about this in my guide book and this is fairly common so I didn’t think much of it. At first we declined, but he was so persistent, and he really seemed harmless at that point, (and his wife and daughter seemed nice) that we agreed. Before we knew it we had been at his house for THREE hours where he wouldn’t let us leave until we ate dinner. He wasn’t being forceful or anything, just every time we brought up how tired we were he’d apologize and say dinner would be ready soon and would tell us stories about all these other travelers he’d met and how he met the king and prince of Morocco since he works for the government. (BTW the meal really was very good and the mint tea is something I’m now addicted to, so not all was bad.)

Then he wanted us to pay his wife 200 Durhams each (about 20 Euros each) for the meal, but neither of us had any money, so he said we could pay him the next day when he’d show us around the markets and the city. I think it was about this point that both of us realized this guy was not going to leave us alone for our entire stay and we told him that we were leaving for Casablanca in hopes that he would. Instead he pretty much set out a planned itinerary that included us going around town with him, coming back to his house for another meal, and his wife doing those temporary henna tattoos. (All the wile never even bring up how much he wanted.) Eventually, we went back to our camp ground/hotel that had a security guard at the main gate where the guy walked us to our room and told us to wait in our room until 11:30 (the time he set up with us) the next morning. Before he left he told one of the staff members something in Arabic and shook our hands goodnight at our room door.

Melissa and I were pretty freaked out at this point, and it seriously felt like if we even tried to leave he’d know and have us tracked! And wouldn’t you know it, at 10:30 the next morning we got up to walk around the hotel property (which actually was very pretty) and the guy was down he came within 3-5 minutes! We had been very briefly talking to this Italian guy and he warned us that no one should be pressuring us into paying them, all the while a staff member was keeping a close eye on us.

So, anyway this guy came down a minute or two later and began telling us that he knew we wouldn’t sleep until 11:30 and that it was better if we got an early start. I explained that we wanted some quite time and if he’d come back in an hour we could talk about what we were going to do. He then started asking us if we’d been talking to the Italian guy and pretty much just trying to get us to leave right then. Finally I just bluntly asked him if he was wanting us to pay for this “tour” (which obviously I knew he did – but he never once discussed payment or price) He acted shocked (“Well, of course!”) like we should have known that that’s what he wanted all along. Again, we originally (niaevely) thought he approached us to help us find a place to stay, and I just assumed he got a commission off of bringing us in. We declined his tour saying we would be fine on our own and he went into this big spiel about how dangerous it was and kept lowering the price for his tour. I probably would’ve accepted his offer if he’d been legit with us from the beginning, but I didn’t like the way he went about the whole deal. We eventually got him to leave us alone, but not before he told us we had to be out by 11:30 or we’d be charged for another night. (The previous day he told us we could leave our luggage until 4:00)

So to make this very long story a bit shorter we ended up leaving at 11:30 where we took a taxi to the train station (and we paid the equivelent of maybe 3 eruos!), and then took a 5 hour train ride to Casablanca (that we were told was only 2-3 hours.) Our first night in Casablanca was spent in a hostel with a German man named Marcus who spoke french and had dinner with us. All’s well that ends well I suppose.

P.S. I was told by many that Fes and Marakesh are much highly prefered cities to visit.