Tangier From Spain. Add Gibraltar?

We made a long weekend of it by adding Gibraltar to our activities, but this review is predominantly about Tangier and related transportations sources, hotels, and restaurants used. Our group of 3, hired Aziz Benami, tangierprivateguide, for the Tangier tour. It was just us and no one else. During our entire time with Aziz, we felt completely safe and secure. Our driver was excellent, he did not speed or ever drive dangerously. The vehicle was very comfortable.

I would like to say, that travel in this part of the world is pretty good. However, there are potential pitfalls you should be aware of. Public transportation here, like anywhere, can have its problems. Strikes, breakdowns, failure to make scheduled service times, etc. I have found it is not a good idea to make tight connections when using various common transportation systems. To many variables can affect your schedule. Even when using trains and busses, you should check to see if they have any scheduled strikes coming up. You can do this by going to sites such as StrikeInformer.com and madrid.angloinfo.com. We once made a train trip from Madrid to Algeciras, planned to spend the night and return the following day. The following day the trains were on strike. We had to spend an extra night. It didn’t really matter to us as we had no real place to be, but it was an extra cost for the 2nd night hotel room. If we had a non-refundable air line ticket I would have been upset. How about trip insurance, I generally get it through my credit card company. Heck, now a days, the US airlines have a hard time getting you from point A to B on schedule.

On this particular trip to Spain we rented an apartment for a month in Sevilla(VRBO). We then took the Valenzuela commercial bus line from Sevilla to Algeciras for 19.5E each, one way (E represents Euro). You can purchase this ticket from the bus station in Sevilla. Look up Valenzuela on the web.

I was unable to arrange the Tangier tour from Sevilla and return in the same day. As a result, our hotel was the Cristina in Algeciras. We chose to stay in Algeciras because we wanted to go to Gibraltar(UK), see the apes and eat in a pub. This is about the best hotel in the city of Algeciras. A double was 90E via Booking.com. My wife uses Booking.com exclusively and as a result, she receives a further discount, usually about 8% off their regular rates. In Algeciras, you do not want to pinch pennies and stay in a mediocre hotel, you will be very unhappy. Here you must pick the best hotel. It also happens that the Cristina is a 15 minute walk to the port where you will board a FRS shuttle bus to Tarifa, Spain. It is in Tarifa where you will actually board the ferry to Tangier. This ride to Tarifa is about 20 minutes and completely free with your FRS ferry ticket.

I will just quickly add, if you want to go to Gibraltar, which I highly recommend, this was our second visit, then from the Algeciras bus station, a 10 minute walk from the Cristina, you can purchase a one way ticket to La Linea, Spain which is right on the border of Gibraltar. This is about a 20 minute bus ride from Algeciras and it is a nice city air conditioned type bus that makes a few stops before reaching La Linea. The cost for this is 1E, one way. From La Linea it is a 10 minute walk to Gibraltar, which you do by going across the city airport runway. It is very cool and you will love it. Please, always pay attention to your bus schedules and what time the last bus returns. A taxi cab is about 30E from La Linea to Algeciras.

You can utilize either Algeciras or Tarifa, Spain, as you staging point for the 1 day tour. Generally, the 1 day tours of Tangier from Spain, leave from the port of Tarifa, in the very south end of Spain. Routinely, the route of Tarifa, Spain to Tangier is the most used by tour companies, including, should you decide to do, the group tour through FRS Ferries.

As I previously noted, if you choose to leave from Algeciras instead of Tarifa, FRS provides a shuttle bus free of charge to Tarifa, if you have a FRS ticket. The ride is about 20 minutes between Algeciras and Tarifa and of course the same on the return. They are pretty good busses, newer luxury type coaches with plenty of baggage storage. You just show your FRS ferry ticket to get on board and the same on the return. I was completely comfortable on this bus and would use again.

FRS conducts their own group tour of Tangier, but make sure you read the small print on their tour information page. You are require to attend all the sales pitches and if you don’t, your ferry return could be affected. Here is an excerpt from the FRS webpage on 8/30/2015, in regards to the basic 1 day tour of Tangier;

Specific conditions

49 € adults / 39 € children.(Minimum number of persons: not required)
• High season surcharge (Holy Week and from 15th June to 15th September): 2.00 €.
The purchase of this product involves the visit to sales presentations included in this day trip as well as completing the FRS programme. Should any customer decline to participate in the programme, he/she shall authorize FRS to charge him/her the full amount for the ticket before boarding the ferry back to the port of origin, thus holding FRS and its partners harmless of any liability that the customer’s actions may bring about.

I suspect there have been few instances where a tourist did not participate sufficiently in a promotion that he or she did not earn their ticket home. However, this is an area I just did not want to be involved in as I had no plans of doing any excessive shopping. Been there and done that years ago in Marrakesh and Egypt. I did not want some tour guide judging my ticket home on my purchase participation. You may elect to chose otherwise. In fact, if you have never been to this area of the world, I suspect you will enjoy the shopping alternatives.

However, to avoid any of these potential problems, I chose the alternative private tour with the independent company such as Aziz BENAMI, at tangierprivateguide, located in Tangier. Aziz utilizes the same FRS ferry for transportation to Tangier from Tarifa, Spain. I believe I came across Aziz via Rick Steves material, this is who I used, and was very satisfied. Aziz had no forms to sign, contracts, nothing. No restrictions and no requirements. He even provided the ferry tickets. For me that was a no-brainer.

Aziz is very good with communicating with you. There were several occasions I telephoned him via his toll free number and also emailed him requesting information. He answers his phone and promptly returns emails. I was very impressed with that. Did I mention there is no adance payment to Aziz. With other tour companies, you may be required to pay in advance. With the Aziz private tour, you pay at end of tour. Yes that is correct. I made the reservation with Aziz and he prepaid the FRS ferry ticket. Allow me to say that again, Aziz prepaid our ferry tickets! We walked into the FRS office in Algeciras, gave them our reservation number, provided to us by Aziz, and they printed all of our tickets. Both outbound and return. If you are leaving from Algeciras, you show your tickets to the FRS shuttle bus driver and then you get on the bus and ride to Tarifa, about 20 minutes. At Tarifa, you obtain your Moroccan Immigration forms from the FRS counter, fill them out and with your FRS tickets walk onto the ferry. Aziz provided detailed info on Morocco immigration forms, you fill out the white form and give it to the onboard Immigration agent and get your passport stamped at the same time. You keep your yellow form for your return. This part is very important. If you do not get your passport stamped on the ferry you will be turned back when you get off the ferry. This will seriously delay you and most likely ruin your trip to Tangier. The ferry announces over and over to ensure you get your passport stamped, and there was a couple who did not. They were turned back. The FRS ferry ride was about 30-45 minutes long. From Tarifa to Tangier we were on time. The return was not the same. On the return the ferry was late which could have affected some other connections we had, however, we gave ourselves some extra time just in case this happened.

When we completed the last passport check Aziz was waiting for us with a sign with our name on it. Then off we went, with Aziz’s guide, driver and 4 wheel drive van.

The ferry service FRS provides is very good. They have very large vessels in which you can drive you personal vehicle on if you wish. Ferry service is their primary responsibility. They do it safe and are fairly efficient. You will get an occasional late ferry but this happens with a multitude of commercial transporters around the world. Times are changing now and it is important as a traveler you take more care in scheduling your transportation. I believe current times dictate more relaxed connection times. The penalty for otherwise is travel headaches. Maybe you spend an extra night somewhere to stage before you make a very important leg of your travel. That is what we do sometimes. Think about it, when you have thousands of dollars invested in a trip, don’t pinch on a couple $100 here or there or an extra day somewhere. Don’t take me wrong, I am personally one of the kings of economy travel, but we use good common sense to reduce our margins for error and as a result extra cost, time, and aggravation. What is that phrase, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

Inside Aziz’s vehicle we were briefed on how the tour would proceed. I then tweaked it a little by advising we would not be doing a lot of shopping. This was no problem with the guide. Yes, I have heard stories about guides receiving commissions from items you buy in shops, but I have never been able to confirm that nor anyone else who had. But remember the guide wants to keep you as happy as possible. This is your private tour, you are the boss, within reason. The guide still hopes to make a tip from you if he does a good job, and if that is the case he deserves a nice tip. My guide and I, definitely got off on the right foot. He was fine with my changes. Try doing that in a large group tour, not going to happen.

The Aziz tour takes off on a tour of the outside of the Tangier. You go buy large homes owned by the King, and other royalty from the countries. While we were there, The Saudi King was there with his yacht. His yacht was about the size of the FRS ferry. You then head our towards where the Atlantic and Mediterranean seas meet. But first you stop and take a look at the camels near the beach. You want to ride a camel in Africa? Yup, you can do that in the Aziz tour. With many of the large tour companies you cannot. So before you sign up, if this is what you want to do, you need to ask them. While you are riding the camel, your family or friends are incessantly taking digital photos to provide you a permanent memory of some of the most fun you have ever had. Think about it, the mystique of Morocco, combined with riding real camels, on the dirt dunes near the beach. How much better than that can it get? You flip the camel herder 5E and you move on to get a glass of mint tea at the light house next to the ocean.