After leaving Chefchaouen, we decided to take a boat ride to Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar! We were very excited about this plan, having read about the Rock of Gibraltar, and picturing it as a romantic experience. Of course, reality is a bit different. While I'm still really glad we did it, it turned out to be a bit of a crazy day.
We started in Chefchaouen. We took a bus to Tanger, a port town on the northern coast of Morocco. Took 3 hours and 45dhs ($1=8 dirham). Then, we learned that the ferries from Tanger no longer go to Gibraltar, and that we have to go to Tanger Med, the port near Tanger. (Website information was confusing/inaccurate/outdated). To get to Tanger Med from the Tanger bus station is pretty easy. There's a gray bus that stops on the hour, every hour at a bus stop on the round about just outside of the bus station. Costs 25d per person. Of course when we got there we had just missed a bus, so we had to wait almost an hour. In that time tons of taxi drivers tried to get us to pay them to take us to the port, telling us we were waiting at the wrong place, that the bus doesn't run to Tanger Med, all sorts of lies. (That's how we knew we were in the right place). After an hour, a comfortable tour bus pulled up and drove us directly to the port. Takes about 45 minutes.
So, we got to Tanger Med. There we learned that there's only one ferry that goes to Gibraltar, and that's on Sundays (we were there on a Thursday). But, a few ferries go each day to Algeciras, the Spanish port across the bay from Gibraltar. Costs 240d. We had to wait for 4 hours for the next ferry. Which was an hour late on top of that. One it started, the ferry was pretty quick, took about 45 minutes to get across the Strait. We were very surprised how empty it was! Probably because it's so much more convenient and about the same price to fly...
From Algeciras, we took a short bus ride to La Linea, the Spanish city that borders Gibraltar. This bus runs about every half hour and costs 2.45 euro.
So, to summarize, we left Chefchaouen at around 9 am, and made it to our hotel in La Linea by 11pm. A flight may have taken an hour or two... But it was a fun adventure. Glad we did it, don't want to do it again. :)
As a side note, we had also looked into taking a helicopter from Ceuta, the Spanish city in Africa surrounded by Morocco, to Algeciras, but the helicopter company had stopped flights for about two years. Last I heard, they are supposed to start flying again this summer. Much more expensive, but so cool!
The port:
Our boat:
No one else in sight:
Leaving Morocco:
Exploring the boat:
I found the Rock of Gibraltar!!!
Sunset in Spain:
We started in Chefchaouen. We took a bus to Tanger, a port town on the northern coast of Morocco. Took 3 hours and 45dhs ($1=8 dirham). Then, we learned that the ferries from Tanger no longer go to Gibraltar, and that we have to go to Tanger Med, the port near Tanger. (Website information was confusing/inaccurate/outdated). To get to Tanger Med from the Tanger bus station is pretty easy. There's a gray bus that stops on the hour, every hour at a bus stop on the round about just outside of the bus station. Costs 25d per person. Of course when we got there we had just missed a bus, so we had to wait almost an hour. In that time tons of taxi drivers tried to get us to pay them to take us to the port, telling us we were waiting at the wrong place, that the bus doesn't run to Tanger Med, all sorts of lies. (That's how we knew we were in the right place). After an hour, a comfortable tour bus pulled up and drove us directly to the port. Takes about 45 minutes.
So, we got to Tanger Med. There we learned that there's only one ferry that goes to Gibraltar, and that's on Sundays (we were there on a Thursday). But, a few ferries go each day to Algeciras, the Spanish port across the bay from Gibraltar. Costs 240d. We had to wait for 4 hours for the next ferry. Which was an hour late on top of that. One it started, the ferry was pretty quick, took about 45 minutes to get across the Strait. We were very surprised how empty it was! Probably because it's so much more convenient and about the same price to fly...
From Algeciras, we took a short bus ride to La Linea, the Spanish city that borders Gibraltar. This bus runs about every half hour and costs 2.45 euro.
So, to summarize, we left Chefchaouen at around 9 am, and made it to our hotel in La Linea by 11pm. A flight may have taken an hour or two... But it was a fun adventure. Glad we did it, don't want to do it again. :)
As a side note, we had also looked into taking a helicopter from Ceuta, the Spanish city in Africa surrounded by Morocco, to Algeciras, but the helicopter company had stopped flights for about two years. Last I heard, they are supposed to start flying again this summer. Much more expensive, but so cool!
The port:
Our boat:
No one else in sight:
Leaving Morocco:
Exploring the boat:
I found the Rock of Gibraltar!!!
Sunset in Spain:
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