Many travelers skip Tangier on their way to the rest of Morocco due to the city’s sordid history and dodgy reputation. But, as I discovered, sometimes all it takes is just a little help from a friend from the inside to discover the wonders of the city.

By Jeffery Smith

“Why don’t we go to Marrakech tomorrow?” somebody casually suggested during a lull in the conversation. It was late into the night, and I had just spent the last several hours sipping wine and sherry with a group of Britons at a ranch located in the verdant hills between Vejer de la Frontera and Barbate in southern Spain. A few minutes later it was decided: Oliver — a friend of mine — and I would hop on a ferry on the southern coast, make our way to the train station in Tangier and take the overnight to Marrakech. We were wary of spending too much time in Tangier because we both had parents with dubious experiences there in the 70’s. But if all went to plan, we’d only have to spend a few hours in the fabled city. As it turns out, a few hours in Tangier wasn’t nearly enough time.

Most travelers familiar with the region would suggest going to Algeciras to catch the ferry to Tangier, but instead we opted for a 45-minute bus trip bound for the wind-swept town of Tarifa, a city we had been to a few weeks prior. Tarifa is the windsurfing capital of the world and ten minutes on the small peninsula reveals why: the levante, or dry, hot wind, is unrelenting. Ten days in Tarifa — for those of you who are not inclined to windsurf — and you will quickly understand why the area has such a high suicide rate. From here we took the Tarifa-Tangier ferry. Run by a monopoly called FRS, the voyage is a short 35-minute jaunt across the Strait of Gibraltar. (more…)