Tangier and Chefchaouen Recap
- Only A Plane Away
- Mar 12, 2024
- 4 min read
We had a direct flight from Barcelona to Tangier, Morocco. The flight was less than two hours and we arrived into Tangier around noon. We had pre-booked a transfer to our hotel and had been told it may take a while to get through immigration and customs, but the process was quick and painless so we actually had to wait a few minutes for our driver. He then drove us to our hotel which was in the marina district right next to the old medina. We had a room with a view of the Mediterranean.
Once we were checked into our hotel, we found a little cafe nearby to get some lunch. We tried some delicious tagines which are to a dish cooked in a conical earthenware pot. It can be meat, vegetables or fish and may be savory or slightly sweet with dried fruits added.
After lunch we headed to the medina. It was a Friday, which the holy day in the Muslim faith, so some places were not open and overall the medina was pretty quiet. The lack of crowds made us stand out like tourists even more than normal and we had locals approaching us trying to get us to use them as a guide in exchange for some hefty sums. They didn't want to take no for an answer. It was quite off-putting to start our time in Tangier this way. We finally just agreed and let one guy "guide" us to the cafe that we wanted to go to even though we had maps of how to get there.
He kept wanting to try to show us more. We have heard this can be a scam to get you into a friend's store or market, so we politely told him no thanks and that we wanted to stop into the cafe for some mint tea. The place was called Cafe Baba and is one of the most famous in Tangier. It's seen the likes of the Rolling Stones and more recently, Anthony Bourdain.
They probably had the best mint tea of the trip with lots of sprigs of fresh mint mixed with the strong sweet tea. After hanging out for a bit we decided to explore a bit more. We decided we were ok getting a bit lost and didn't want a "guide" again so we decided not to map the way back to our hotel. We made our way through the medina to the fortified walls where there were great views facing the sea.
We then made our way down the walls and walked back to our hotel along the sea. We decided we were due for a little relaxation and booked a couples massage a nearby spa. We spent the evening there before heading back to our hotel for dinner because it was one of the few restaurants in the area that served wine and we were ready to continue the relaxation for the evening. They had a great selection of Moroccan wines, so we had a relaxing dinner and wine overlooking the Mediterranean.
The next day we had booked a private tour that would take us around some of the sites on the outskirts of Tangier and then to the blue city of Chefchaouen. Our first stop was Cape Spartel which is the entrance to the straight of Gibraltar where the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea meet. We got an early start an actually got to see some beautiful colors in the sky after sunrise.
The next stop was Hercules Caves. These are supposedly the caves where Hercules rested during his labors. Many people say the opening looks like the shape of Africa. The caves were not actually open yet but our guide got us in for a bit of a private tour. The caves were incredibly humid because of the water rushing in from the ocean. We were not able to spend too much time though because of our unauthorized access.
From there it was time to head to Chefchaouen which was about a 3 hour drive. We looked out the window at the berber villages as we traveled through the Rif mountains. The rocking of the van lulled us both to sleep, but we eventually made it to the Blue City where we would meet another local guide to take us on a tour of the town.
Chefchaouen is a small mountain village that is known as "the blue city" because many of its buildings are painted various shades of blue. There are several theories on why the city is painted blue including because blue deters mosquitoes or because blue simply represents heaven. Regardless of the reason, the city has a pretty enchanting vibe, and it's a great place to simply walk up and down the streets and enjoy the building and shops.
Our guide did take us into a pretty amazing rug shop where the owner presented many amazing rugs to us. The owners were extremely inviting and very nice to us, but they at the same time make it difficult to leave. It's a somewhat high pressure tactic that the guides and shop owners use on tourists, so be aware that this is basically an expectation for a lot of arranged tours. (We didn't buy a rug)
After the walking tour through the streets, the guide brought us to a restaurant overlooking the town square. The food was ok, but the views from the rooftop terrace were quite nice.
From there we headed back to Tangier for the rest of our tour. When we arrived at the Medina, we had a different guide take us around and show us some of the sites. Of course they wanted us to spend time in the shops and buy Argon oil and the like. We looked around the shops a bit but wanted to spend our time exploring the city a bit more. We did decide to stop at a little cafe for an afternoon pick me up.
From there we headed to the Kasbah before heading back to our hotel for the evening.
The next day we had an early flight to Marrakesh and were ready to explore more of Morocco.
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