Day Trip to Morocco
 

Last went to Tangier 34 years ago - thought it was dreadful, got bad food poisioning - and swore I would never go back.

One of my kids is asking if we can go for a day trip, sometime.

Anybody here done this for a day? Is it worth getting a guide? Is a couple of days better?

What I am really hoping for is it has not improved over the years and I have got a good excuse still:rofl::rofl:

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

One day would have been more than enough for my wife. She was quite upset by the abject poverty.

We had never seen donkeys and carts alongside so many Porsche Cayennes before we went to Marrakech.

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

A long time ago now but in tangiers my dad was asked if hed like to swap my mum for some camels.:lol::lol::lol:

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

...and with hindsight, that might not have been a bad thing after all?

Would the morroccan chap reconsider? :rofl:

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Stop being so rotten.:frown:

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Hi

I know of a couple of mums that took their kids over on the day trip just before Christmas for a reality check. There is still poverty there; however I enjoy the tripevery time - especially the mint tea.

I go from Tarifa on the fast ferry with FRS who do a walking tour. Well worth it, but be prepared to be "pestered" by salesman for anything and everything.

You will be given a meal - and it is a good meal. I certainly understand much more why so many are desperate to get across to europe after visiting

Davexf

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

I went about 4 years ago with my two (then) teenagers, it was a reality check for them & dd's just last week declined the chance to be in Tangier when her A level results came out! .....

Who are FRS? Do you have to book in advance? Do you have any choice of tour guide? Not that I'd know a good one until it happened anyway!
Cost (ish?) Thanks

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Hi

Frs are at the port - no need to book, I usually get there around 9-30 for the 11 o'clock tour - I have breakfast between ties in one of the cafes opposite the port.

Yes there are others, I believe much of a muchness

Davexf

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Hi there,

Can I ask what the cost of this is i.e. ferry and walking tour.

Where does the walking tour take you to?

Although being pestered by sales men is it easy to make a purchase?

If you buy something large can you get it back to the ferry?

Interogation over for the minute:blink:

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Hi

I think the cost is around 55 / 60 euros, and yes no probs to purchase - many do. Not a problem with purchases you can carry - and if too large they will send it to you - they are geared up for this - thinking of a large carpet?

The walking tour is all around the casbah - all through narrow strets etc

Davexf

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Not really sure what I am thinking of!

I think just a case of if we do go and I see something I like can I get it home.

I know all you men out there are shaking your heads at this point:lol:

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Spent half my time telling people to piss off.

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

http://www.frs.es/

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Brilliant info everyone, thanks - sounds relatively simple. Only one other subsidiary question, how easy/feasible/sensible would it be to take the car over? & once t'other side, how easy/feasible etc to park safely & do anything, or is it not worth the hassle?

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Hi

if you do this trip either by car or foot, will you please come back and let me know how you got on.

Cheers

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Have you ever seen the way Morrocans drive :rofl:

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

I had small children almost wrapping themselves around my legs trying to get me to buy things off them. I had a male belly dancer trying to have his evil way with me (I was a lot younger with long blond hair), It was ......... an experience

I really get worked up by the kids, it really upsets me. We were sitting in a cafe in Tijuana once and a little kid came up to me begging. The cafe owner ran out and slapped him across the head and threw him out :(

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Personally i would never drive out there,very intimidating for me. My hubby was working there and oh my, although he drove the car.Thats all they do is continuous sound of tooting horns. Just a personal opinion of course perhaps others dont find it so bad.

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Arc de Triomphe, Marble Arch, Buenos Aires, and yes I've been to Morocco twice.... it's not the driving but the parking & finding the car & its contents there when I get back that slightly concerns me...! mind you, if you can have a car keyed in Plaza Mayor car park Malaga, ...... :frown:

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

..............in tunisia i got offered 6 camels for my missus, mind you she has got all her own teeth.............and they'd be sorry because she would nag them to death:lol:

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Truly HORRIBLE place to visit.
I went last year and never again, even though I live so close. It was boring, not least because you couldn't really look at anything without 30 men pouncing on you with rugs under their arms.
One guy followed me without joke, for about an hour with this rug under his arm. He started @ 90 euros, and at the end of the hour, it was down to 5 euros, yet still he wouldn't get the hint.
Amazing really, and I was not exactly shy with my opinion on his rug, so god knows why he persisted.

If you want to experience Morroco, stay the hell away from Tangier as ANY one who has been will tell you, the real Morocco is inland, and is very very different.

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Starvation?

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Also I hated going out, when we did I went out with a morrocan interpreter. I was often heckled by the women folk
:eek::eek:scary
I assume it was because they disapprove of the wayward british culture.????
Although I did try to dress modestly it was sooo very hot.Not to cause offence.
In saying this I made some great friends with some girls when I was out there and we kept in touch for a few years but as soon as they got married they stopped correspondence
Maybe another coincidence ?????
I will never know.
If they are out there girls get in touch miss your friendship.
Not a country for me, but I know others love it and stay there regular.:thumbsup:

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

I doubt it, the guy had enough energy to run around after me for an hour.

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

I stayed at the Rif Hotel for a week's holiday. The large room had a large balcony overlooking the main beach, about a mile wide and five miles long, with kids playing 50-aside football and a sand covered train travelling down the middle of it.

I dressed down and carefully followed all the advice given, and managed to see the Medina, Casbah, the museums, the Cafe de Paris, and that funny port with the duty=free shops on the outside, but the constant begging got me down.

There was a decent night club/ disco at the next hotel along, about a hundred yards away, but to get there was a nightmare, with more and more desperate people trying to sell everything imaginable, and once at the night club the overpowering smell of Marijuana was just too much.

I've seen European women in genuine distress on the streets, when confronted with poverty stricken Moroccan men, whose culture does not let them respect women, but they are starving and desperate.

It was not for me.

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

some of these cultures do not respect women who are unaccompanied by men as they think they are prostitutes - when i was in egypt, there were a couple of girls on holiday, sharing a room and the male cleaner (there arent female cleaners) kept bursting in their room taking photos of them in bed, even though they were in single beds - they dont understand the concept of female friends...........when the girls complained to the management, they were told "what do you expect, you are women without men"

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This is one of the many reasons there will be BIG BIG problems in europe as islam gets stronger and stronger.
Thank your PC politicians.

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Hi CLR

My Friend and I went to Tangiers via Tarifa and the fast ferry to Tangiers recently. We were only passing through as we wanted to get to M'diq abour 80 km away.. The ferry was fine - no complaints. We were told that we could hire a car in the port no problem whatsoever.

When we got to the port terminal we were told the car hire offices were just outside the terminal building. When we got there we were told they were just around the corner. About 20 corners later we were at the entrance gates to the port! We asked the police and were assured they were just outside the general port area. While everyone seemed friendly they efffectively only wanted to move us on. Lots of police and military with serious looking weapons.

Once outside the pert we were besiged with beggars and people looking to act as tour guides, all looking like they had been released from prison! We resisted, stopping at any shop that remotely looked touristy - holiday stores, tour companies, etc. Same strory, a sar hire company was always up a few streets on the left, across the road 50 meters on the right and all baloney! Eventually we caved in and employed the least shifty looking guy who spoke good English. Cutting a very long story short he broughy us eventually to a Moroccan car hire company.

They wanted to keep our passports (they would give us photocopies) and wanted to charge the equivalent of €65 a day for a well used car (accoring to the picture). After much argument, walk outs, etc., we settled on €35 a day, kept our passports and the guide would accompany us part of the way to put us on the right road and show us where to fill up with gas! It was getting late!!!. Once all was settled and agreed we were the best of fiends, did we want tea?, advice on where to go, etc. The car looked nothing like the photo but at that stage we did not care.

The guide did take us to the right road after filling up and after hearing of all of his troubles, etc. we doubled the agreed fee. The full tour guide fee cost €8!!!!!(plus whaetever he got from the car hire company of course) By the way he told us that his English was soo good because he ran a coffee bar in London but unknown to him his wife had been selling drugs and outrageously he had been arrested, jailed for two years and been deported.

Tangiers looked like a city that could have been beautiful but had gone to seed decades before. The lessons we learned (besides advance car hire) were to take advice with a very large pinch of salt, hire a tour guide ASAP, try to agree everything in advance and always haggle over everything (they seem to expect and enjoy it). Be prepared to be besiged, especially if you look touristy. My experience would not put me off visiting again as you definitely come away with memorable experiences but it does not have the (over?) developed/sophisticated service industry of a Spain or Portugal. It's definitely worth a visit, bring a friend.

A bit long but I hope it gives a flavour,
George.

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Hi George,

thanks for this - it is many decades since I was last there. The picture you paint is one I remember very well - I was, perhaps hoping for some changes. I remember then only leaving the hotel once and being continual pestered by salesmen (key phrases at that time were " real Woolworths bargain" and "Georgie Best", and bartering for sex!! (Might be grateful now:rofl:) and I am sure OH would appreciate a camel for the dung for the garden). The hotel did not help has it was full of 18:30's club members! (now I seem to end up with the Saga ones.:D.)

Will def. think this one through and if we go, will report back with experiences you have given me a good insight - many thanks for sharing this.


regards

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

.......I feel that it isnt Islam thats the problem, its rather like Christianity isnt - its some peoples interpreting their religion to control people that causes problems......................Neither Mohamed nor Christ set the rules that have been the source of control, murder, torture etc..........not just now but over the centuries

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

[QUOTE=CLR;7878932]Hi George,

thanks for this - it is many decades since I was last there. (now I seem to end up with the Saga ones.:D.)


................hmmmmmmmmmm, I heard a lot of bad stuff about these "Saga Louts";)

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

[QUOTE=Jaques2go;7878946]When we went to Calpe last year and inadvertently stayed in a Saga Hotel, it took ages to get a drink at the bar - they were trying to give somebody Oxygen.:eek:

Each evening they had resident bands - rattling out Delilha.

I apologies in advance if I have upset anybody - and I am sure I will be there myself oneday ;)

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Hoy:ohmy: you watch your cheek:rofl:

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[QUOTE=CLR;7879076]I can't wait


have you seen the discounts they get:rofl:

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

[QUOTE=lynnxa;7879151]On Oxygen?:rofl:

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

The facts are that a very large percentage of muslims ,particulary the younger generations are anti western world , I was in a hotel lounge when the twin towers was shown on tv, a group of young muslims cheered and clapped as the plane flew into the towers, this feeling is not uncommon ,Ive also seen groups of young muslim men protesting against the British goverment /Briatain at soldiers funerals ,had it been 1939-45 they would have been interned/jailed for treason, ironcicaly they were all "British citizens",some of whom go to Afganistan and fight for the taliban/al qaeda!!! what a bloody mess!!
I cant accept that islam is not the problem when the actions are in the name of islam/ala, islam is not compatible with the western world.
Like I said before ,thank your limp wristed PC politicians.

Rgds

Rotor

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

I get the point but detect a lack of empathy

It could be argued that the UK and US are not compatible with the rest of the world. They are the world's bullies and start illegal wars so they can get their dirty hands on oil (or whatever other reason they have).

If I was of Afghanistani or Iraqi origins and having heard and experienced their tragic past - a lot of it cuased by the interference of Russia, the UK and the US. I would probably have cheared at the twin towers falling. I bet they thought "it's about time they know how it feels to have their cities bombed by foreign invaders"

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

I thoght this was about a trip to morroco not world politics:lol:
confused:Can talk about it for ever wont get sorted

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

I have been bollocked and had my posts removed many times for less. ;-))

Re: Day Trip to Morocco
 

Point taken but bare in mind Morocco has the biggest concentration of al qaeda members in the world:thumbdown: