Table of Contents
Flights taken: Madrid to Tangier
Advanced Planning: A few weeks
Train trips: Tangier to Casablanca Roundtrip
Our trip to Morocco was probably one of our most unique and different trips thus far. At the time of this trip, we had been living in Madrid for about three months, which means it was our first trip from Madrid, while actually also living in Madrid. This made things much simpler for us. No longer did we need to take a long train ride or long taxi ride to the airport. We were living a short 30 minute metro ride from MAD, which was incredibly convenient.
This trip was also unique because we were going to a new continent, and it was in celebration of two birthdays, most importantly, our youngest was turning three years old. Because this trip was very important to me, we actually did a half-day paid tour, which as I have written about before- we do not typically do paid tours when we travel! However, we made an exception for this trip, because I wanted my son’s birthday to be perfect, and it was going to be difficult for me to plan it without any hiccups in the day….as there are always hiccups when we travel.
A few weeks in advance I started researching local tours in Tangier, Morocco, and happened upon this place called Camel Adventures. After a few emails, we were decided on their half day tour. You can find more information about them here on Trip Advisor.
Day 1 (Thursday):
The day before our son’s birthday, we boarded a plane in Madrid and headed south to Morocco. One of the cool things about this trip was that was got to fly over the Straight of Gibraltar, and see two continents and two bodies of water at once. Europe + Africa & the Mediteranean Sea + the Atlantic Ocean. Below is a picture of the western tip of Morocco, looking north to Europe (Spain in this case), over the Straight of Gibraltar.
Shortly there after, we were in a taxi and headed to our hotel. There was a taxi line at the airport, and I had done research in advance to know to only deal with the taxi’s in the official line and we knew how much money it should cost, so we had about that much in cash to get us to the hotel.
On our trip, we saw some new sights. Here is the Commandement régional des Forces Auxilliaires.
The Tangier Ville Train Station, which we would use on another day to go on a day trip to Casablanca.
Our first sights of the beautiful Tangier Beach.
On our tour the next day, we would explore that area to the west where you can see the hill of houses at.
A football field on the beach was interesting and different to see.
More football on a sandy playing field in the background of this photo:
It was a hot day, so after visiting the beach, we went straight for ice cream to a place I had marked as a must do, according to other websites.
Day 2 (Friday):
Friday was our son’s actual 3rd birthday, so we started it off with a fun breakfast at a recommended restaurant called Café Kandinsky. We ended up eating here a few times. It was close to our hotel, it was open when we needed it, and we liked the food. They had a few things we wanted to try, and they had good service.
The first thing they brought us was a soup, which of course was unusual to receive at breakfast, but you have to embrace the cultural differences.
Then we were served something we would come to love, Moroccan Mint Tea. There is really nothing like it!!
A massive birthday breakfast of waffles with bananas.
& some nice warm mint tea.
& some cheese cake, because I did not know how we were going to work out a birthday cake for that day (but believe me, in the end, it worked out much better than we could have ever imagined!!
After breakfast, we met our tour guides in the hotel lobby, and began our excited and fun-filled third birthday festivities!
Our first stop was to Cap Spartel.
and then we drove to the place where we were going to ride camels on the beach!
Taking a camel ride on the beach was something I really wanted to do, since it was also my birthday celebration, mom counts too, right? haha
It was quite the experience for the kids as well!
The camel rides, the Moroccan mint tea, and the surprise at the end, were the top three highlights of this trip for me, and they all happened on the same day.
Next, we went to Hercules Cave!
Everywhere we went, the guides had lots of stories to tell us about the local area, who lived where, etc.
They took us to a local area near the port.
Where we stopped to rest and have a coffee and also to do a little window shopping.
Eventually we had the biggest surprise ever, which happened when our tour guide took us to eat at a typical restaurant and then brought us up stairs. The area was full of people. We had no idea what was going on. Well, as soon as we got there, the people in the room, who were other tourist, started singing happy birthday to our son! They sang first in English and Spanish, and then the musician did a whole performance in Arabic.
Day 3 (Saturday):
We love to capitalize on our trips, which means we almost always schedule in a day trip at some point. Going to and coming back from one extra city is always such a great experience and worth the time and energy to make it happen. We spend the night in the same hotel, so it’s not like we have to pack or anything.
For our trip to Morocco, we went to Casablanca for a day trip. This was exciting because we were riding the first fast train ever built in Morocco.
Here is a picture of a tram in Casablanca, Morocco, which really contrasted with the whitewashed buildings.
Once we were off the train, we just walked around to see what their was to see. This is a bookstand set up outside. We did not really have a plan of what to do, and found that a lot of things were not open upon our arrival. This may have been because it was a Saturday. Fortunately, a man heard us speaking english and came to give us some guidance of spots to check out. He was American, but had lived in Morocco for many years.
We eventually made our way to a well rated restaurant on google, called La Sqala.
We enjoy checking out grocery stores in each country or city that we visit. Here we found a huge container or honey, among other finds.
We also went to a cafe, where there was live music and ice cream, called Mood’s.
Day 4 (Sunday):
Day 4 was a travel day. Once again, we took a taxi from the area of our hotel to the airport.
We left from Tangier Morocco and arrived back at Madrid Airport. It was an easy metro ride back home from the airport to Chamartin.
Review & Recap:
We took this trip over a school holiday. It was a fun and quick trip, but we would have liked to have more time to see more cities in Morocco. We think it’s a must do, if you are traveling to Spain– you should definitely take the time to have the experience of seeing one more country on a new continent and with a new culture. Tangier has a lot of european influence, and many people speak spanish or english, so it’s a good place to visit..either by ferry for a day or plane for an over night or more.
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