Blog Two: Tangier
[10th November 2025]
We wake up just before sunrise in Tangier, and watch the new day light up the buildings of the port and the Kasbah, from our cabin balcony.
After disembarking from the cruise boat, we make the long trek from the dockside to the terminal, during which I find 300-400 hundred Euros in notes lying on the pathway. A French passenger who has stopped to take photos claims it – lucky for him it hadn’t had time to blow away. This adds to my good deed on the ship the previous evening when I found a camera, which was duly returned to its grateful owner.
We take a while to find an ATM to get some Dhiram, for taxis etc., though Euros would probably also be accepted. The Moroccan Dhiram is a closed currency, so we couldn’t bring any with us. Before trying our luck with the local taxi drivers, Fi joins the queue for the toilets, which serve both men and women and are looked after by a troop of local women, for a small fee.
One bloke spends a lot of time in the cubicle. Fi reports that when he emerges, one of the women attendants looks into the cubicle and starts making loud protestations about the state he’s left it in. She runs after him shouting: “Thank you very much, sir! What a kind present to leave us,” before donning rubber gloves and grabbing some toilet cleaner. Welcome to Tangier!
Previous visits to Cairo, Marrakesh and Casablanca have steeled us to expect some slightly aggressive hassling when we emerge into the environs of the North African city in question. We approach the taxi marshall with a little trepidation. He seems unimpressed with our attempts to bargain for a trip to the top of the Kasbah, for our previously agreed maximum of 80D. We end up paying 100D – never mind.
Our driver is, however, just what you want in an unfamiliar city like Tangier. He drives us at great speed from the terminal along the corniche, through the Medina and up the steep hill to the famous Bab Gate into the Kasbah. Here, a uniformed guard refuses to raise the barrier to let us through.
The driver winds down the window and subjects him to a long tirade of what sounds like foul-mouthed abuse, until the guard gives up and raises the barrier. As we pass through the gate, he then also receives a loud additional rebuke that sounds distinctly unpleasant. The gate can only admit one vehicle, so the driver leans on the horn and drives straight through, causing a couple of drivers who fancied passing through in the opposite direction to back up rapidly. He then tries to offer Fiona a red purse, which another female customer has presumably left in his cab. We leave him looking a bit distraught that he can’t find the owner.
We start at the highest point of the Kasbah and work our way down. Roads are very steep and multiple staircases have to be negotiated. It fairly rapidly becomes apparent that Tangier is much more laid back and hassle-free than other Moroccan cities. A few people politely entreat us to look inside their shops, but only wish us a good day if we decline.
Only when we are lost in the myriad narrow streets of the Kasbah does a “guide” appear who tries to lead us to various points of interest rather than where we want to go. At one point we give him the slip, but he magically finds us again, and we have to pay him a few Dhiram to terminate the tour.
The thought occurs that perhaps the city’s history since it became an International Zone in 1923, managed by a number of colonial powers, lasting till this status was phased out in the late 1950s with Moroccan independence, has influenced its apparent comfort with foreigners. During that period, Tangier was a destination for many European and American diplomats, spies, businessmen, writers and bohemians, resulting in a fascinating melting pot of cultures and individuals with a relaxed attitude to lifestyle and conventional mores.
Highlights of our day in Tangier include a visit to the Kasbah Museum, housed in an ancient, somewhat down-at-heel palace, which features a wonderfully peaceful Andalucian Garden (until the organised tours from the MSC Fantasia arrive, just as we are leaving) and some of the best Moroccan food we’ve ever tasted in a rooftop restaurant from which we can see our ship, happily still moored up where it should be. Our friendly waiter claims to be a Rangers fan and can’t understand why we aren’t. I try to explain, and he does seem to have heard of Hibs: “Your team usually finishes 3rd or 4th don’t they?”
All in all, a day of pleasant surprises in a city which is well worth a visit and, indeed, would probably make a good introduction to Morocco, to help prepare for the more frenetic Marrakesh and Casablanca.
My dozen favourite images from our day in Tangier are included in the gallery below. Click on a thumbnail to see a bigger image. If you’re using a mobile phone, turn your screen sideways to see the bigger image to best effect.
Image Gallery
