Next up: Tangier

Tangier, a major port city in northwestern Morocco and situated at the western entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean was our second stop. The city is the second largest in Morocco and serves as a gateway between Africa and Europe. We took a high speed train from Rabat that took around 1.5 hours and at times reached speeds upwards of 160 km/hour. When we arrived at the train station, the madness of finding a taxi driver without getting ripped off began. Z's research suggested a certain price for the taxi ride to our hotel, but all drivers were quoting something much higher. We eventually found a driver that was more reasonable and as we were confirming he was a legit driver, another driver started yelling saying he wasn't and this led to a long yelling match between these two while we were trying to cess out the situation and determine what we should do. We did end up going with this more reasonable driver partially because he had his young son with him and when we got to his car saw it was indeed a Petit Taxi. It was a bit nerve raking to say the least because the driver was quite infuriated and kept on the topic throughout a good part of our drive. Once we also understood the complication of driving from the train station through the narrowing streets and alleys up the steep hillside to the Kasbah, we had a better understanding of why we were being told a difference price than we had thought it should be. Eventually the driver calmed down we arrived safely at a nearby courtyard and Kasbah gate entrance a short walk from our hotel. 

Here we decided to stay in a riad, a traditional Moroccan home built around an open-air central courtyard that has been converted into a boutique hotel or bed and breakfast. We chose Sabas House in the heart of the Kasbah - a six room art deco boutique riad, each with a unique theme inspired by famous personalities throughout history that have a connection to Morocco. We choose to stay in the Mick Jagger room, which featured iconic Rolling Stones decor including a wall painted with the sheet music to Satisfaction. The story goes that Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones really enjoyed Morocco and specifically Tangier, performing many concerts and also recording two albums there. The central courtyard was turned into the reception, lounge and bar area of the hotel while the outdoor rooftop terrace served not only as our daily breakfast restaurant but also offered up stunning views of the city, the bay and the Strait of Gibraltar. The breakfast service was top notch with a multi course meal starting with a large plate of a variety of beautifully cut fresh fruit, followed by Moroccan pancakes, followed by a basket of breads and other pastries with honey, and jams and also accompanied by a healthy portion of scrambled eggs with avocado. In addition we were also served with fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee. We really enjoyed our stay at this unique riad. 

We had two nights in Tangier which meant we had to pack in a lot during our time here. We arrived in Tangier early evening and given our riad's location, this gave us plenty of time to start exploring the Kasbah and the Medina within the historic old town wandering around the labyrinth of narrow, winding, whitewashed alleyways. The markets and souks were filled with artisan workshops, spice vendors, fresh produce shops, leather goods, gold shops, cafes, bakeries, and restaurants. We managed to orient ourselves quite well through the Kasbah which helped us later that evening as a bit of an overly "friendly" local ended up sneakily following us and tried to steer us down an alleyway before we confronted him, knowing this was a common scam. This was our only encounter over our entire time in Morocco with a shady individual. 

For some different cuisine, one evening we found a Syrian restaurant and decided to give it a try for supper. The familiarity of the foods was comforting... falafel, tabbouleh, and chicken kebab. 

We opted to do a half day tour through Get Your Guide (we've had a few good tour experiences through this company now) which included a morning walking tour through Tangier's Kasbah, Medina and into the Grand Socco. Our guide, Yousef, was not only a tour guide filled with local and Moroccan knowledge and history, but he was also a writer. As we wandered through some of the more local and colourful streets Yousef enlightened us with local stories about life and culture in Tangier, the many different Moroccan writers, other international writers and other artists who spent time there. The second part of this tour took us on a road trip through the greater city of Tangier, up and through the posh neighbourhood where the King maintains a compound as do several other international dignitaries and Sultans. You could see into these massive compounds, but you could vividly imagine the importance of the residents by the number of guards and guard stations that lined the exterior walls. Our first stop on the driving portion of the tour was a gorgeous viewpoint that gave us a panoramic view the forested cliffside with the ocean in the distance. From there we drove on to Cape Spartel lighthouse which is located about 14km from Tangier. This lighthouse was built in 1864 by the Sultan Muhammad IV and marks the northwesternmost point of mainland Africa. The lighthouse rises about 315 metres above sea level and remains an active marine beacon guiding ships through the Strait of Gibraltar. Roaming along the pathway to the lighthouse and the surrounding forested cliffs, you encounter a colony of wild boar... a seemingly odd sight, yet these boar have become accustomed to tourists and locals. This colony of boar is  a native North African boar and according to our friendly and informative driver, when the colony gets too large, they call the Spanish to help with the problem. From here we then stopped at the point where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea. And course this spot has to be marked with a sign so all the tourists can lined up for their unique picture! It was a lovely spot with magnificent views of the ocean and the sea. 

The last stop on this tour was Hercules Cave. The name itself would lead one to believe this would be an incredible and worthwhile visit. After paying 80 Durham to get it and thankfully not waiting too long in the line up to get in, they control the number of people entering the cave so I could only imagine what that would be like in peak tourist season, we found the cave to be very underwhelming. The cave is an archaeological cave complex that has two openings, one to the sea and one to the land. The sea opening, providing a view of the Atlantic Ocean, is known as the "Map of Africa" due to its resemblance of the continent. Mythological tradition holds that the Greek god Hercales stayed and slept in this cave before doing his 11th labour. An actual true fun fact about the cave is that on October 23, 1995, British rock band Def Leppard played a concert in the cave (along with concerts in London and Vancouver, Canada), thereby making it the first rock group to play three concerts on three continents in a 24 hour period - a Guinness Book World Record. 

Morocco - Rabat

Our first venture onto the continent of Africa together brought us to Morocco. Why Morocco, I can't exactly remember the specific reason we chose it now, outside of it's a place we've not been giving us a new place and culture to explore and immerse ourselves in and we have enjoyed Moroccan food when we've had the opportunity to eat it elsewhere in the world. As I've mentioned plenty of times before, the only time I’m OK with getting up super early is if it involves travelling. Our flight to Morocco had us up pretty early as our journey connected through Montreal, which always adds a bit of time. Leaving the week before summer break is officially over appeared to be a popular week for travel based on how busy the airport was. Both flights were thankfully pretty uneventful. Neither of us got a good amount of sleep so when we arrived in Casablanca just after 7am (the day after we left) we were both feeling tired. We had heard that the immigration lines could take a few hours and that getting through immigration could take upwards of three hours at times. Thankfully for us we seemed to be the only plane to arrive at 7am and we breezed through immigration with little delay. I was quite impressed with how clean and modern the airport was. While waiting for our suitcase I noticed the airport workers handle each suitcase coming out to make sure they lined up nicely on the conveyor belt and one was even turning them upright on their sides to make more room. Not something you see at most airports around the world but was a nice touch. Overall we were out of the airport in no more than an hour. 

Morocco is still a predominantly cash society and so we knew that we needed to get some cash. One of the ATM providers we researched was right in the arrivals area as was Lilly Coffee so we got our cash and a quick pick me up before finding a taxi to take us to Rabat. From the airport to Rabat is about a 1.5 hours drive. So we didn’t fall for a taxi scam, we read that the best option was a Grand Taxi and to pre-negotiate the price. There wasn’t much negotiating in this case despite Z's best attempts.... the price was fixed and was slightly higher than we had read at 783 Durham but in the end for the length of the drive it was fine. 

Our first impressions of Morocco… the King is predominately displayed everywhere, there are photos of him in all the shops and the airport is named after him. Also predominately displayed everywhere are is the country's flag leading us to believe Moroccans are very proud of their country. Heading to Rabat, the capital of Morocco and where the King lives, we noticed as we got closer and into the city proper, the landscaping was manicured with precision, the roads were cleaner and shinier, and there was green space everywhere. In Rabat, the city feels relaxed, no one hassles you to buy anything as you walk through the Medinas, there are cameras everywhere which is a deterrent for crime, and we felt quite safe even when walking out at night. 

We got to the hotel Rabat Marriott by 10:30am and thankfully our room was ready so we were able to check in right away. We were greeted with Moroccan tea poured in the traditional fashion and in traditional glasses. Our check in agent was a wonderfully friendly guy who took time to converse and explain a few things about Rabat, and provide some positive thoughts on our overall Moroccan itinerary. The hotel is about four years old and still has a nice new feel to it. We had a lovely spacious room on the fourth (top) floor overlooking the pool. Driving in I noticed that there aren’t really any high rises in Rabat, mostly 4 to tops 6 stories. The hotel is next to Arribat Centre, a large shopping centre. Across the street is the AL Medina Stadium, a 18,000 capacity football stadium that opened in 2025 and is home to UTS Rabat. 

We had booked a 5pm walking tour on our first day to get oriented and get a feel for Rabat. We had the balance of the afternoon to chill out by the pool and get acclimatized to the heat. But first we needed some lunch and we decided to keep things simple and stay at the hotel which has a Spanish tapas restaurant poolside so we dined on some Lomos Saltados (actually Peruvian) and some garlic shrimp before lounging, or falling asleep like me, poolside. While the temperature was in the high 20s, it didn’t feel too hot as there was a nice constant breeze. 

While in the city, the cheapest was to get around is by a Petit Taxi and in Rabat these taxis are all blue cars so quite easy to spot them. Our walking tour meeting point was at Bab El Had, a roughly 10 minute drive so in a Petit Taxi we hopped. One of the unique things about these taxis is that they will often take two different fares if someone else is heading in the same direction; we only experienced that once when heading to the train station leaving Rabat. We also learned on that ride when the driver became a bit rude and impatient that there is a minimum fare of 7 Durham and even if there are two different paying customers, both pay the same fare price if ending at the same destination. The fare is not a shared fare.  

Our tour guide was Souf. We learned that he had a tour in the morning that day and that we were the only ones for the evening tour but he decided not to cancel even though it was just the two of us. We met Souf by the Fantaine de Place Bab El Had and started off through the main gate into the Rabat Medina. We wandered through the alleyways as Souf explained different aspects of Moroccan history, culture, and life including about the Berber people and the difference in language between them and the Moroccan people. Souf provided us with a lot of information and kept our private tour very engaging. As we walked through the Medina and market, the shop keepers were not aggressive and did not bother us trying to sell us anything. Unlike other Medinas and markets in Morocco the shops in Rabat display their price tag and Souf explained that here you do not need to barter, the locals pay the same price. The Medina is a maze of alleyways lined with countless shops selling fresh fruits, baked goods to “name brand” handbags, shoes, and clothing. While we may have been tempted to buy stuff, in the end we resisted and just enjoyed the experience. Our tour ended in the Kasbah, which is the city’s fortress overlooking the ocean. The monumental gate of the Kasbah is beautiful and considered one of the most beautiful gates in Moroccan architecture. There are about 2,000 people living within the Kasbah neighbourhood and is open and free for tourists. There are plenty of beautiful views of the city and the Atlantic Ocean from here. You can also see quite a bit of construction happening as the country prepares to welcome the world for World Cup 2030. Our tour ended at Cafe du Udayas where we enjoyed a Moroccan tea with Souf along with some super delicious cookies - the cost for three came to 80 Durham. Because the Kasbah faces the ocean, people come here to watch the magnificent Rabat sunset, and we caught a pretty great one before walking back towards the city centre for supper at Dar Naji on recommendation by Souf. We enjoyed a great meal here dining on Pastila chicken - which is a mix of savoury spiced meat, sweet caramelized onions, and crunchy nuts in a pastry dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon on top and Seffa chicken - which is vermicelli served with a sweet and savoury onion sauce and chicken pieces topped with ground almonds, icing sugar and cinnamon. Very popular throughout Morocco is fresh squeezed juices and so we had to try the orange juice as well - it didn't disappoint. This was a great first day introduction to Morocco.

We enjoyed a lot of incredible foods during this trip. Every dish we tried was full of flavour through great mixtures of different spices. A couple more of our favourites were Moroccan Harira soup - a delicious and hardy vegetable soup and Bissara aux Feves - also a delicious soup made from fava beans. The fish and seafood was a big hit with Z as well considering it was usually freshly caught. We enjoyed a lot of variations of tagine - one of the most common cooking techniques in Moroccan resulting in very flavourful stews of either chicken, lamb, or meatballs. Surprising to us was learning that Moroccan had a fairly well established wine industry. One that we really enjoyed was a red wine from the Domaines Amal winery called Amal from the Rabat/Casablanca region. It's a Tempranillo/Shiraz blend, and is light, almost translucent in colour with hint of berry and a soft smooth finish. The pastries were absolutely divine...they were aromatic often cooked or drizzled with honey or orange blossom water and other spices and were most often either almond or sesame seed based. One of us even dared to say they tasted better than French pastries.

The archaeological site Chellah is well worth a visit. We took a self guided audio tour to learn more of its history as we wandered the 7 acres of archeological remains. The site is surrounded by a 1km long Marinid wall and is home to an ancient city and a Marinid necropolis. The ruins are very well preserved and at the southeastern part of the site you find the Garden of the Towers. These gardens provide a nice reprieve from the heat. The Chellah is not only a UNESCO World Heritage Site but has also become a haven for a colony of white storks who have built their nests atop the ruins and minarets. 

Hassan Tower is a 12th century minaret of an unfinished mosque. The grounds have hundreds of unfinished stone columns stubs that the mosque was to be built on. The tower is made of a red
sandstone and stands 44 metres tall. The mosque was supposed to be the largest in the western Muslim world and was commissioned in 1195 by Sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur but ceased construction upon his death four years later. The tower sits next to the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V and is an important historical and highly visited complex in Rabat.