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| On FRS ferry, leaving Tarifa, Spain. |
Unfortunately, the condo staff had no details on how to make this trip (probably because most people just go straight home), and our Internet research attempt came up sparse. The only thing we were able to secure in advance was an 0815 bus ticket from Fuengirola (closest town to our condo) to Algeciras, Spain; however, we needed to get further than Algeciras to the town of Tarifa, and had no solid plans on how we were going to do this because the Portillo bus company that runs along the southern coast does not go to Tarifa...arrggh. We would have to find another bus company for that route.
So, this information is for any traveler in the southern coast of Spain (e.g. Málaga, Fuengirola, Marbella, Algeciras, etc.) who wants to take a bus to Tarifa, Spain, then a ferry to Tangier, Morocco.
0815: We got on a Portillo bus number 508, which originated from Málaga and destined for Cádiz. We felt pretty confident this was our bus because it listed Algeciras as one of the major stops, as well as Marbella. The cost was €10.45/pp - not bad for a 2 hour bus ride to Algeciras.
0845: We arrived at a nice bus terminal in Marbella to drop-off and pick-up more passengers.
0900: Made a stop at San Pedro.
0930: Made a stop at Estepona.
1005: Made a stop at San Roque - last stop before Algeciras.
1015: Bus stopped at a major bus terminal in Algeciras where we got off in search of our next bus that will carry us to Tarifa.
We went to the ticket window and found that the Comes bus company departs from Algeciras to Tarifa for €4.50/pp. However, it appeared that we just missed the 1015 bus (it was probably parked right next to our bus that we were getting off of...but we didn't know) and the next one wasn't for another 1.5 hours at 1145. We really wanted to make the 1 pm ferry from Tarifa so we thought the schedule would be quite tight if we waited for this 1145 bus.
We read online that there is also a local bus line #150 that runs along the same road to Tarifa so we left the bus terminal in search of #150 in hopes that we would get a head start. We walked all over Algeciras and found plenty of bus stops but none of them have any signage! Why does this happen? We finally walked into a hotel and asked if they knew how we could catch bus #150, and we were basically told that there is no bus #150, that the only bus going to Tarifa is from the Algeciras bus terminal. So, we gave up and walked back to the terminal to wait for the 1145 bus.
1155: We finally got on the bus to Tarifa, which left the terminal late. Along the way, we did end up seeing several bus stops with l#150 going in the same direction. Rats!
1230: We got off the bus at the Tarifa terminal with only 30 minutes to spare until the 1 pm ferry left. Unfortunately, we were about a 20 minute walk from the ferry dock so we started walking really, really fast. A better option would've been to get off at a bus stop before the terminal. Next time, we would ask the driver to let us off at the corner before the bus turns onto the main commercial street. This way, we would cut about half our walking time to the ferry.
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| Tarifa ferry terminal with Roman ruins in background. |
1250: We saw that the 1 pm ferry was still in the harbor, and also a very long line for ticket purchases. There was nothing we could do but to get in this line, hoping that the ferry doesn't take off. Of course there were 4 ticket agents but only one of them working the window. The other 3 were attending to the "reservation" windows...where nobody was in line. Welcome to Spain...
1315: We thought for sure we would not get on the 1pm ferry, but we got tickets (€36/pp/one way) and ran to the gate. We had to go through immigration, then made our way onto the FRS ferry. In hindsight, we saw plenty of private ticket vendors selling ferry tickets all along the streets of Tarifa. There were no lines at these places so next time, we would just buy at one of these vendors and avoid the ferry terminal ticket line.
The distance between Tarifa, Spain and Tangier, Morocco is only 14km. Therefore, it is a short 35 minute ride. We were very excited about seeing the Rock of Gibraltar and the North African coast from the ferry, but we were disappointed that it was a cloudy day and we could barely see any land.
Even if it was a sunny day, we wouldn't have had the luxury of looking across the Strait of Gibraltar because the Moroccan passport control is onboard the ferry and we had to get our passports stamped before we could get off. We literally got in this line as soon as we were on the ferry and the line snaked all the way around the main deck. Basically, we were in line the entire time the ferry was crossing the Strait, and we were STILL in line for another 20 minutes after the ferry docked in Tangier. We waited a total of an hour so that we could turn in our completed disembarkation/entry forms and get our passports stamped. Welcome to Morocco...yet another land of inefficiencies.
We finally made it off the ferry. Passengers walk off the auto lanes so we thought we would get run over several times. Nevertheless, our goal was Tangier and we made it without much of a solid plan from Spain, so we felt pretty good about ourselves!
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| FRS ferry arriving in the old port of Tangier, Morocco. Taken from balcony of friends' apartment. |
