Day 1: Tangier — The Gateway City
Medina & Kasbah at First Light
Tangier's medina is compact and navigable compared to Fes or Marrakech — a good place to practise Morocco if it's your first time. Enter from the Grand Socco (the main square linking old and new Tangier) and follow the narrow lanes uphill toward the Kasbah. The Kasbah Museum (Dar el Makhzen, MAD 20) occupies the former sultan's palace with its mosaic courtyard and artefacts from Tangier's cosmopolitan 20th century as an International Zone. Climb the Kasbah walls for the most dramatic view in Tangier — the Strait of Gibraltar stretching west, Spain a visible 14km strip across the water, and the Mediterranean merging into the Atlantic.
Cape Spartel & Hercules Caves
Taxi (MAD 60–80 each way, or MAD 150–200 for a round-trip with waiting) to Cape Spartel — the northwestern tip of Africa where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea. A small lighthouse marks the point. The Caves of Hercules, 1km south, are the most famous landmark near Tangier: sea caves carved partially by ancient Romans quarrying millstones, with an opening shaped like Africa's outline. The caves are genuinely dramatic at high tide when waves surge through. Admission MAD 15. Return via the Diplomatic Forest road with views along the Moroccan coast.
Petit Socco, Sunset & Dinner
The Petit Socco (small square in the heart of the medina) was the legendary meeting point for Beat Generation writers — William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, and Paul Bowles all spent time in Tangier. Sit at Café Central or Café Tingis for tea and watch the evening crowd. Walk the Boulevard Pasteur along the clifftop at sunset for the sweeping view of the strait. Dinner in the medina: tagine (MAD 60–80), brochettes (MAD 40–50), or pastilla (MAD 70–90). The restaurant El Morocco Club (on Rue de la Plage) does excellent Moroccan cuisine in a beautifully restored 1930s setting for MAD 150–200 per person.
