What is the easiest way to travel between western Europe and Morocco without using plane?

Upvote:9

You can take a ferry from Algeciras in Spain, to Morocco.

There are routes to Tangier, and to Tangier Med (located about 40 km east of Tangier), which is a shorter route.

The crossing to Tangier takes about 2 hours, and sailing times, although published, are erratic. You can forget about high speed travel for this section of the journey.

I don't know anything about the crossing to Tangier Med although it is easy to find online.

However, I believe there is a hydrofoil service from Tarifa in Spain to Tangier, see here too.

Tangier has rail connections to Marrakesh (for example an overnight sleeper train) and to other cities in Morocco, for example Fes.

Because of the erratic sailing times from Algeciras I would allow a full day for this section of the journey - the ferry I was on departed 3 hours late. It would be foolish to book a train out of Tangier in the hope of making the connection. A more reliable plan would be to stay at least one night in Tangier, before travelling on. You might want to explore Tangier too.

Upvote:11

The Man in Seat 61 has a page that discusses how to get from London to Morocco by train and ferry. Eurostar from London to Paris, TGV from Paris to Barcelona, overnight in Barcelona, AVE and Spanish regional rail for Barcelona to Algeciras, free bus to the ferry terminal, ferry to Tangier Med Port, train/bus/taxi to the center of Tangier (or the FRS ferry directly to Tangier). From Tangier, there are further rail connections to other points in Morocco. If you're not starting in London, substitute the appropriate rail connections to get to Paris or Barcelona and pick up the route from there. There are also other ferry options, such as periodic cruise ferries from Barcelona and France, which the linked page describes.

"Feasible" is a relative term though. It's absolutely possible, but not particularly efficient. A flight takes a couple hours, plus time at the airport on each end, while the train/ferry journey requires about two-three days depending on your starting and ending points. This is due to the combination of the journey times and schedules for connections. Paris to Barcelona alone is over six hours, and that's only one segment of the trip. It still sounds like a fun trip though, if you can spare the time.

Why does it take so long? Paris to Algeciras alone is more than 1,500km as the crow flies—rome2rio thinks it would take 18 hours to drive without stops. High speed rail saves you some time over a car, but you give up much of that time in the connections—some of these trains only run a few times a day.

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