I had never been to Morocco. I had never even been to Africa. And with sunshine required following yet another long, cloudy winter in London, and cheap flights to Tangier at the end of March, I set off for my first trip of 2026.
Why Tangier? Well it wasn’t on my list of places to visit, but very much Morocco was. Chefchaouen was on my wishlist of places to visit, and a day trip was viable from Tangier so that was one reason.
Flights were cheap. 4 star hotels (the perils of being used to living a nice flat) were affordable. It’s next to the sea.
Alas I’d not booked the best time for travel, for it was Eid. Which meant the museums were closed, my guide which I’d booked for the first day didn’t turn up, and a lot of the restaurants I’d researched were closed.
Clearly I hadn’t quite done my research well enough.
Doing Not Much in Tangier
Worth knowing before you visit: Tangier is a genuinely ancient city — over 2,500 years old, apparently founded by Carthaginian settlers in the fifth century BC (check out my Wikipedia usage), and the city’s name derives from a Berber god, Tinjis.
It’s been passed between the Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Portuguese, Spanish, and British – it actually fell under English rule in 1662, gifted to King Charles II as part of the dowry when he married Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza, before eventually being handed back to Morocco. The city feels surprisingly cosmopolitan – perhaps because in 1923 it became an international zone and a destination for European and American diplomats, spies, bohemians, and writers (again thanks Wikipedia).
Oh, and tangerines are named after Tangier (I thought I was making this up but it is true) – the city was a major export point for the fruit to Europe in the 19th century.
So in terms of what I did in Tangier – not a lot. I wandered around and appreciated the vibe, the medina was really easy to get lost in, there was a coastal path with some nice views (photographed above) that I walked along for a bit.
And then I chilled out in the sunshine, read my book, and drank fruit juice.
Interestingly the city was really rather quiet during the day, but come early evening it was so, so busy – it felt like everyone in the city came out to either stroll around the pavements, or to enjoy the traffic jams that formed.
Was it an Eid thing that everyone came out at 6pm? Or perhaps it’s the done thing in Morocco because of the heat of the day (at least in summer)? No idea. What I also found interesting is that people seemed just to be walking, often with family members/friends – yet what few restaurants were open didn’t have many people in.
As I mentioned earlier in my trying to say something useful about a place section, Tangier does have quite a cosmopolitan vibe to it – there was a mixture of historical buildings and modern buildings – the city felt like there was healthy economic growth, with a large amount of new build flat blocks on the edges of a fairly sprawling city, not to mention a port, airport and high speed rail line.
Eating And Drinking in Tangier
So, alcohol isn’t widely available in Tangier – mostly in the hotel bars, and my hotel, Marina Bay Hotel (definitely recommend) had a tapas bar – and sold Leffe, which sufficed. Plus some reasonably nice wine.
There was a dingy place I found called “London’s Pub” – but it was smoky inside, so I didn’t bother.
The only place I ate out at was Al Maimouni – a tip from a fellow traveller on the day trip to Chefchaouen who had also had trouble discovering restaurants, but this place was open in the medina.
The lemon chicken tagine had a good level of flavour – I loved the fluffy bread that I got in Morocco, plus the tea…well I’m not normally a tea drinker and after a long day trip to Chefchaouen I was ready for a beer back at the hotel bar…but instead I had to be polite and drank the unexpected and free tea that was served.
Apparently Tangier is considered the original home of Moroccan mint tea. Who knew?
Day Trip to Chefchaoeuueounaoen
No, I still cannot spell Chefchaouen without looking.
So the best day of this part of the holiday (it was a 3 part holiday…why make life easy?) was the excursion to Chefchaouen, which I booked via Get Your Guide.
We drove over the Rif Mountains which allowed for some stunning scenes – and also the chance to glimpse a more traditonal Berber lifestyle.
Chefchaouen itself is at the base of two mountain peaks, so it has a stunning view, even without being painted blue.
It is very much set up for tourism – we had a guided tour who explained the history of the town, why it’s painted blue, etc which was really interesting, and took us to all the most Instagrammably blue spots as we toured around the medina.
Why blue? The most widely believed explanation for the blue paint is that it was introduced by Jewish refugees who arrived in the 1930s, their choice of hue coming from the Jewish tradition of weaving blue thread into prayer shawls as a reminder of the sky, the heavens, and God. Nobody’s entirely sure though – there are also theories about mosquito repulsion, keeping houses cool, something about making sure the town stood out against the snow-topped mountains in winter (cannot quite remember the exact explantion) and something about representing the local waterfall.
It really is that wonderfully blue, and is such a pleasure to be around. Even I came fully blue. Yes, thong and socks too.
Once the guided tour was finished, there was time for a spot of lunch at Green Space – I just picked somewhere random on the main square, and they showed me into their garden…like…wow.
Croydon it wasn’t.
Yet another orange juice was supped (oh for a beer in the sunshine, with apologies to any Moroccan’s stumbling on this wondering why I fancied a beer) and also a pastilla, if I recall correctly. Was flavoured almond with really delicate pastry.
I had just picked something I hadn’t had before. Was really nice. Oh and I had some little almond/pistachio cakes that someone was selling who’s wife had apparently made them.
I definitely overdosed on both orange juice and almond-flavoured food/cakes in Morocco.
I was suitably impressed with both Tangier and Chefchaouen (still cannot remember how to spell it).
I feel like Morocco is the perfect country if you want to dip your toe into visiting Islamic countries – I’ve been to Bosnia and Albania which are both Muslim-majority countries, though Morocco definitely felt more Islamic than either of those countries did.
Tangier and Chefchaouen felt completely safe – I didn’t feel wary about using my mobile in public, nobody was harassing me in the street, there was no pressure to buy anything (I’ve read this can be a thing in Fez or Marrakesh…I will go one time to find out!) – everyone I met seemed really nice. Most people in the world are nice though.
And then it was off to catch the high speed train to Rabat. Yes, some of the trains in Morocco go faster than any train in the UK. Hmmm.