Is Tangier worth a visit?
Sep 2nd, 1997, 05:57 PM
#1
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Is Tangier worth a visit?
I'm taking my family to Mijas area for 12 days in late September. I am renting a car and plan trips to Grenada, Seville, Ronda, & eastern Costa del sol. Should I also include a ferry ride over to Tangier while visiting Gibralta? Would this be educational for my 12 and 14 year old or should I concentrate on Andalusia.
Sep 3rd, 1997, 08:25 AM
#2
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I was in Tangiers some years ago and found it unbelievably fascinating. We took the ferry across, past Gibralter. I have a couple of comments about Tangiers: first, I found that Tangiers had more tourists than the other cities in Morocco (we continued on to Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakesh), but it definitely was not "touristy". It was the first place, at that time, where the language was totally unrecognizable to me. I found that to require some gestures etc to communicate. However, more merchants there speak some English than in the rest of Morocco. We sampled green tea from the vendors (I don't know that this is recommended, but we didn't suffer any malaise!) I will caution you that at that time, hashish was sold on the streets, and when we returned on the ferry with our rental car, our car as well as 99 percent of all others were strip searched. Since Tangiers holds a culture, with the bazaars and form of dress and speech, that is unlike Europe, I would certainly recommend visiting. I would be careful, with money and possessions, including watching my children carefully. But, I did not find it dangerous, rather I found it captivating. We even saw guys with those flute-things (why cant I remember the correct name??) enticing cobras from baskets. I don't know if Tangiers has changed in the years since I've visited, but I would think that a travel agent in Spain would be able to give you the skinny on it. Have fun!
