Need helping plan a northern Morocco add-on to an existing Spain itinerary
 

My husband and I are going on a group trip to Spain in May. We'd like to visit Tetuan, Morocco where my father was raised. We can probably add several extra days either before or after. The Spain trip begins in Granada and ends in Madrid. Would like advice on where else to go in Morocco if we have only a few days and what the best way to travel between the 2 countries is. It probably makes sense to start in Morocco and meet up with the group in Granada. Any advice is appreciated!

First of all, are your flights included in your group tour of Spain ? And, where will you be flying from and to - USA or Europe ? If included, can you vary the dates of the flights ? And, if included, into which city will you be flying ? Yes, it probably would be better to go to Tetuan before your Spanish segment in that it winds up in Madrid, and you won't want to backtrack south after that. More after you answer these questions.

Tetouan - Granada:
bus or louage to Fnidek/Castillejo (very frequent)
Ceuta city bus or taxi from there to the harbour
catamaran from Ceuta to Algeciras (every 2 hrs or so)
direct train from Algeciras to Granada (3 trains daily) or bus via Malaga (bus change; every few hrs).

Other places worth a visit in Northern Morocco:
Meknes, Fes. From both you can continue by train to Nador and by ferry to Almeria or Malaga from where Granada can be reached by train or bus.

Best would be to fly into Tangier. Visit Tangier, Asilah, perhaps Larache, and Tetouan. From Tetouan go to Ceuta or to the new port of Tanger Med to take a ferry to Algeciras. From Algeciras take the train to Granada. Morocco is a terrific place to visit, but with your limited amount of days visiting those few places will give you a nice taste of the county and probably plans for a further trip there !

Definitely do Morocco first.

Thanks so much everybody. Our flights are not included in the trip costs so we have flexibility. We will be flying from US.

Skip Tangier and fly to Casablanca. Tangier is better for someone who's been to the kingdom before and understands The port city.

Nonsense, Robert. The most economical way to do the OP's trip is to get a R/T ticket to Madrid and a one way from Madrid to Tangier. Do the very short Moroccan portion of the trip, take the ferry to Algeciras, and then the train to Granada. Tangier is a very lovely city in spite of the packs of daytrippers from Spain one finds there.

Can we do all this without any sort of tour guide? I just got a fare for under $1000 to fly into Tangier and back out of Madrid. I'm thinking that's a good fare?

Yes, that's a good fare ! On which airline(s) ? We're going a month later, but there still might be good fares. I should think you could do without a guide, but perhaps you'd feel more comfortable with one. Do you speak Spanish ? Remember that part of the country belonged to Spain, and a great many people there still speak the language. In addition, many, many people speak English. I would go to the library and get some guidebooks on Morocco. The Rough Guide is good. On the Morocco board is a fellow who seems quite genial who guides. Name is Darren Humphreys, I believe. He just posted with the title The Absent Fodorite. Think his address is in his profile. You'll have a great time in both Morocco and Spain.

No, you want French in Morocco if you don't speak Arabic.

Agree, you'll want French if you don't have Arabic. And while Tangiers has its own appeal, I think of it as an entirely different country from Morocco. The real Morocco is on the mainland, and preferably Marrakesh, Fes, Rabat, Agadir, Essouira, the mountains...not Casablanca.

Oh dear, such "experts". You girls should read some history or at least google Spanish Morocco. StCirq, Tangier is on the mainland tho' it was somewhat apart having been designated an international city in the past. Of course, French is useful, BUT this part of Morocco, and Tetouan, was Spanish speaking. The OP is only going to northern Morocco, not Fes, Marrakech, etc., to explore familial roots. Don't you girls read what OPs post ? Tsk, tsk.

I checked before posting. The OP has not said that they will only visit the north. And gratuitous rudeness is unnecessary - boy.

From wiki: "About 5 million Moroccans speak Spanish. Spanish is spoken by some Moroccans, especially in the northern regions. Spanish is mostly spoken in northern Morocco and the Spanish Sahara because Spain had previously occupied those areas....

After Morocco declared independence in 1956, French and Arabic became the main languages of administration and education, causing the role of Spanish to decline"

And: "French serves as a lingua franca. Aleya Rouchdy, author of Language Contact and Language Conflict in Arabic, said that "For all practical purposes, French is used as a second language."

My experience is that older Moroccans who speak a language other than Arabic speak Spanish or French, depending on the part of the country, as a second language, but younger Moroccans learn English.

Exactly, Perdu.

Thursdaysd - The OP stated right in her first post that they were going to Tetuan and might be interested in seeing some other nearby spots since they'll only have a few days.
When I said "girls", that was meant to be flattering. Don't think you'd like to be called old women. I'm an old woman and, tho' a feminist, love to be called a girl.
BTW, beyond Arabic, French, and Spanish, three dialects of Beber are spoken by Moroccans. When I was at the U. Med V in Rabat where I was preparing grad. students to study in the U.S., I was truly amazed by the languages the students spoke with varying degrees of fluency. One day I used Russian in class, and there was a Russian speaker. Roumanian, too, since there were exchange teachers in the lycees.

"When I said "girls", that was meant to be flattering."

Rubbish. Perhaps you are not a native English speaker. "Girls", at least these days, is a put down. The proper form would be "women", assuming sex happened to be relevant, which it was not. My age is none of your business unless I choose to make it so.

As an American English native speaker, I think "girls" can have an affectionate ring to it, not necessarily flattering, but not necessarily denigrating either. But I'm just probably beyond worrying about it.

I'm beyond worrying about it too, but it was certainly not meant to be flattering. That was abundantly clear.