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AhPek Biker - Riding Adventures
Morocco 2025 Day 3: Tangier to Chefchaouan
Morocco 2024 Day 3: 17th April (Thursday)
Small Group (Non-cycling) Tour of Morocco.
Day 3 - Tangier to Chefchaouen:
Day 3 - Tangier to Chefchaouen:
Tangier (Kasba Blanca Riad)>Bab Kasbah Tangier>Place Faro>Tetouan Dam Viewpoint>Chefchaouen (Vancii Hotel)>walk>Kasbah Chefchaouen>Place Outa El Hamam>Place El Haouta>Vancii Hotel.
This is page 3 of a 13-page blog. Click Here To Go To Title Page.
< D2: Tangier | Go to Other Days | D4: Fez >
Route recommendations, here are some tips on travelling to and around Morocco:
1. Traffic Directions!
Driving in Morocco is left-hand drive, and driving is on the right-hand side of the road. Do look to the correct side when crossing roads.
Speed limits are between 60 km/h within urban areas, 100 km/h outside urban areas, including expressways, and 120 km/h on highways. Do adhere to these limits, as often police are monitoring with radars; our driver-guide was careful about this.
Speed limits are between 60 km/h within urban areas, 100 km/h outside urban areas, including expressways, and 120 km/h on highways. Do adhere to these limits, as often police are monitoring with radars; our driver-guide was careful about this.
2. Immigration & Customs Requirements
For Morocco, citizens of Malaysia do not need a visa to enter for travel purposes and can stay in the country for 90 days without a visa. Click here for visa requirements for other countries.
3. Getting to and around Morocco.
Morocco is easily accessible by air as most major airlines serve Morocco and have flights to major cities such as Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech. We flew return via Emirates to Casablanca with transit in Dubai at a fare of MYR4,430 per pax. Do note that Emirates now charges for seat selection.
For ground arrangements, we booked a 13-day guided tour through Tenere Tours at €1,350 per pax. This included stays at comfortable hotels and riads, and a night at a caravanserai luxury camp in the desert. Breakfast was included, and also dinners at the Dades Valley Hotel, Merzoga Riad and Desert Caravanserai Luxury Camp.
The guided tour included a 9-seater van with a driver-guide to take the six of us to/from the airports, and from city to city. And also the camel ride to the desert camp. We paid extra for walking tours at the Fez Medina and Marrakech Medina at €85/group/city.
For ground arrangements, we booked a 13-day guided tour through Tenere Tours at €1,350 per pax. This included stays at comfortable hotels and riads, and a night at a caravanserai luxury camp in the desert. Breakfast was included, and also dinners at the Dades Valley Hotel, Merzoga Riad and Desert Caravanserai Luxury Camp.
The guided tour included a 9-seater van with a driver-guide to take the six of us to/from the airports, and from city to city. And also the camel ride to the desert camp. We paid extra for walking tours at the Fez Medina and Marrakech Medina at €85/group/city.
For out-of-pocket spending, we exchanged Euros to Moroccan dirhams (MAD) at local money-changers in Rabat and Rissani. As a contingency, we brought along our Wise debit cards, do note that this may not be acceptable at many places.
4. Places & Things of Interest
En route were several places of interest, some of which we visited and others we did not for lack of time (Note: click on GPS coordinates for a directional map to respective places):
a. Tangier Medina (GPS: 35.78510, -5.80928) in Tangier.
a. Tangier Medina (GPS: 35.78510, -5.80928) in Tangier.
c. Bab Kasbah Tangier (GPS: 35.78859, -5.81494) in Tangier.
d. Roman Catholic Cathedral of Tangier (GPS: 35.78160, -5.81783).
e. Place Faro (GPS: 35.78096, -5.81179) in Tangier.
f. Tetouan Dam Viewpoint (GPS: 35.47919, -5.40859) of the Lake Martil Valley (GPS: 35.47800, -5.43192).|
In Chefchaouen (GPS: 35.16879, -5.26836):
g. The blue houses of Chefchaouen Blue Town (GPS: 35.16943, -5.26642) and at the Sabanin Neighbourhood (GPS: 35.16887, -5.25816).
d. Roman Catholic Cathedral of Tangier (GPS: 35.78160, -5.81783).
e. Place Faro (GPS: 35.78096, -5.81179) in Tangier.
f. Tetouan Dam Viewpoint (GPS: 35.47919, -5.40859) of the Lake Martil Valley (GPS: 35.47800, -5.43192).|
In Chefchaouen (GPS: 35.16879, -5.26836):
g. The blue houses of Chefchaouen Blue Town (GPS: 35.16943, -5.26642) and at the Sabanin Neighbourhood (GPS: 35.16887, -5.25816).
h. Kasbah Chefchaouen (GPS: 35.16852, -5.26199).
i. Grand Mosque of Chefchaouen (GPS: 35.16853, -5.26235).
j. Place Outa El Hamam (GPS: 35.16889, -5.26199) the town's main commercial square.
i. Grand Mosque of Chefchaouen (GPS: 35.16853, -5.26235).
j. Place Outa El Hamam (GPS: 35.16889, -5.26199) the town's main commercial square.
k. Place El Haouta (GPS: 35.16901, -5.26366), a picturesque square with its unique architecture & charming ambience.
l. Chefchaouen Medina (GPS: 35.16944, -5.26000).
m. Bouzafer Spanish Mosque (GPS: 35.16561, -5.25558).
l. Chefchaouen Medina (GPS: 35.16944, -5.26000).
m. Bouzafer Spanish Mosque (GPS: 35.16561, -5.25558).
5. Food
a. Breakfast
Inclusive hotel Western & Moroccan breakfast at Kasba Blanca (GPS: 35.78797, -5.81401), our riad in Tangier.
b. Lunch
b. Lunch
Lettuce with oyster sauce, Stir-fried long bean with minced pork, Egg fried rice, Flavoured shredded chicken, Tomato & egg drop soup, and Chrysanthemum tea at Mr Bin Chinese Restaurant (GPS: 35.16730, -5.26200) in Chefchaouen.
c. Dinner
c. Dinner
Tuna Panini, Chicken Shrawarma, Pizza Margherita, Mushroom Omelet, Avocado Juice at Restaurant Hamsa (GPS: 35.16878, -5.26264) located at the Place Outa El Hamam.
6. Accommodations
7. Dressing
I brought two long pants along and four shorts. In the end, I didn't wear the shorts as the weather can get quite cold in the morning and evenings, especially with stronger winds at the seaside.
When entering mosques, men can wear shorts, but ladies have to cover up their legs and heads. Scarves and long pants are recommended; if wearing shorts, bring a sarong or something to cover one's legs.
8. Communicating with Each Other
When travelling in a group, it's important to be able to communicate with each other, especially if one gets lost from the rest.
Upon arrival at Casablanca Airport, booths selling pre-paid sim cards can be found just before exiting the luggage reclaim area. There were booths selling Maroc, Orange, and Inwi pre-paid tourist phone sim cards. We opted for the Maroc sim card as it provides better coverage even in remote areas, which I found to be true, and it only had poor or no signal at remote stretches far in the hills or desert. We got the 15 Gb card, which is valid for one month for 100 MAD. Should this be inadequate, memory can be topped up at any phone shop.
9. Communicating with Locals
At favourite tourist destinations, markets and medinas, many locals speak fairly good English, some French and Spanish. At the smaller towns, locals speak some rudimentary English, and our local guide was most helpful in translating for us.
10. Weather
Average day temperatures in Tangier were 20°C, while the average day and night temperatures at Chefchaouen were 20°C and 5°C, partly cloudy with no rain.
Useful weather forecast sites for Tangier & Chefchaouen are AccuWeather. For more detailed weather, including cloud cover and wind speed, use Weatherspark and Ventusky.
11. Navigation
I used MapMyRide to track our routes and stops. Geo-tagging of places of interest was via FaceBook or Google Maps.
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PRELUDE
A day earlier, from Rabat we had driven to Tangier and en route had stopped over at Asilah. We found Asilah to be a quaint and interesting seaside town, one that many missed when in Morocco.
Today, we head for one of the most interesting places, another place that should not be missed when in Morocco, a town so blue as it's full of blue buildings!
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DAY 3: TANGIER-CHEFCHAOUAN
Small Group (Non-cycling) Tour of Morocco.
Day 3 - Tangier to Chefchaouen:
Most of the posts below are linked to my Facebook postings during the trip and are embedded here with some comments. (NOTE: Click on respective posts to link to the FB post to read more details. If you can't see the posts, please log out of your Facebook first.)
Starting the day with a nice Moroccan breakfast at our homestay, Kasba Blanca Riad in Tangier.
Included was Khobz, a Moroccan barley bread.
Walking through the streets of Bab Kasbah Tangier & Borj Ben Amar, the neighbourhood of our homestay.
Nice shot as we walked through Bab Kasbah to our van parked below.
Leaving Tangier for Chefchaouen, passing by the Roman Catholic Cathedralof the Immaculate Conception and the fort at Place Faro.
Walking through the streets of Bab Kasbah Tangier & Borj Ben Amar, the neighbourhood of our homestay.
Nice shot as we walked through Bab Kasbah to our van parked below.
Leaving Tangier for Chefchaouen, passing by the Roman Catholic Cathedralof the Immaculate Conception and the fort at Place Faro.
Officially, 99% of the population are Muslim, and virtually all of those are Sunni. The second-largest religion in the country is Christianity. There is a community of the Baháʼí Faith.
Passing by the wind turbines near El Fendek, sitting on a hill slope with yellow blooms. These golden-yellow Gorse, reminded me of our 2014 cycling tour in New Zealand. Then, we saw many of these along the hill slopes of the Taieri River, while riding the Taieri Gorge Train from Kokonga to Middlemarch.
In terms of wind power development, Morocco enjoys favourable wind resources, both in the northern part of the country near Tangier and also to its west. By 2022, 13.48% of the electricity produced in Morocco came from wind power.
Guess which is the other one?
Further along, we passed by the scenic Lac Barrage Martil, formed by the Nakhla Dam in the Martil Valley. The calm waters of the lake reflected the surrounding hills beautifully.
And then part of the majestic Rif Mountains at Bni Moussa.
The Rif region receives more rainfall than any other region in Morocco, and is home to several different tribal people.
1:00pm - A peek of Chefchaouen as we approached.
Not as many blue buildings as we anticipated, but this wasn't the bluer part, which we will see later at the Chefchaouen Blue Town.
Checking into Vancii Hotel, the hotel is owned and operated by Chinese, and on the ground floor is a Chinese Restaurant; unfortunately, the Chinese chef is on leave, so it is closed.
Our room is on the third floor, with nice views overlooking the city street below, and .....
..... of the blue houses on the hill slopes further away. A nice balance of bright green and bright blue.
2:30pm - Late lunch at the nearby Mr. Bin Chinese Restaurant. Some friends asked why we are having Chinese food just three days into our tour; well, Chinese food is not easy to come by in Morocco, so we might as well have it when it's available.
This place serves Sichuan food, which tends to be very spicy and oily, so we requested that they tone down the spiciness and oiliness. On the table: Lettuce with oyster sauce, Stir-fried long bean with minced pork, Egg fried rice, Flavoured shredded chicken, Tomato & egg drop soup, and Chrysanthemum tea.
Exploring the streets of the bluer part of the town, at the Sabanin Neighbourhood.
Here we see attractive doorways and windows - all in blue!
The blues here don't make one feel blue, in fact they lift up one's spirits!
Place Outa El Hamam is Chefchaouen's main marketplace. Most tourists come here to dine and shop. For a wider range of local products, one can shop at the Chefchaouen Medina.
From its balcony is a great panoramic view of Chefchaouen.
Lanes radiate out from Place Outa El Hamam, drawing one further in to narrow lanes lined with many shops. It's like a medina here too, except that it's not walled in. Many locals come here to shop.
Going further in, is another smaller square, the Place El Haouta, a picturesque one with its unique architecture & charming ambience. And the good thing is that it's not so crowded with tourists.
Back at Place Outa El Hamam, it's dinner time at Restaurant Hamsa. On our table: Tuna Panini, Chicken Shrawarma, Pizza Margherita, Mushroom Omelet, and Avocado Juice.
Before going to bed, we went up to the rooftop of our hotel for an enchanting night view of Chefchaouen.
(That's "It's so beautiful here!" in Arabic)
(For more photos of Day 3, Click Here)
This is page 3 of a 13-page blog. Click Here To Go To Title Page.
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You are at - Jotaro's Blog /AhPek Biker-Footsteps /Morocco 2025/ D3: Tangier to Chefchaouan | Go to D1/D2/D4/D5/D6/D7/D8/D9/D10/D11/D12/D13-14
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