Ferries to Morocco, from France or Spain

Last year we took the ferry choosing the shortest (and cheapest) crossing from Algeciras, Spain to Tanger.
This year we are looking to save some tiring and equally expensive kilometres through Spain (petrol and motorway fees). So the options are leaving from France at the port of Sete with a 36 hour passing to Tanger or from Spain, Barcelona (26 hours).

The passage Sete- Tanger is operated by the Moroccon comany Comarit (http://www.comarit.com). They have to ferries on this route, so are approximatly leaving every third day. Many European ferry agencies seem to have eliminated them from their programme due to unreliable bookings and poor conditions of the ship. Prices, too, compared to the Barcelona alternative adding the route and petrol cost are not really competitive and convincing. Anyhow, it is always worthwhile double checking. Here the contact for Comarit in Sete:

CLB Liner
Gare Maritime Orsetti
Zone Portuaire Cidex 13
34200 Sète
Tel: (+33) 467807543
Fax: (+33) 467807549
e-mail: sete@clbliner.fr

But the travel agency Biladi, promoted from Morocco to enhance tourism, also sells tickets. They have several agencies (the link wont show in the post, so here: http://www.biladivoyages.com/agences ) in France, but also one in Barcelona and Bruxelles.

The Italian company Grandi Navi Veloci is operating the route Genua- Barcelona- Tanger. They are leaving from Barcelona twice a week, Wednesdays and Sundays. Calculating and adding the cost of the road from Barcelona to Algeciras to the ferry (Euro 120 one pers and one car + minimum 150 for road and petrol), it turns out that leaving from Barcelona by ferry is cheaper (around this time of year Grandi Navi Veloci have promotional tickets starting from 201 euros..)! Their website has an online booking, but also a list of affiliated travel agencies in different countries many of which also have offers for the route Sete-Tanger, a selection of which I copy-pasted here.

FRANCE

EURO MER

Codice di prenoatazione: 2448
Quai de Sauvages 5 – CS 10024 - 34078 Montpellier Cedex 3
Tel: 0033-4-67 65 67 30
Fax: 0033-4-67 65 20 27
E-mail: euromer@euromer.net

LE PAYS DES VOYAGES

Espace Melville - 2 Av Du Canton Vert – 13190 Allouch
Tel: 0033-4-91 68 29 96
Fax: 0033-4-91 68 26 03
E-mail: lepaysdesvoyages@wanadoo.fr

VIAMARE CAP MER

Rue de Milan 6/8 – 75009 Paris
Tel: 0033-1-4280 94 87
Fax 0033-1-4280 9499
E-mail: info@viamare.fr

GERMANY

VOIGT SEEREISEN AGENTUR GmbH

Koberg 17 – 23552 Lübeck
Tel: 0049-(0) 451-5056170
Fax: 0049-(0)451-50561710
E-mail: info@seereisen-agentur.de

IKON REISEAGENTUR GmbH

Schwanthalerstrasse 31 – 80336 Munchen
Tel: +49-(0)89-5501041
Fax: +49-(0)89-598425
E-mail: www.ikon-reisen.de

GREAT BRITAIN

VIAMARE TRAVEL LTD

Suite 3, 447 Kenton Road
Harrow, Middlesex HA3 OXY
Tel: +44-(0) 208 206 3420
Fax +44-(0) 208 206 1332
E-mail: ferries@viamare.com

THE TRAVEL GATEWAY

2morrow Court, Appkeford Road, Sutton Courtenay
Oxfordshire, OX14 4FH – United Kingdom
Tel: +44-(0)1235-84 56 00
Fax: +44-(0)1235-84 51 08

DIRECT FERRIES

45, Gt Sutton St. – EC1 VODE London – U.K.
Tel: +44-870-6260935
Fax: +44-207-4901282

Hope this helps! Have a nice trip!

Clermont-Dakar, I finally did it!

The evening of December 24th I finally made my way from France to Senegal by - a fully charged- car! First etappe was to reach Narbonne at the French south-western coast. There we (three cars inclusive mine) were to sleep over at a friend's friend's place and join with other two cars. These approximatly 400 km felt like a warm up for the exercise to come!

As groups go, we only left the following day at around 1pm. Direction Barcelona! (For people living close to Bordeaux the crossing down to Algeciras via Madrid is the best, and much cheaper as the major part of the motorway is free, in contrast to the southern coast motorway!!!) After Alicante there is the choice of sticking to the coastal motorway or to switch to the northern parallel via Granada. We chose the latter, as it seemed shorter. This might have been a mistake, as the mountainous road slows down the speed and left us freezing overnight in the car on a petrol station parking lot just after Granada!

Early next morning we continued our way to the port of Algeciras via Malaga. For a single trip to Tanger, one car with one person, I paid 120 Euro, with the slower ferry though.

Already in Algeciras (picture: waiting for the ferry) temperatures were mild and the sun shining, slowly defrosting the stiff toes I caught overnight!

And how beautiful was the ferry passage with view of Gibraltar (picture: The island of Gibraltar). Nearly felt like holiday... Once arrived in Tanger, Marocco, we had to pass the custom control. Luckily I did not have to open anything or unload the car. Still, the procedure took its time. I also withdrew some 1000 dir for the journey, routes, and food. Getting out of Tanger and its Friday evening traffic was quite a mission, but ultimatly we made it to the motorway and a food break at a petrol station just before Rabat (where we also met the maroccan father with his son from the ferry again). Via Casablanca we continued until El Jadida where we stayed the night in luxury at the Ibis hotel. It is directly facing the beach and a guardian was sitting all night out there to look over my car! He made quite some impressive figure in his traditional coat and worn face (picture: Early morning at El Jadida beach).
Well, despite being a nice place (unfortunately we did not have the time to visit the old town centre, see the google map entry, it was a bit of a detour. We passed it by, because initially we planned on following the coast down to Agadir. But the hotel owner recommended us to take the road via Marrakech that would save us some considerable amount of time! (So instead of going up to El Jadida, in Casablanca, we should have taken the motorway up to Marrakech!!) Anyway, at least this way we enjoyed a lovely country road (picture: a town before Marrakech on a very windy mountain plateau) to Marrakech. From here the mountainous road begins that is filled by overloaded camions! Until Agadir it is a never ending taking over operation through congested, curvous and mountainous roads! But good news, the motorway Marrakech-Agadir is nearly finished (approx. mid 2010)!
Upon entering Agadir one follows the direction Airport and Layoone. The next bigger town is a good 400 km away, Tan Tan (3 pictures: on the road between Agadir and Tan Tan). These kilometres were rather diverse from dunes, to fields, mountains, sunshine and dark rainy clouds. Around half way between Agadir and Tan Tan we passed the town Bouizakarne, where one car of our group was caught by the radar control (40 Euro! Throughout all of Marocco and Mauretania one needs to be cautious at the entrance and exit of towns where there are frequent police and radar controls, speed, stop signs...). This unvolontary stop turned into a quite nice sojourn. The owner of the house in front of which we were forced-stopped asked if any of us had to sell some mp3 player or computer. He was lucky and got the installation of the PC inclusive... . And the rest of us was also invited into the house as it was prayer time. Me being the only female went upstairs into the house to wash myself a little and pray with the lady of the house. Afterwards I was treated to a glass of milk, sweet desserts and delicious dates. Was quite funny as she only spoke arabic that I do not speak, so it was an exchange of smiles and gestures. On departure I received a full bag of dates for the journey. Was a really lovely experience. Finally in Tan Tan we slept in the mosque of a petrol station and had our first Tangine!