Getting to Morocco

In the past, travelling to Morocco has been a major impediment to taking a Moroccan holiday.  Scheduled flights from the UK to Morocco seemed unnecessarily expensive, considering the flight is under 4 hours in length, travelling by ship was only really practical for those who have holidays that extend into months rather than weeks, and the option of driving to southern Europe and then taking the ferry only appealed to those travelling in both a clapped-out camper van and a drug-fuelled haze. This has changed recently with the entry into the Moroccan market of the budget airlines, Thomsonfly and EasyJet, who provide flights between the UK and Morocco at very low cost for those with the foresight to book ahead or the good fortune to bag a last minute bargain.  These new entrants have also caused the established players to reduce their ticket prices, so making the cost of scheduled flights to Morocco that much more reasonable.

Driving to Morocco

The best advice that one can offer to people contemplating driving to Morocco is 'don't', unless there is a special reason for needing to travel by car. It may be that you are planning to extend your holiday with stops in Europe en-route, or to stock up with French wine on your return journey, or perhaps even that you're planning an extended stay in Morocco and will benefit from the use of your own vehicle to explore the country. For those with time to spare, driving down through Europe at a leisurely pace, before making a ferry crossing from Spain to Morocco, is the most practical option, although whether it will enhance or detract from the overall holiday experience will depend very much on one's love of long car journeys. The preferred point of entry for most tourists is the ferry from Algiciras, in Spain, to Tangier, although other options include crossings from Malaga or Algeria to either Tangier or Mellila. One should be aware that the formalities around taking a car into Morocco can appear unnecessarily bureaucratic and time-consuming. It is, however, imperative that you have all the necessary paperwork and that it is in order, if you are to avoid having to continue your holiday minus your car.

Morocco by Train

Travelling to Morocco by train for a holiday will probably only appeal to the diehard railway enthusiast, who will enjoy the journey spent travelling by Eurostar from London to Paris and then onward by TGV to Algiciras on the Spannish coast. From Algiciras, there are regular ferry services to Tangier or Cueta, the cost of the one-way fare for a foot passengers being around £15. For those who do not share a passion for rail travel, the train journey will appear horrendously long and tedious and the option of flying to Morocco, which is very much less expensive, will seem considerably more appealing.

UK Flights to Morocco

There are three ways to approach planning holiday flights to Morocco. For those who have already decided where they are going to stay in Morocco, the most sensible approach is to choose the closest and most convenient Moroccan airport to your destination and then determine from where in the UK you can depart. A second approach is to choose your a UK departure airport which is convenient to you and plan your holiday itinerary around where you can fly to in Morocco from your chosen airport. The third approach is to choose the airline with which you want to fly and workaround the restrictions on departure and destination airports that this may impose. This final option is perhaps most pertinent to those planning to use one of the budget airlines, in which case the limitations in the routes that they operate may well be compensated for by the very low fares. It should be emphasised that choosing to fly to an airport in Morocco which is not close to your intended destination is invariably a folly, as a long-distance transfer from the airport to where you are staying is likely to be both inconvenient and expensive.