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UK to Morocco

Rainbow1986

In Second Gear
Hi All.

New here. so hello.

So I have a 07 D3. (First Land Rover), Purchased at a very cheap price, with issues, 1 Owner and 100k miles. all work is now completed and its running well with a fresh MOT on.

My plan is Morocco in FEB 26. 2 years. there is a group of us so starting early.

Has anyone traveled there? and first what route did you take to get there and while you were there?

There are so many versions online and trying to sell me trips, I thought Id come to some like minded Landy Folk. :)

KR Steve
 
Hi All.

New here. so hello.

So I have a 07 D3. (First Land Rover), Purchased at a very cheap price, with issues, 1 Owner and 100k miles. all work is now completed and its running well with a fresh MOT on.

My plan is Morocco in FEB 26. 2 years. there is a group of us so starting early.

Has anyone traveled there? and first what route did you take to get there and while you were there?

There are so many versions online and trying to sell me trips, I thought Id come to some like minded Landy Folk. :)

KR Steve
I have signed up with a lad and a small group to go end of this year..
I've hiked in the atlas mountains and up Mt toubkal before but thought as it's my first 4x4 trip out there I'd go with an organised group for a first attempt.. Only for a couple of weeks but am looking fwd to itšŸ‘
 
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Hi All.

New here. so hello.

So I have a 07 D3. (First Land Rover), Purchased at a very cheap price, with issues, 1 Owner and 100k miles. all work is now completed and its running well with a fresh MOT on.

My plan is Morocco in FEB 26. 2 years. there is a group of us so starting early.

Has anyone traveled there? and first what route did you take to get there and while you were there?

There are so many versions online and trying to sell me trips, I thought Id come to some like minded Landy Folk. :)

KR Steve

Yes, and yes.

I'm no expert but Ive driven down a couple of times now, and flown down prior to that.

My last trip is document here;

Im in Jersey, so easiest way for me is ferry to St Malo and drive all the way down. Treat it as part of the holiday if you have time, but allow for between 2-4 days depending how many driving etc.
Quite a few people choose to get the ferry to Santander to save fuel/accomodation/tolls/time.

What you do while you are there depends on your interests and how long you have. I wouldnt go for less than 3 weeks total.
Its quite a big country with very varied geography from the Rif, Atlas, and anti-Atlas mountain ranges to the desert and even into Western Sahara.

February is quite early and many routes in the mountains will still be snowed up. All part of the adventure, but travel prepared!
If you choose you can flog directly South from Ceuta or Tanger Med (preferred) and be on the edge of the Sahara and into the dunes at Erg Chebbi in 3-4 days, but you will miss lots of things on the way.

For a first visit, you could do worse than join a tour (or if there are a few of you use someone experienced to act as a guide).
There are many companies operating tours, but chat to Mark at Amazigh travel as Ive not met anyone with more knowledge or enthusiasm about Morocco.
He drives a Toyota, but no-ones perfect!

There are a few other people on here who have driven down via various routes, so dont be afraid to ask, and I can recommend a couple of FB groups for up-to-date information;
and
(Both are admin'ed by Mark, but not restricted to his tours etc)
 
I have signed up with a lad and a small group to go end of this year..
I've hiked in the atlas mountains and up Mt toubkal before but thought as it's my first 4x4 trip out there I'd go with an organised group for a first attempt.. Only for a couple of weeks but am looking fwd to itšŸ‘

When will you be there Andy? Im hoping to go back in October-ish but it depends on a few things coming together...
Our paths may cross...
 
When will you be there Andy? Im hoping to go back in October-ish but it depends on a few things coming together...
Our paths may cross...
It would be nice.. One of the drawbacks with the group booking is obviously you are tied to that itinerary.. But seemed the sensible thing for a first time..
My dates are late November (22nd) into early Dec.. (can't remember the return..
)
But it's a ferry from Portsmouth to santander.. And another ferry to tanger med I believešŸ‘
 
I probably will be back in Jersey by middle November latest, so maybe not. We will see as I have nothing definite arranged or pencilled in yet.
Who are you booked with?
 
I probably will be back in Jersey by middle November latest, so maybe not. We will see as I have nothing definite arranged or pencilled in yet.
Who are you booked with?
I know the lad is called Russ, and he runs trips all over..
Iceland to north africa.. I had a day with him recently in the dales, and can't remember the company nsmešŸ˜©šŸ˜…
.
I'll have a lookšŸ‘šŸ™ˆ
Edit..
Here's the link
 
He gets about doesnt he!
Had a look at the itinerary for your trip, looks good and plenty of familiar places worth visiting.

You will be making the most of your time there too, and its so much easier for you guys getting a ferry all the way to Santander!
I spend a week driving there and back... If fuel prices rise again, it could be worth me getting ferry to the UK and then using the Santander route...

Dont forget to stock up well on Beer/wine from a supermarket while still in Spain!
 
He gets about doesnt he!
Had a look at the itinerary for your trip, looks good and plenty of familiar places worth visiting.

You will be making the most of your time there too, and its so much easier for you guys getting a ferry all the way to Santander!
I spend a week driving there and back... If fuel prices rise again, it could be worth me getting ferry to the UK and then using the Santander route...

Dont forget to stock up well on Beer/wine from a supermarket while still in Spain!
Cheers mikešŸ‘
I'm fairly sure back in my motorhome days when I did a trip to Spain and Portugal the ferry was the more expensive option, but I still preferred it to the thought of the drive down through francešŸ‘...
 
Hi All
Sorry for the delay. This is great Information thanks. Im thinking of going south through France then down to Gib? Would you say just pick the places you want to go and then find a route from there?
 
Hi All
Sorry for the delay. This is great Information thanks. Im thinking of going south through France then down to Gib? Would you say just pick the places you want to go and then find a route from there?

Algeciras is the port right next to Gib and you can sail to Ceuta or Tanger Med from there. I went through Ceuta last time and wouldnt recommend it.

There are one or two campsites near Gib and I would recommend booking an early ferry across and staying overnight quite close to port. The ferries never run on time and it can takes a while to clear customs etc the other side. The first time we went, we were booked on an early afternoon ferry, which was delayed about 2.5 hours so by the time we cleared the port and hit the road in Morocco it was dark. Not an experience to recommend if its your first time.

If you have no idea where to go then I would suggest reading a few other people travel reports, make notes of places that look or sound interesting and then plan a route around those. Ask on the FB groups for what other people think is unmissable.

Dont miss the predictable places though, like Chefchaorne, or Marakesh or the dunes (either Erg Chebbi or Erg Chigaga). If you want to get adventurous, head to M'Hamid and then take the track to L'Oase Sacre is a taste of the desert...
Agadir is a seaside resort almost Mediterranean in feel with a nice beach front and restaurants, and can make a nice break.
Read a lot and dont try to fit everything in on one trip. You will almost certainly want to go back!
 
I used to run trips around Morocco (actually, I preferred Tunisia & Libya) but haven't been there in over ten years.
I did the Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry once - it was like a prison ship, full of Geordies on a 'mini-cruise, with 'cabaret' and other entertainment, usually people sliding down the bar or passed out in the toilets. If you use this, I'd suggest locking yourself in your cabin with a bottle of something strong enough to sleep through....

It's much more enjoyable to drive through France & Spain (France of course, is put there solely as a means of getting somewhere better, hence the excellent roads) and staying at 'Mercure' type cheap hotels or campsites. As above, I used to get the Algeciras - Ceuta ferry, reasonably cheap & quick, but as I say, I've not used it for a while. We used to stay in one of the hotels in Ceuta and cross over the border early in the morning whilst the touts were still asleep - I believe you can now do the entry cards online.
I know of people that have done the Tangiers ferry port and apparently you need a lot of time to get through the bribe-takers & tat-sellers.

It may be worth having a look on https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ it's mainly centred around two wheeled vehicles but there's a lot of good info on there and the travel info is about as up to date as you'll get anywhere. There is (or was) a campsite in the middle of Fes, actually in a walled military camp that is a good 'end of day 1' location, with rudimentary showers and toilets - but you can go outside the walls into Fes in taxis knowing your vehicles & tents will be relatively safe. Meknes also has some good traveller hotels with secure parking.

Along with the locations mentioned in the posts above, The Atlas mountains need exploring and Zagora is good for some dune-bashing, wherever you go, don't do it as a single vehicle and be very aware of what and who is around you - don't be tempted to cross into Algeria, even by accident.

The 'street kids' will try and open your car doors, steal anything and throw stones at you!. The police are similar, often being quite insistent on the need for a 'petit cadeau' as a requirement to carry on your journey. Sometimes a shiny pen, is enough to distract them, along with your other vehicles causing a blockage behind you - along with the 'Gallic shrug and hands in the air to indicate you don't understand.... The military checkpoints are always best approached slowly and with big smiles and waves, they're actually the 'good guys' in that they will report your registration no's and direction of travel, if other checkpoints don't see you, they'll come looking. I always used to have a brief and reasonably vague itinerary printed out with dates, camp sites / hotels etc. on one side and names, DoB's nationalities and vehicle registrations on the other, the idea was to give them out to checkpoints we had to stop at as a means of making their job easier, and therefore quicker for us to get going again. I'm sure there's more, lots more, I could mention but as I said, it'll be rather dated.
 
Also:- have some colour printouts of your passports to hand to 'officials' outside of the ports so you don't actually have to get your passports out (if they insist, make a great play of getting them from somewhere obscure and inaccessible by removing lots of 'stuff' quite slowly, they'll get bored and use the printouts!) do the same with your green card and V5, also email photos of all your docs to yourself so you can access in case of total loss. Remember that CB and PMR radios are illegal in Morocco so cover them well & remove antennas until you actually need them. We used good quality PMR's for inter-vehicle comms in towns and CB's when out in the open.
 
We got back at the end of January from a 3 month trip. @mikeau has covered most of it. Although not sure whether Carlos has been mentioned :). He makes ferry ticket buying easy although you pay a bit more. We went via Santander and crossed over at Cueta. We stayed at a campsite in Portugal when heading down owned by a couple who had been to Morrocco about 14 times and gave us lots of ideas. We were glad to have gone November, December, January as on our way out all the motorhomes were coming in and the campsites were getting very busy with rows of Motorhomes. That said you can go where they cant and wild camping is generally OK although we were moved on twice. That said campsites are generally between Ā£5 to Ā£10. I've been meaning to post a few pics and route we took so will do that.
We were unaccompanied (flexible and to some extend avoiding convoys through the villages), but did seek Mark Wrights advice when crossing a difficult desert section and ended up being guided through a tricky bit by a guy on a motorbike. Someone with a similar vehicle to us went with Mark and learnt a lot from him, then continued on his own.
Its a lovely country, lovely people with very little traffic. But beware the speed traps. I got caught twice. Refused to pay first time but it was a fair cop the second.
I will see whether I can sort out the route we took. SWMBO is the planner and route decider.
Van Life Morocco on facebook is a great community. We used the iOverlander app and park4night. There is a book by Chris Scott - Morocco Overland that covers some offroad stretches. We avoided the coast as we prefer mountains.
I will PM you with some of our favourite campsites.
And welcome to the forum
IMG-20231219-WA0001.jpg

This campsite was about 10km off road through softish sand so peaceful. We only knew it existed having met a fellow overlander.
Screenshot_20240301_201411_Explore.jpg

Not a map of our route but pinpoints most of our campsites
 
I used to run trips around Morocco (actually, I preferred Tunisia & Libya) but haven't been there in over ten years.
I did the Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry once - it was like a prison ship, full of Geordies on a 'mini-cruise, with 'cabaret' and other entertainment, usually people sliding down the bar or passed out in the toilets. If you use this, I'd suggest locking yourself in your cabin with a bottle of something strong enough to sleep through....

It's much more enjoyable to drive through France & Spain (France of course, is put there solely as a means of getting somewhere better, hence the excellent roads) and staying at 'Mercure' type cheap hotels or campsites. As above, I used to get the Algeciras - Ceuta ferry, reasonably cheap & quick, but as I say, I've not used it for a while. We used to stay in one of the hotels in Ceuta and cross over the border early in the morning whilst the touts were still asleep - I believe you can now do the entry cards online.
I know of people that have done the Tangiers ferry port and apparently you need a lot of time to get through the bribe-takers & tat-sellers.

It may be worth having a look on https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ it's mainly centred around two wheeled vehicles but there's a lot of good info on there and the travel info is about as up to date as you'll get anywhere. There is (or was) a campsite in the middle of Fes, actually in a walled military camp that is a good 'end of day 1' location, with rudimentary showers and toilets - but you can go outside the walls into Fes in taxis knowing your vehicles & tents will be relatively safe. Meknes also has some good traveller hotels with secure parking.

Along with the locations mentioned in the posts above, The Atlas mountains need exploring and Zagora is good for some dune-bashing, wherever you go, don't do it as a single vehicle and be very aware of what and who is around you - don't be tempted to cross into Algeria, even by accident.

The 'street kids' will try and open your car doors, steal anything and throw stones at you!. The police are similar, often being quite insistent on the need for a 'petit cadeau' as a requirement to carry on your journey. Sometimes a shiny pen, is enough to distract them, along with your other vehicles causing a blockage behind you - along with the 'Gallic shrug and hands in the air to indicate you don't understand.... The military checkpoints are always best approached slowly and with big smiles and waves, they're actually the 'good guys' in that they will report your registration no's and direction of travel, if other checkpoints don't see you, they'll come looking. I always used to have a brief and reasonably vague itinerary printed out with dates, camp sites / hotels etc. on one side and names, DoB's nationalities and vehicle registrations on the other, the idea was to give them out to checkpoints we had to stop at as a means of making their job easier, and therefore quicker for us to get going again. I'm sure there's more, lots more, I could mention but as I said, it'll be rather dated.
Perhaps a lot has changed since you were last there, but Ive experienced none of the hassles you mention. Entering through Tanger Med was slow but we werent bothered with touts etc (perhaps we arrived too late in the day). We were waved through every police checkpoint once we slowed down.

I had CB and amateur band radios on display with aerials just layed flat on the roof. No-one looked twice. Your experience may differ, but I think while still technically illegal they are more widely used and tolerated now. The only thing they were very strict about and we were asked more than once on the way in and out was if we were carrying a drone.

I felt safer almost everywhere in Morocco than I generally do in UK or Europe. There seems to be very little crime (we always thought this was because its inherently an Islamic country and punishments are harsh?). I still took the usual precautions when parking up anywhere.
Never had an issue with street kids while in the car, but in the bigger towns you will likely have a moped rider offering to guide you to a campsite or garage.
Always politely decline offers of help to show you the way either on foot or in vehicle. You probably wont get robbed, but you will likely find yourself in his 'cousins' carpet shop or similar.

Yes, Carlos is the place to buy tickets. I dont think he was any more expensive than other agents, but you could possibly buy a little cheaper online, but Carlos will help complete all the paperwork and give you a free bottle of wine and packet of biscuits when you leave!
N36Ā° 10.643' W5Ā° 26.412' or https://w3w.co/reprints.affluent.plinth
The added advantage is that there is a large Carrefour and a Lidl very close nearby to stock up on beer and wine.

Copies of passports and travel documents are a good idea. Exchange them with others in the group.

2019 route

Screenshot 2024-03-02 at 09.27.34.png


2022 route

Screenshot 2024-03-02 at 09.27.52.png


Next trip Im hoping to get as far South as possible.
 
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My abundance of caution is probably borne from working in Arab & Black Africa for many years! - I'd also suggest swapping spare keys with another driver as well as documents.
Maybe (hopefully) things have changed - I always found the 'African wave' more prevalent in Morocco than Tunisia, Libya or Western Sahara, the kids in the villages were always more insistent (and liable to throw stones or hitch a ride on the roof ladder) than the towns - the only time I came across the moped 'guides' was around Matmata in Tunisia, wanting me to visit all kinds of 'Star Wars' trivia, doubtless mostly fabricated.
I did spend some time in Algeria, mostly work related - and possibly why most of the people I came into contact with were mostly surly and dismissive of European Kafir's, I do know people that have had better experiences there but access is still problematic, which is a shame because it's a wonderful country. The areas of southern Morocco bordering Algeria are still the subject of incursions by groups affiliated with Daesh / AQ-IM, which is why I suggested staying away.
 
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