1

OMG I am exhausted just thinking about such an itinerary! Better to stay and enjoy Barcelona and save Morocco for when you have at least one week to visit.

2

agreed. It is a bit overloading. I think perhaps it would be better to just fly to Malaga and then to Tarifa and to Tangier. Do a day trip/night trip and head back to Tarifa the next monring. Perhaps this will be less hectic. I just read so many reviews that Tangier is not the true moroccan experience. I'm afraid that I might not be able to experience morocco for a long time!

3

OP, I think you already know the answer to your question. Just writing it down without embellishment must've made you cringe inside.

Better, in my opinion, you fly to Marrakesh, spend a couple of days, then fly home. Why exhaust yourself trying to take in Tangier and Tarifa? Neither is so special that you can't afford to miss them. Instead, if you find yourselves with too much time and not enough to do in Marrakesh--due to a failure of imagination or an excess of restless energy--just rent a car (or car with driver) and head out of town for a day.

If you follow through on your plan, post back here and tell us how it went. If you say "I was really bored with Marrakesh, couldn't wait to get out of there, and I'm really glad I spent so much time riding buses and trains," I'll happily eat crow.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

4

Yes.

5

Like already said by the others, either fly to Marrakech and back or just forget about it all.

You don't have enough time to experience best of Marrakech if you have to catch the night train to Tangier. You also probably won't
get much sleep in the night train so you'll be too tired to enjoy Tangier (if it's even possible to enjoy it at all, as some may think).

In addition, your tight itinerary doesn't leave much room for changes in schedules. The train can brake down or the ferry may be delayed (which both happened to me).

Marrakech is a very nice city but so is Barcelona.

6

Agree, better to stay in Barcelona, or fly and stay only in Marrakech without to travel to Tangier etc.
Give more time to Morocco, it is wonderful country and worth more time than only one rushing weekend.

7

I wonder why Postcard-Marrakech would be more of a true Moroccan experience than, say for instance, the shanty towns of Casablanca....

but hey, don't misunderstand me, Marrakech is where you want to go.... ;-)

8

You can't experience Morocco in a weekend.

If you insist in going there only for a weekend, Why all the hassle of going through Málaga, Tarifa and Algeciras when there are direct flights from Tangier to Barcelona?

9

i agree with all of your comments, but its just kind of the spur of the moment. We want to get away from Spain for the weekend. I completely understand that going to morocco for the weekend is not enough time to enjoy the culture and experience. But unfortunately that is all the time we have.

Dont get me wrong barcelona is fantastic but we've seen most of it. We were also thinking of just renting a car and doing a quick weekend get away in Southern France. But both of us love the idea of Morocco so we are pretty much set for that.

I like the idea of flying out of Marrakech but unfortunately there is only 1 flight a day to Barcelona from Vueling, and it so happens to be in the afternoon :(. I am hoping my friend can either take friday or monday off, thus giving us more time in Marrakech and we wouldnt have to exhaust ourselves.

I like also the idea of renting a car in Morocco, but is it fairly easy to drive in Morocco?

Also thanks for the information about the direct flight from Tangier to Barcelona. I didn't even considered that route and if my friend cannot take friday or monday off, then I guess this would possibly be the best option because it will give us two nights in Marrakech.

I appreciate all your comments and replies. I was face palming myself every second as to how exhausting this trip would be if we did all that traveling.

10

We want to get away from Spain for the weekend.

Did you consider Andorra?

11

Sometimes the fun of traveling comes from ideas that aren't exactly considered very good, like a quick weekend getaway to Marrakech and Tangier.

However, if you really wanna do it I'm sure you gonna enjoy it and at least you get glimpse of Morocco. If possible, save at least one whole day for Marrakech because the definite highlight of the city is Djemaa el-Fna after sunset and you won't have enough time to really experience it if you have to catch the night train to Tangier.

12

OP, I completely understand your desire to get away for the weekend, and Marrakesh would certainly qualify as "away." It's just that what you originally proposed was the weekend from hell.

There are an infinite variety of other options. For starters, there are other places to go in Morocco. Second, there are other interesting places to go for a weekend besides Morocco. If the primary goal is to get the hell out of Barcelona, you can find some way to do that which won't have you spending your entire weekend exhaustedly chasing buses, trains and planes on two continents.

Maybe that's a trip to Tangier (not my favorite), or even busing from Ceuta to Chefchaouen (definitely better). But basically, I think you want someplace you can fly in and out with relative ease. Ireland? Italy? Majorca? Does it really matter?

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

13

Rent a car and drive to France.

If you want to experience North Africa, drive to Marseille....