With a lot more people now considering Morocco as a winter destination, we thought we would share our experience of the process this time around. You get an automatic 90 day visa upon entry and this can be extended to 180 days once in Country if needed.

Tickets

Most people who are travelling to Morocco by motorhome will have heard of the famous Carlos. He’s created a business specialising in selling tickets to motorhomers, and we are no exception. Yes there may be cheaper options out there, but recently when a ferry company collapsed he looked after his customers by sorting out an alternative return ticket.  Their office is located at Los Barrios (GPS N36.179533 W5.441459), and you can either park right outside the building or there is parking around the corner on the Obramat car park (GPS N36.178902 W5.439726)

• You will need passports and your vehicles V5. In return Carlos will sell you an open return (valid for 1 year). You can choose your sailing time & payment can now be made by card. He does sell Moroccan Dirham in exchange for euro’s if you want some to start you off. The exchange rate on 31^st January was 10 MAD to the Euro. He will also do a Maroc telecom sim card if you want one, we didn’t take advantage of this as wanted to buy an unlimited data SIM once there. The cost of the sailing from Algeciras to Tangier Med was €280 for an open return (valid for 1 year).

• The office issue you with a till type receipt ONLY , this is then exchanged at the port for your boarding pass and returned to you for use on your return. You are no longer issued here with any immigration forms or other related paperwork. Although they do give you a bottle of plonk and a cake as a gift.

• The ticket is ferry company specific, we opted to sail Balearia ferries as they allow dogs on board. They had sailings at 7am & 10am (plus a further 2 crossings in the afternoon).

Stocking Up

Part of travelling for us is experiencing local food, so we tend not to pre buy lots of food stuff. We do ensure we take plenty of alcohol with us, as although it’s available in Morocco, it’s certainly more expensive than in Spain. The other things we have stocked up on are ham, bacon, chocolate and snacks. We have also bought dog food in Spain, so that we don’t have to hunt it down. There are 3 big supermarkets Carrefour, Lidl and Mercadona close to Carlos, as well as Leroy Merlin DIY store, a Chinese shop and a pet store, so pretty much everything you need is close by.

Gas & Services

With refillable gas not being an option in Morocco we wanted to ensure our bottles were full before leaving Spain, so we used a fuel station at San Roque a few km’s away. They have GPL gas, a motorhome washing station and an emptying and filling point which costs 3€. GPS 36.204047 -5.411941.

We also took the opportunity to get our laundry done beforehand as facilities in Morocco can be more sporadic. We used a laundry at San Roque GPS 36.18296 -5.385894.

The Port

You need to arrive at the port a minimum of 1 hour before sailing. Follow the signs for Tangier and you will eventually arrive at the waiting area. Your receipt from Carlos will be exchanged for a boarding pass. You will be directed through passport control before boarding. Ferries to Morocco are notorious for being late, we were awake early so decided to head to the port to catch the 7am crossing however the crossing was cancelled (although no-one informed us of this), so we sat at the port until the 10am sailing and eventually sailed about 10.30am. Other than the fact that we could have had some extra sleep it really didn’t matter. We were able to have a leisurely breakfast, several cups of coffee and give the dog some exercise.

For further info on travelling with pets click this link https://followourmotorhome.co.uk/2024/01/31/morocco-with-a-dog-2024/

The Ferry

• When you get on board the ferry you will need to take your passports with you. Collect and fill out an immigration card from the information desk on board and take this along with your passport to the police desk, this was set up in the far end of the cafeteria on our ferry crossing with Balearia. Your passport will be stamped with your entry details and a number, you will need this number when you fill in registration cards at campsites etc.

Arriving in Morocco

When you disembark you will follow the signs that say exit/sortie to the customs area where someone will take the passport and the V5 for the registered keeper of the vehicle. You will be asked to wait and these will be returned to you along with your vehicle import card. This card must be kept safe until you exit the country, it proves that your vehicle has been temporarily imported into Morocco, on exit you must produce this to export your vehicle back out of the country without duty. It took about 1 ½ hours for us to get through customs this time. We were not pulled for Xray but Nutmeg and I had to get out of the vehicle whilst the sniffer dog came on board.

There is just one final paperwork check as you exit and then you are on your way. As you leave you will see a large car park on the left where you can buy insurance if needed and exchange money (make sure you negotiate we got a better rate by doing this).

NOTE that if you are using the toll road you need to pay in cash (the 80+km journey to our 1^st stop in Asilah cost us 71 MAD (around €7/£6).

TOP TIP Download Maps.me App before getting to Morocco and the relevant Morrocan maps. The app works off line so can be used as a sat nav until you get a sim sorted. We also downloaded an offline version of Google maps although this is a lot more clunky to do .

Happy Travels

Andi, Paul & Nutmeg x