Morocco Getting There & Away

Getting There & Away

Air Morocco's national airline is Royal Air Maroc (AT). Airlines serving Morocco include Air France Alitalia British Airways KLM Sabena Belgian World Airlines Lufthansa and Swissair . For free information on air travel from the UK only call the Air Travel Advisory Bureau in the UK on (0171) 636 5000 (London) or (0161) 832 2000 (Manchester). Approximate flight times From London to Rabat is 3 hours and to Tangier is 2 hours 30 minutes. International airports Casablanca (CAS) (Mohammed V) is 30km (19 miles) south of the city (travel time 35 minutes). Airport facilities include outgoing duty-free shop (closed after last arrival) post office banking and currency exchange facilities (open 24 hours) restaurant and bar (0800-2300) and car hire (Avis Hertz and Europcar) . There are bus and taxi services into Casablanca and coach services available to Rabat. Tangier (TNG) (Boukhalef Souahel) is 12km (7.5 miles) from the city (travel time 20 minutes). Airport facilities include outgoing duty-free shop banking and currency exchange facilities restaurant and bar (0900-2100) car hire facilities (Avis Omnium Starc-Hertz and Moroccan Holidays). Bus and taxi services are available into Tangier. Many visitors also fly to Gibraltar or Malaga (which are often considerably cheaper to get to) and take a ferry from Algeciras, Tarifa or Gibraltar to Tangier. This is not recommended in summer as literally millions of Moroccans living in Europe use this passage during the summer holidays. Sea Principal ports are Tangier Casablanca and Ceuta. Lines serving these ports are Transtour Compañía Trasmediterránea Limadet Bland Line (from Spain and Gibraltar) Polish Ocean Lines and Nautilus (from Spain and the USA) and Comanav . Car/passenger ferries There are cheap and regular car- and passenger-ferry links between southern Spain and Tangier and the Spanish enclaves on the north Moroccan coast. Most links are roll-on roll-off car ferries except where shown. The routes are from Algeciras to Ceuta (Sebta) (car ferry); Algeciras to Tangier (hydrofoil and car ferry); Tarifa to Tangier (hydrofoil only); Gibraltar to Tangier (hydrofoil and car ferry); Almería to Melilla (car ferry) and Málaga to Melilla (car ferry). There are also car ferries between Sète on the French coast (between Béziers and Montpellier on the Golfe du Lyon) and Tangier run by Compagnie Marocaine de Navigation. Rail Rail links between Morocco and Algeria are currently suspended. The main international routes are from Oujda to Algiers or from Oran to Algiers. Road The best road link is from southern Spain or France via passenger/car ferries (see above under Sea ). The road link on the north Algerian border is currently closed. When it will be opened again, there will be two options at Oujda and at Figuig. The one in Figuig brings you directly on the road to Mali The border with Mauritania is not closed if you're going south, but it isn't very easy either. The only way to do it is follow the coast and get your paperwork done in ed-Dakhla. Look in the ed-Dakhla section or see this site for more details: GPS points The only open border posts on land are the ones at the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. The frontier with Algeria has been closed for ten years. For the closest maritime connection you head for Algeciras or Tarifa in southern Spain. At Algeciras there are ferry services to Ceuta and Tangier that carry cars. Tarifa has a similar service to Tangier and this is the shortest and fastest route, just 35 minutes. It's possible also to enter Mauritania by car from Dakhla. Most countries citizens need a visa to get in Mauritania, and it's not possible to get it in Dakhla, so it's necessary to plan the trip very well.