Ferry Tickets Spain to Morocco
This Spring we did a tour of Morocco in our motorhome. Here we explain how we bought ferry tickets from Spain to Morocco for the short crossing from Algeciras.
Our trip to Morocco began in Spain
First of all we didn’t buy our tickets to Morocco before leaving home. Having said that, we did do quite a bit of research, looking for tickets with various agents and ferry companies from the comfort of our arm chair.
However, it became apparent that buying tickets in Spain was probably the most cost effective way to travel to Morocco. With this in mind, we took our chances and left buying the tickets until we were actually ready to travel to Morocco whilst on the coast of Spain.
Ferry options from Spain
Although there are a few ferry ports to choose from in Spain, including Tarifa, Almeria, Barcelona and Algeciras, there is often quite a difference in price and length of journey time.
We were wanting to catch our ferry to Morocco from the very Southern part of Spain. This was because we were touring the coast, starting near Motril, South of Granada after travelling first from Madrid after sailing to Bilbao. Our travels then took us along the Costa del Sol and onwards to Gibraltar.
This is where we were ready to book ferry tickets, after parking at a very good Aire at the Marina in La Linea de la Concepcion, which is in Spain but within walking distance to the border at Gibraltar.
Our ideal choice of ferry was Algeciras to Tanger Med. That’s because we’d already realised it was cheaper, yet still only a short ferry taking about 90 minutes. It’s also a route with numerous daily sailings, so there’s likely to be plenty of options for a crossing time.
Where to buy ferry tickets to Morocco?
Driving along the coast of Spain close to Algeciras, we soon come across numerous portable offices and town businesses selling ferry tickets to Morocco.
Of course, as I said earlier, we’d already looked online back at home numerous times at crossings, so knew a little bit about the routes, prices and choice.
By now, we felt certain to buy our ferry tickets to Morocco from possibly the most famous ferry ticket seller in Spain – Carlos!
So, a couple of days before, we took the 30 minute drive from La Linea to find the long established office of Carlos in the port town of Algeciras.
Buying ferry tickets from Carlos
The sat nav brings us to a modern, out of town shopping centre just before the town and port. We’re here to find Carlos and buy our tickets for the ferry to Morocco. Luckily, when we arrive at the tidy office round the corner from a large Carrefour supermarket, the office is empty. That’s except for Carlos and his daughter who come out to greet us like long lost friends!
Carlos directs us to park right outside the office door and beckons us inside. Soon buying our tickets with his bubbly daughter who we didn’t catch the name of. There’s little English spoken, so hand signal’s and a translate App help us along.
Carlos is getting on in years, but you can tell he’ll never give up his work. He seems to be more of a hindrance than help to his daughter at times, as she gives instructions on technology to him from across the desk! It’s a comical scene in the nicest, family kind of way.
How to choose the ferry?
Carlos and his daughter ask us when we want to travel, in which we reply the day after next! We show the date on their desk calendar to avoid any translation issues. Unfortunately, we have no Spanish and they have pretty much no English.
The rest is pretty much left to them to guide us. We’re told an open ticket is best with ALM which will cost us €280 return, on the Algeciras to Tanger Med route. It’s March 19th and we want to return about a month later. With such little English spoken, we don’t really ask anything more as we’re happy with the route and price.
This cost is for 2 adults and our campervan which is 5.93m long, 2.83m high and 2.04m wide, 3.5t.
So, we don’t really choose the ferry, they sort of tell us what’s best and we go with their recommendation.
We know this price is good in comparison to what we’ve found before leaving home.
What documents do we need?
To buy the ferry tickets, Carlos needs the original vehicle V5 document and our passports. They scan our passports into the computer and print these on a letter which forms the basis of our ferry tickets.
This acts more like a voucher, along with 2 separate voucher size paper tickets – one for the outbound and one for the return journey.
The tickets are ‘Open’, so we don’t have to choose an exact sailing or date.
They also ask us to take a photo of the ‘tickets’ incase we loose them!
Paying for the tickets and instructions
After paying, we’re given instructions to be at the port 60 minutes before departure and 2 hours prior for the return.
We’re also asked to read notices stuck on the desk in front of us. This reminds people to write contact numbers inside passports in case they get lost.
Another reads not to give money to anyone asking at the port because they’re scammers! This trip is going to be a big learning curve we feel!
Finally, we’re given passport & ticket covers with Carlos’s logo and contact details on. As well as a bottle of wine and slab of local cake. What more can you ask for?
Arriving at the Algeciras Ferry port
We choose to drive back to La Linea marina and spend the night there before our 9.30am sailing. It seems a safe place to park and there’s little choice elsewhere. Another advantage, is the short 30 minute drive to Algeciras port.
We’re up at 6am and make use of the dump/fresh area at the Aire before leaving. Although we leave in plenty of time, the traffic is busy and we only just make the 60 minute pre-departure port arrival.
We join a small queue waiting to board after following the lane for the ALM ferry operator. We show our open ticket voucher and they usher us to another lane.
Scammers at the port
No sooner have we turned the engine off in the ferry queue and a guy approaches in reflective vest. He asks for our passports.
At first, we think he’s one of the ‘scammers’ that Carlos warns about, but then we’re not sure, so hand him our passports. He leans on the bonnet of the campervan and writes our passport details on an immigration paper. At this point we’re a little weary, unsure have we done the right thing?
It turns out we’ve failed at the first hurdle to Morocco! This guy is indeed one of the infamous ‘scammers’, as we soon find out when he hands us back our passports and demands €20! Yes – lesson learnt fast!
This guy is really persistent, but we’re equally as insistent on “no money”, as the bartering goes on, his €20 demand decreases at a slow rate, nevertheless, it’s going down! Eventually, he comes to my window and I tell him €1.50 or nothing. He takes the coins mumbling under his breath, tuts in the process and moves on to the next victim.
So the scam it seems is they pretend to be officials (there are several guys doing the same thing in the queues, before disappearing with their loot and re-emerging for more). They ask for passports and fill in the white Morocco immigration paper with your details before handing this back to you and demanding some extortionate fee.
There was no one official to help those waiting in the queues, it just seems these guys are left to get on with it!
Immigration forms for Morocco
I’m diversifying for a minute! To enter Morocco you do have to complete one of the white immigration paper forms, but you do this when you get on board the ferry.
There is an official immigration desk just next to the cafe area where you queue (get there asap as it gets busy quickly). Find a white paper form (it’s a basic photo copy form) on the counter at the cafe or ask someone. I filled it in while Nigel waited in the queue.
The immigration officer will ask a few questions and you hand the completed forms over (one each). He filled in the part for where we were staying (we were travelling round of course so didn’t know what to put). We just told him we were in a campervan touring.
Check in for the ferry
Back to the ferry check in at Algeciras! We don’t drive to the check in booth for some time, in fact, we’re not entirely sure what we’re waiting for until it becomes obvious.
45 minutes before departure, the waiting vehicles are ushered to move forward. At this point we hand our passports and ticket voucher to an official in a proper check in booth. In return we’re given tickets with our details on and the vehicle registration.
We then drive forward to a different booth where both our newly printed tickets and passports are checked again.
Next we wait in line to drive onto the ferry. Luckily, we’re first on board and ready for the first step on our Morocco adventure.
Returning on ferry from TANGER MED
On returning from Tanger Med, we didn’t have a ferry booking, we just turned up at around 8pm.
You can sleep in your motorhome at the ferry port and there were lots of motorhomes already there doing just that.
To get the ‘open ticket’ converted to a live ticket you have to park up and walk the short distance to the ticket offices. There will be one for ALM. Here we asked to board the next available ferry after showing our voucher given by Carlos. The guy then printed off tickets.
We then drove towards the check in booth and asked if we could go on the next ferry which was due to sail imminently. The ticket was supposed to be for a sailing a few hours later. Luckily, the officer waved us through and we were able to go on this earlier ferry.
Important: You need the tiny piece of white immigration slip which you are issued by immigration/customs on arrival at Tanger Med in order to leave Morocco. I will write about arrival at Tanger Med in another post and what this is about.
Thanks for reading ‘Ferry Tickets Spain to Morocco’ don’t forget to like, follow and subscribe. next time we’ll be on board the ferry to morocco and navigating immigration at tanger med.
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