We'll be with my teenage daughters. Usually, we rent a car so we can be a bit more independent & go at our own pace. Looking forward to reading your timeshare reviews; thank you for the to-do list so far! (Tangiers might be fun, but I've elsewhere that is not the "real" Morocco", just tourist Morocco)
I also had apprehensions about Tangiers, so we talked about it as a family, weighed the pros and cons -- then decided to just do it. We had very low expectations as a lot of the Tripadvisor reviews are very negative, especially for the tours run by the ferry company FRS. I believe the tipping factor for us was --- well, when would we ever get back to Morocco? Probably never. We've already got an enormous list of places to see on our bucket list, and Morocco's not on it.
Once the decision was made, then the next question was: #1- doing it on our own (didn't appeal, didn't want the constant sales harrassment), #2 - doing the inexpensive tour organized by the Ferry Service, or #3 - paying for the ferry and hiring one of the private guides recommended by Rick Steves.
Again, our expectations were low because of the whole "TJ of Morocco" description. Also, costs factored into our decision. The roundtrip ferry cost was about 60 Euros each (180 Euros total for the 3 of us). The wierd thing was: Purchasing the ferry's "1-day Cultural Tour" which included: the roundtrip ferry, lunch, bus tour, and the tour guide was 59 Euros, or 1 euro less than the cost of the standalone ferry ticket. If we would have pre-booked one of Rick Steve's guides we figured that our costs for the day might have been twice as high as we would need to pay for the ferry, meals, any transportation, and the cost of the guide.
So, with exceptionally low expectations we booked the FRS Ferry "1-day Cultural Tour", and ended up having a truly marvelous day. The tour bus was luxurious and we spent a couple of hours going from one end of city to another. Our tour guide was excellent and a really really nice guy. We saw much more in 1-day on the tour than we ever would have seen on our own. We went to the famous caves, saw the gorgeous beaches, toured lots of neighborhoods, had an opportunity to ride a camel -- not as easy as I would have thought!
In the afternoon we did a fairly long walking tour of the city, the kasbah, the medina. The guide explained all the sights, and answered any questions. We had a really great lunch with live musicians (which would not have been as easy thing on our own as we were there during Ramadan - no food or drinks while the sun is up). After lunch there were stops at an store touting Argan oil and also a cute purse shop, but it was not a big deal. We listened, didn't buy anything, and it didn't take very long. Actually, I was happy to sit by that point. At the very end of the day, we had 1-hour on our own for shopping in the Medina or more sightseeing. All for the same price as the ferry ride alone.
So, we were very glad to have chosen the option we did. My 22-year old daughter really enjoyed it and we all got some really fantastic photos. I had never been in an Arab country before and the photos I was able to take of the Medina, the markets, the mixture of some people wearing traditional Moroccan attire (very beautiful) while others wore typical Western dress. It was interesting to hear the call to prayer ringing out over the entire city coming from 20 different directions simultaneously. Just watching people going about their daily lives -- such an amazing and different part of the world. Everyone treated us kindly, but I also felt much safer being with a large group and a guide who speaks the language.
Loved every minute of our day in Morocco!!
---- Rene
link to Rick Steves: "The New Tangier"
Although I disagree with his ending to the piece. No one on our tour was clutching our bags or stressed out walking through the medina. It was all fine and our lunch was really delicious. No complaints, whatsoever.
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/tms/the-new-tangier-is-no-tijuana