Sometimes still a flash of the old Tangier

New infrastructure

If your last travel to Tangier dates from 4 or more years ago, brace yourself for a surprise.

For the new face of Morocco is most clearly visible in the transport.

Most ferries coming from Spain are new vessels, including tax free shops.

If your ferry arrives far from the entrance of the Port, a coach will be waiting for you (gosh).

The new and luxurious train station is now 2 kms out of the city centre.

Many trains are new and air-conditioned.

The new trains

Long-time travelers to Morocco are most surprised by the change in the behaviour in trains.

This is now the typical transport for the growing middle classes, and as in cities in Central Europe, you now often travel in silence, amidst travelers enjoying their laptop, iPod or glossy magazine.

Having had to wait so long to profit from the same economic boum as the one that occured at the other side of the Gibraltar Strait, the hunger for that what is new is even bigger here.

You might see more Apple laptops per square meter than in Frankfurt or Geneva.

Tangier changes

A total remake... that is the least what you can say about what has happened to Tangier.

It is simply a new city.

You might think you are in Algeciras or Malaga or any other large town in Spain... with this difference that Tangier has simply done a better job at it.

It is now way ahead of Algeciras.

New prices

Sure, the sharp increase in prices is not comparable to the one in Marrakech.

That would be difficult. In Marrakech it can happen that even travelers from Tokyo or New York are shocked about a price.

But yes, also Tangier is slowly becoming more expensive.

Prices of taxis or a hair dresser might still be cheaper than anywhere else; hotels, real estate or restaurants are doing their best to catch up.

Catching Up

That hunger to catch up with the rest of the world can be compared to what happened in Spain over the past 3 decades.

Having been cut off from the rest of Europe for so long, surviving decades of economic turnmoil while the rest of the world seemed to glow in a shine of modernity... it is precisely for that reason that Spain has become such a modern country, from its experimental architecture to the cleaneliness of its cities.

Spain must be the western European country with the least second hand shops... too many decades of poverty have resulted in an allergy for second hand.