A CHANGED CITY

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

The Tangier of 2004 has literally disappeared. The difference with Spain has become very small.

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 IMAGE

Tangier is now the second corporate city of Morocco, after Casa.

A new harbour, a long line of luxury hotels, bars, renovated squares, a shopping paradise for the tourists of the Spanish costas, cleanliness.

 

THE NEW COAST

5 years ago, crossing the Strait of Gibralter at night, meant gliding through the dark.

Here and there you could see the lights of Ceuta and then, in the distance, those of Tangier.

Nowadays the Moroccan side of the Strait is filled with light.

With the prices of real estate having gone through the roof at the Costa del Sol, not a month goes by without a new development or urbanisation on the Moroccan side of the Strait.

THE NEW TRANQUILITY

Tourism has become increasingly important for Morocco.

It is now officially forbidden to "harass" tourists.

With large parts of the country still being very poor, only made invisible... you might wonder where the street children and very poor have gone...

Sometimes still a flash of the old Tangier

THE 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.