Morocco by Campervan: Discovering the Mediterranean Coast

Welcome back to the last article dedicated to our on-the-road adventures in Morocco, a country we visited aboard our campervan together with our dog and cat over 3 months. After leaving behind us the Atlantic coast and the country’s inland areas, we decided to complete the full loop of Morocco so as not to miss a thing.

We’ll tell you upfront that this area is the one we enjoyed the least, and we’ll explain why at the end of this article, where you’ll also find the free map with our wild-camping stops.

Looking back, we would have gone straight to Chefchaouen (the Blue City) after visiting Fes, so if you don’t have many days available, you might want to skip going all the way to Saidia on the Algerian border and only visit part of northern Morocco.

Finally, we returned once more to Tanger Med, from where we boarded the ferry back to Europe. If you’re travelling with pets, we point you to this article, where we wrote up all the information we gathered for entering and leaving the country with them, avoiding unpleasant surprises at customs.

Itinerary

Day 1: the first stop of this article takes us to a historic and archaeological site in Morocco, Volubilis. The road to get there is magical, as is the scenery around it and the atmosphere of a place steeped in centuries of history. It takes about an hour to visit the site, at the modest price of 7 euros per person.

Day 2-6: it’s true that it’s a mouthful, but Nzala el Oudaïa was our home for 5 days. A magical place, one that makes the podium of our favourite spots (want the others? find them here). 5 days spent immersed in nature, without meeting a single soul, running out of supplies and cooking a bread-like flatbread in the van, down to a single litre of water for 2 adults and 2 pets. It was surreal, it was beautiful, it was cleansing — so much so that it deserved a dedicated video  to tell you all about our impressions.

Day 7: among the imperial cities we still had left to visit, we decided to only see Fes, since Meknes was almost entirely under renovation at the time. Our visit lasted a whole morning: we chose to walk through the streets of the Jewish quarter at 7am, the perfect choice to avoid too many tourists, and to reach the tanneries the city is famous for. Looking out over these sites is free, although plenty of people will offer to act as your guide. The smell of treated leather is really strong, which is why you’ll be handed a sprig of mint at the entrance: don’t throw it away! It’ll help you avoid holding your breath the whole time!

read also Morocco by Campervan: From the Coast to the Desert to Marrakech

Day 8: leaving Fes, we decided, as mentioned, not to head straight north but to visit the whole Mediterranean coast of Morocco, reaching the unfortunately impassable border with Algeria at Saidia. It was moving to wave to people on the other side of what’s really just a ditch filled with barbed wire. In hindsight, this was one of the most interesting and unusual things to see along this coast, if not the only one.

Day 9-15: given the bad weather, we carried on along this stretch of coast, which struck us as gloomy and neglected, and where, among other things, it’s not easy to stop for the night. One destination that could be worth visiting is Melilla, a Spanish enclave. Given the really persistent rain, we pushed on, reaching Al Hoceima and then Cala Iris, all the way to Oued Laou. From here we could have carried on along the coast, but we decided instead on a short detour inland.

Day 16: our first stop was at the Akchour waterfalls. A truly beautiful place, immersed in nature, not so easy to reach  , which ends with a majestic natural bridge called God’s Bridge. Here too you can choose to walk on your own or with a guide. From here we finally reached the famous Blue City, where we treated ourselves to one last Moroccan dinner of couscous and tajine.

Day 17: we decided to properly visit Chefchaouen the next morning, getting up at dawn. A winning choice to avoid the crowds of tourists and admire the blue and white houses in all their glory, lit up by the first light of the sun. It’s commendable that, despite being a very popular tourist destination, you’re not swarmed the way you are in other Moroccan cities.

Day 18: Tetouan wasn’t a destination in our plans, but we went there thinking we could get our pets’ vet checks done. Either way, the town, known as the “white city,” is very charming, and on top of that, here we ate one (actually more than one) of the best pizzas we’ve ever tasted! Since we hadn’t sorted out the paperwork and it was almost evening, we decided to move on to Martil beach, not too far from the city.

Day 19-22: before venturing into the urban chaos of Tangier in search of the vet office for our exit paperwork, we stopped near Cap Spartel to admire one of our last sunsets on the coast. In Tangier we only ventured out for offices and paperwork, before moving on to a spot near Tanger Med, from where we caught the ferry back to Europe.

In Brief

Day 1: Volubilis

Day 2-6: Nzala el Oudaïa

Day 7: Fes

Day 8: Saidia

Day 9-15: along the Mediterranean coast

Day 16: Akchour waterfalls

Day 17: Chefchaouen

Day 18: Tetouan

Day 19-22: Cap Spartel and Tangier

Final Thoughts

As mentioned, we didn’t much enjoy the stops along the Mediterranean coast, mostly because of the huge amount of rubbish everywhere and a few unpleasant personal episodes. On a couple of occasions we had to call in the gendarmerie to be left alone by the locals.

Still, it was worthwhile to see a closed border with our own eyes, in a world we hope will one day be free of barriers. If you wanted to consider a shorter itinerary, you could perhaps limit yourself to the following stops over a week-long trip:

• Volubilis: as Italians, we can’t not visit a Roman site — and seeing this place really has an impact!

• Fes: definitely worth a visit to the tanneries.

• Akchour waterfalls and God’s Bridge: a magical place that will give you a fantastic hike, especially for God’s Bridge, which is stunning! Best avoided in the rain!

• Chefchaouen: you haven’t seen Morocco if you haven’t seen the Blue City!

Our Vlog

Below we leave you the video where you can relive these adventures with us, along with a video where we’ve summarised some tips for visiting Morocco.

• Vlog

• Our final thoughts

Our Maps

This is the complete map of our three-month tour of Morocco, including all the places we visited, the spots where we slept, and other useful information. Click the top-left corner to switch the different layers on or off, so you can see only the information you’re interested in. Happy browsing 🗺️