In March this year, Yara travelled to Morocco by train to join a week of surfing in Rabat with Surfgirls NL. In this blog, she will tell you how I did this and will give you some tips. Hereby we give the word to Yara!
Yara's story on traveling to Morocco by public Transport
I already wished to visit Morocco for a while as I heard good stories about the culture, nature, and of course, the surfing 😉. When I saw that SurfgirlsNL organized two trips to Rabat, Morocco, together with Ilyana Surfhouse, I wanted to go! As I decided that I wanted to decrease flying I set myself the challenge to see if it was possible to travel down all the way from The Hague (NL) to Rabat by public transport.
Here is how much time it took and what route I decided to take!
Day 1 - Monday 27th of February
- I took an early train from The Hague to Rotterdam
- From Rotterdam Central I took the Thalys to Paris Gare du Nord around 7:00 AM
- I arrived in Paris Gare du Nord around 10:30 AM
- Around 15:00 PM my train to Barcelona left from Paris Gare de Lyon
- I arrived in Barcelona in my hostel around 22:00 PM
During my second train ride from Rotterdam Central to Paris Gare du Nord, I looked up what I could do in the time I had before my next train left for Barcelona. First, I went to Paris Gare de Lyon. This is another train station which is quite easy to reach by metro. Here, I stored my big backpack in one of the locker rooms they have and continued my way to one of the museums not too far away. After visiting this, I went back to the train station and continued my trip down to Barcelona.
Day 2 to 4 - Exploring Barcelona
After travelling from the Netherlands nearly straight to Spain, I decided to have a few days in Barcelona to visit the city. I have spend monday evening to Friday early morning in Barcelona and visited the hightlights.
Day 5 - Friday 3th of March
On Friday I left the beautiful city Barcelona behind me to continue my trip by public transport to Rabat, Morocco. The next stop; Tarifa.
- Left Barcelona very early, at 5:50 AM for a train to Malaga (via Madrid)
- Arrived in Malaga around 12:30 PM
- Left for the first bus available to Tarifa (tickets available at a counter)
- Arrived in Tarifa around 16:00 PM ish
In Malaga, I had just enough time for a lunch break and to stretch my legs before going on another 2-2,5 hours bus ride along the Spanish coast. I ended my day in Tarifa with a stroll in the small town and I could already see Morocco on the other side of the ocean! I would recommend watching the sunset at the beach, it was beautiful.
Day 6 - Saturday 4th of March
The next day, I wished to arrive to Rabat to start my surf adventure with SurfgirlsNL and Ilyana Surfhouse. Here is how I travelled on day 6.
- Walked to the harbour
- 9:00 AM ferry from Tarifa to Tanger, Morocco
- 10:00 AM arriving in Tanger!
- Walk (30-40 min) or taxi to Tanger central train station
- First train available to Rabat Ville
- Taxi from Rabat Ville to the Surfhouse!
The harbour was a 10-minute walk from the hostel I stayed at. I was surprised by how easy it was to cross the border to another continent by ferry (tickets here). After about an hour on the ferry, I arrived in Morocco! Now it was time to find my way to the train station of Tanger. I thought I could walk and saving some money on a taxi. I was wrong, took me around 30-40 minutes in the heat (would not recommend!). As the ferry was a little bit delayed and I was too suborn to take a taxi to save a few euros, I missed the train that I had originally booked from Tanger to Rabat… and ended up paying twice for a ticket as it was non-refundable. Luckily there are many trains going south from Tanger and there is no need to pre-book it!
Once having arrived in Rabat Ville, I took a taxi to the Surfhouse. First, man drove me in the wrong direction, and it took me longer than it should have, but that is how we learn. And when I actually arrived, Nina and the other Surfgirls were already there to give me a warm welcome! After which we enjoyed an amazing week with a lot of surfing (and progress), sunshine, good food, laughter and playing games 😊
After this week of surfing, I stayed in Morocco for a couple weeks longer and flew back to the Netherlands.
Extra tips and €€€!
- At the time that I booked my train from Rotterdam to Barcelona, the option mentioned above was the cheapest connection but if you would take one Thalys later, you would still be able to get on the train to Barcelona. The train from Paris to Barcelona I booked first class, as this was only 10 euros more expensive😉 I booked my train to Paris at Eurostar (€55) and my train to Barcelona separately via sncf-connect (€116). This was the cheapest option at the time of booking. You might also want to look at a Interrail ticket, especially if you are going for a return trip by public transport to see what the best option for you might be.
- Figuring out what was the best option for traveling from Barcelona to Tarifa was difficult. There are no trains going along the Spanish southeast coast. So, I travelled from Barcelona to Malaga via Madrid. I booked my ticket via Renfe and paid €52,50. Another option could be to find a ride along the coast through BlablaCar, which is like carpooling (for a little €). A lot of Spanish people use this app.
- From Malaga I bought a bus ticket to Tarifa for around €18,50 at a counter at the bus station.
- The ticket for the ferry I bought online beforehand on this website, but there is also a ticket office close to the harbor in Tarifa. The ticket cost me around €45.
- The train ticket from Tanger to Rabat varies between €9 – €15. Tickets and timetables can be found via oncf-voyages.
All together traveling this way to Rabat, one way, cost me around €300, excluding the costs of staying in Barcelona and Tarifa. But it was worth the adventure!