Tarifa: Catch the Ferry to Tangier

Tarifa is located on Spain’s Costa de la Luz (“coast of light”), directly across the Straits of Gibraltar facing Morocco. That’s why I was there: to catch the high speed ferry to Tangier.

Tarifa is the southernmost point of the European continent, situated south of both African capital cities of Tunis and Algiers. It is extremely windy due to it’s location on the Straits, so the town is crawling with windsurfers and kitesurfers. Tarifa is also dotted with hundreds of wind turbines. There were bulls roaming the streets alone and lots of semi-permanent campervans holding down the land from the insanely strong wind. Since it’s only a 35-50 minute ferry ride to the gateway of Morocco, it’s a popular spot for retail importers. I heard that late at night (3am, 4am) the outskirts of Tarifa are often a first-stop along the delivery route for drug and human traffickers who have procured cargo in Morocco.

To get from the bus station to the port, you need to walk across town. It’s about 1.5 miles down a main drag of tee shirt/bikini/surfgear shops, then another half mile making your way through the port.

If you like surf sports, you might want to stay in Tarifa for a day or two, especially for the kite surfing. For classic surfing, consider heading east to Cadiz instead - read my post on Cadiz here.