Africa - ferry from Tarifa to Tangier

I will be traveling with my 14 year old daughter.

I do not like tours, I like to adventure on my own, or with a single tour guide. We will take the ferry from Tarifa to Taniger, when we arrive into Taniger, I want to walk from the port to a hotel. Do you have any hotels you recommend we walk to from the port?

I will then hire a tour guide at the hotel to take my daughter and I around for the day. What do you think?

Thank you for your help and time. Jim

I don't have hotels to recommend that are walking distance from the port...sorry!

Whatever you do, don't miss the American Legation Museum (http://www.legation.org/) in the Medina (officially known as the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies, or TALIM). It was the first US diplomatic outpost after we became a country, and although it's no longer function as a legation, the property is still owned by the US government. Particularly if you have a teenage daughter, she might be intrigued to discover things about our country's history that aren't often covered in history classes. They have some fantastic artifacts, including items dating back to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, etc.

From what the museum director has told me, most guides will just point out the location of the Legation, but won't take you inside because they don't get a kickback for bring in visitors. Expect your guide to tell you that it's closed (and it is, in fact, only open on weekdays--check the website for hours--or by appointment) or that it's no longer a museum. They're wrong.

If you want to get there without a guide, go to the Minzah hotel then head downhill. After about a block you'll come to a staircase on your right. (There is a great seafood restaurant on the right hand side toward the top of the stairs. Eat there for dinner one night.) Take those stairs to the bottom of the hill--where they merge with a street--continue straight ahead for about a block. You'll come to an intersection that marks two sides of the medina--straight ahead & to the left. (My recollection is that there's a walled cemetery on the right, but I could be wrong.) Follow the road straight ahead about 50 yards until you see a staircase on the left that goes up leading into the medina. Go up the staircase. You should see signs on the walls pointing toward the Legation.

You should also see St. Andrew's Church and the Caves of Hercules. With a good map, you'll be able to find St. Andrews on your own. You'll need to take a cab to the Caves. You don't need a guide for either of those.