Tangier City Tour: Kasbah, Medina, Cap Spartel & Caves of Hercules

Tangier has inspired painters, writers and musicians for a century, from Matisse to the Beat Generation, and its location on the Strait of Gibraltar gives it a character unlike any other Moroccan city. This private half-day tour combines its old town with the coast. You walk up to the kasbah, the old fortress at the top of the medina, with the Dar el Makhzen palace museum and terraces looking over the strait to Spain on a clear day. Through the medina's lanes you reach the Petit Socco, the small square once full of spies and writers' cafés, and the American Legation, the first American public property abroad. Then you drive west along the coast to Cap Spartel, the lighthouse where the Atlantic and the Mediterranean meet, and to the Caves of Hercules, whose sea opening is shaped like a map of Africa. On the way back you can stop for a camel ride on the beach or a mint tea at Café Hafa, open since 1921.