What to see in Tetouan Morocco

What to see in Tetouan Morocco

Today I want to tell you what to see in Tetouan, that quiet city that competes with Tangier for being the gateway to Morocco if you pass the Strait of Gibraltar with your car. Tetouan is defined as a friendly city, which is much more worth visiting than its neighbor. Also, if you enter through Ceuta, Tetouan is much closer and is on your way to any route.

It is a good idea to choose Tetouan for your first day in Morocco. It will help you to acclimatize, to learn -or remember- how to relate to the country and its people. It is a city with few tourists and therefore easier to visit than others like Fez or Marrakech where you will be constantly crowded, offering you almost anything you can imagine. Gloria and I have stopped there several times and it has gradually become one of our favorite cities in Morocco Tours 8 days

Before telling you about Tetouan and its medina, I would like to comment very briefly that if you are going to travel to Morocco you should know beforehand how to change euros to dirhams and it is highly recommended to take out travel insurance in case you have any medical mishaps. By the way; we have more than 20 articles about Morocco in the blog, I recommend you to take a look at them, sure you will be interested in more than one.

ACCOMMODATION IN TETOUAN

When looking for accommodation in Tetouan I recommend you to look for a riad – traditional Moroccan house – that is close to the medina but not inside it. This way you will be close to everything and you will be able to park without difficulty. We have stayed at the Riad Tetuanía and the value for money was great.

And without further ado, let’s get down to business: what to see in Tetouan.

Feddan Square, start of the route with everything to see in Tetouan.

The visit to Tetouan is divided into two quite distinct parts, the part of the medina and the widening of the city, which is known as the Spanish Quarter. As you can guess it is a set of streets of colonial architecture, more or less cared for but with all its charm. Right in the middle of these two areas is the Plaza Feddan. It is the first image of the article and the place where I recommend you to start your visit to Tetuan.

This place is both a place of passage and a good place to stop and rest for a while. You can see the whole hill in the background so you will love to walk around and take a few pictures there. By the way, it is the best place to park in the city. There is a subway parking that is not expensive and even if you go with a motorhome they will find a space for you at the entrance. The price is on a blackboard and is fixed but it is still worth to make sure. Tour del Marocco

The Medina of Tetouan, a real Moroccan medina

The Medina of Tetouan is declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco and is undoubtedly the most interesting place to see in Tetouan. It has 7 access gates and inside include the Museum of Moroccan Art, several mosques, a small madrasa some and period houses that are also worthwhile.

But what makes it different from others like Fez, Chefchaouen or Marrakech is that it is not touristy. It still retains its essence and you can really appreciate the culture and daily life of the families who live there. This can be seen especially in that all the stalls are oriented to sell to local people, you will not find any that are dedicated to selling the typical souvenirs and above all you will not be offered a Moroccan every 5 meters to make you a guide.

I recommend that you get lost a little, you will see how the medina is still organized by guilds. You will find an area dedicated to fruits and vegetables, another to butchers, fishmongers and even stores selling eggs and live chickens. There is also another area for carpenters and another for electronics where I guarantee you that they are capable of repairing any appliance. Finally there is one in which the most accurate is to say that they sell second hand products or even scrap metal.  

Tetouan’s tanneries and their traditional techniques

One of the greatest attractions of the medina of Tetouan are its tanneries, so much so that they deserve a separate section. They are not as large or famous as those of Fez, but thanks to the fact that many fewer people come to visit them, it is a very authentic place where you can really appreciate the daily activity of leather work, all in a 100% traditional way.

I recommend you to look for them. Getting there is not easy but if you have internet with Google Maps is a piece of cake. If you look closely there are even some signs that point them out to you. Upon arrival you will discover a rather peculiar smell, I recommend you spend some time there to understand more or less the whole process. Viajes a Marrakech

The square of Hasan II or El Mechouar and the Royal Palace of Tetouan

If you have entered the medina through Feddan Square you can try to leave it through Hasan II Square, the other main square of the city. There is the Khalifa Palace, the current royal palace of the city. Inside it must be beastly but the king’s residence can only be seen from the outside. And from afar…

I remember the first time I went to Morocco as a child I was struck by how almost the entire square is fenced, guarded by a few soldiers but totally empty of people while everyone huddles in a narrow side corridor on the right hand side that leads to the medina.

The Spanish Quarter, discover the colonial architecture

Did you know that Tetouan was the capital of Morocco during the time of the Spanish Protectorate, between 1913 and 1956? This led to the construction of this expansion, now called the Spanish Quarter, which had decades of economic and artistic splendor. If you watch any chapter of the series El tiempo entre costuras you will get an idea of what the atmosphere of the city was like.

If you prefer to see it in situ, I recommend walking through the Spanish Quarter along one of its wide avenues looking up. You will see colonial buildings in which the passage of time and lack of maintenance are gradually leaving their mark. Your ultimate goal should be the Plaza Moulay El Mehdi, the nerve center of the city and where the Catholic church of Our Lady of Victory, built in 1919. You can also go to the train station, which also appears in the series.

Terrafín street, the best place to go shopping in Tetuán.

Another thing you can do in Tetuan is to go shopping. If you want to take any kind of handicraft with you, I can’t stop recommending you to take a walk along Terrafín street and its surroundings. There you can buy practically everything: carpets, tin, leather, ceramics, fabrics and everything you can think of. They are grouped by guilds and I think it is the best place in the city for shopping.

That’s where your haggling skills come in. Bargaining in Morocco is part of their culture so you must do it. If you don’t, you will overpay for the product and you will be missing out on one of the coolest things about Moroccan culture. But do it in a polite and responsible way. That is, try to agree on a price that you think is fair, both for you and for the artisan, taking into account the standard of living in Morocco, but don’t pay as little as possible by default. Normally the fair price will be about half of what they ask you at the beginning.

The cemetery of Tetouan, a beautiful place nestled in the hill.

From our point of view another of the places to see in Tetouan is the cemetery. It is on the side of a hill and if you get good light it has a beautiful image, I promise it is the one that I have recorded in the first place when I think of Tetouan. We ventured to take a walk inside with respect and without showing the camera and no one said anything to us.

Near the cemetery is the old Spanish cemetery that has a civilian and a military part. There are buried there people who died during the protectorate, both military in the front and civilians who lived in the city. A curious place although quite dilapidated since it hardly receives maintenance.