Chefchaouen was founded in 1471 as a fortress against Portuguese expansion, then filled with Muslim and Jewish families arriving from Andalusia after the fall of Granada. It later spent forty years inside the Spanish protectorate, and the result is a town where Spanish is still widely spoken and where the architecture - tiled roofs, Spanish doorways, a street plan unlike any other Moroccan medina - reads as familiar to visitors from the Hispanic world.
It is also the least convenient place in Morocco to reach. No railway comes near; Tangier and Fes are the closest stations, two and four hours away respectively, and intercity buses run to timetables that consume most of a day at either end.
The drive deserves daylight. From Tangier the N2 climbs through the Rif for two hours of switchbacks; from Fes it is four hours over higher ground. Both are well surfaced and both reward a driver who knows the safe pull-offs. Every booking is private and the rate is fixed before you travel.
Why hire a driver here
- Spanish is more useful here than French, a legacy of the protectorate
- Without a station, the road is the only sensible way in or out
- Through the Rif it is unbroken mountain road with genuine hairpins
- Two hours away from Tangier, four from Fes and five from Casablanca
- Being steep and car-free, the medina makes the drop-off point count
Included in every booking
- Fuel, tolls and the driver's fee for the agreed route
- Pickup in Tangier, Fes, Casablanca or Rabat
- Spanish, Portuguese and English-speaking drivers available
- Photo stops on the Rif descent into the valley
- Bottled water and phone charging in the vehicle
