2024 Spring Festival Europe 6-Country Trip Day 05: Spain's Overseas Territory - Ceuta

📍 Montreal · 👁 4994 reads · ❤️ 1 likes

We agreed on a 6-country European trip, so why start from day 5, and even end up on African soil? It all begins with Ceuta. Ceuta's full name is the Autonomous City of Ceuta (Spanish: Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta), which is something between an ordinary city and an autonomous region. Before gaining autonomous status, Ceuta was part of the province of Cádiz in southern Spain. Starting from day 5, I believe that visiting Ceuta is one of the highlights of this trip, so I'll talk about it first.

Ceuta has many historical sites and attractions, including both cultural heritage and natural landscapes. With only one day to play, the Ceuta Walls near the port, Africa Square and the nearby Africa Cathedral, Our Lady of Africa Church, and the Ceuta City Hall became the best choices.

This is a photo of part of Ceuta port taken from the ferry. In the picture, the name of Ceuta port should be in Spanish and English.

My answer is: First, Ceuta is located on the African continent. While traveling to Europe, a side trip to Africa is a bonus. For most people, setting foot on African soil in a lifetime is a rare opportunity.

Second, on the round-trip ferry, you can observe British Gibraltar from near to far and from far to near. Truly a busy strait; being in it makes you feel its important role in maritime transportation.

Third, to go from the southernmost part of mainland Spain to Ceuta, you need to take a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar. This allows you to experience sea travel and also to be in the important geographical concept of the Strait of Gibraltar, which is very meaningful.

We chose to take a ferry from Algeciras to Ceuta. In fact, multiple cities in southern Spain have ferry routes to Ceuta, such as Algeciras, Cádiz, and Pigeon Island. The distances vary, so the travel times differ. Algeciras port should be the port with the shortest distance, taking about 70 minutes.

Before leaving the country, I searched online for guides to Ceuta. Probably because few domestic tourists go to Ceuta, the guides were not detailed. The actual process of taking the ferry is very simple. First, buy a ticket. From the round-trip experience later, February is obviously the off-season for round trips. A ship with hundreds of seats had an occupancy rate of less than 10%. At the port, you can buy tickets at the window. The night before, I tried to buy tickets on an international port ticketing website, but when it came to credit card payment, it kept prompting to wait without success. The next day, I went to the port ticket office to ask the reason. The ticket seller said that the fare had changed, so online payment could not be processed, meaning I couldn't successfully buy tickets on that website.

If you take a taxi to Algeciras port, no inspection is needed; you can be dropped off directly at the ticket office entrance inside the port. If walking to the port, you need to enter from the entrance shown in the picture above and walk to the ticket office.

Ticket price: round trip 51.1 euros per person.

For the convenience of netizens looking for the port entrance, I have included a street view picture of the building opposite the port entrance for reference.

From the picture, you can see that the main ferry companies operating between Algeciras and Ceuta are three: BALEARIA, FRS, and TRASMEDITERRANEA. Departure times vary, roughly one departure every half hour. We chose the ferry of BALEARIA.

This ferry is a mixed passenger-cargo ship. The upper one or two decks are passenger cabins, and the lower deck can carry vehicles. Self-driving tourists can add a vehicle ticket, which is also convenient.

The waiting room is not crowded, spacious, bright, and well-equipped.

After boarding starts, board the ship via the corridor through this entrance.

Passenger cabin of BALEARIA ferry. So few people! It can be described as almost empty. The ship is quite well-equipped with various entertainment facilities, a children's playground, bar, restaurant, etc.

After returning to Algeciras from Ceuta, you need to go through customs and border inspection, which is to go through the door on the left. Actually, it is just scanning luggage and checking passports. Although the whole trip was within Spanish territory, we still had our passports checked. There were few people, no queue, and it was very simple.

To be continued!

Travel journal directory:

1. D5: Stepping onto African Soil - Ceuta

2. D5-1, Ceuta Overview

3. D5-2, Why Must You Visit Ceuta When Traveling to Spain

4. D5-3, How to Get to Ceuta from Mainland Spain

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