Here's the deal...I have a LOT more of a sense of travel adventure than travel saavy. What I would like to know is the BEST way to get from Madrid to someplace not too far into the interior of Morocco - say Tangier. I would like to leave Madrid one morning and return early the next afternoon. From my previous post, I THINK it may be worth the trip. Dont want to take more time from my first love, Madrid though. Speaking of transportation, I purchased a roundtrip from Madrid to Amsterdam on Easyjet for under $200 American. Seems like a decent price. Their routes are pretty limited, had to purchase 2 separate roundtrip tickets (Madrid-London and London-Amsterdam), but London isnt a bad place to spend a few hours. BTW for my fellow Americans, I bought my roundtrip from Houston, Tx to Madrid on Skyauction.Com for less than $500.00 total. Might wanna check out their site.

If you're going by EasyJet I'm afraid your "few hours in London" will all be spent in Luton Airport!

To get to Morocco (other than flying) you gave to get down to Algeciras in Andalucia. I doubt you can do it in the time you've allowed (or that it would really be worth the effort).

Yes, you are correct about the time being spent in Luton. Didnt even know of such an airport until I got the Easyjet ticket. Thanks for your frankness about Morocco. It probably would be taking too much time from my being someplace I know I really enjoy.

If you want to leave Madrid one morning and return the next afternoon you would probably be better off spending your time in Sevilla.
Take a morning AVE to Sevilla (whether you are going to Morocco or not); then you could pop over to the Plaza de Armas bus terminal and catch a bus to Algeciras. From there you can get a ferry to Tangier. Bus service Sevilla-Algeciras is not very frequent, but it's slow!
As I said: Stop in Sevilla and take time to tour that beautiful city and enjoy some of its nightlife.

From a time standpoint, approximately how long from Sevilla to Tangier? Sevilla is a pretty much planned on - with or without Morocco as a additional side trip.

from Sevilla to Algeciras is 5 hours by train, with about 3 trains per day. There are about 5 buses per day and it takes 4 hours by bus. Then the ferry from Algeciras to Tangier is 2 and a half hours. That is 2 and a half hours from Madrid to Sevilla. So really, it is not a day trip from Madrid. Even if you plan perfectly and manage to not have too much waiting, it will take you about 12 hours to get from Tangier to Madrid.

anyhow .. that is just what I have found in guidebooks, I have not actually gone that route myself, though will soon do a similar one...