Casablanca: What to Do With a Day in Morocco's Biggest City

The City Everyone Lands In and Nobody Stays In

Casablanca is where most people arrive in Morocco and where almost nobody

lingers. Mohammed V is the country's main international airport, and the

standard move is to clear customs and get straight on a train to Marrakech or

Fes.

That is a defensible plan. Casablanca is not a tourist city — it is Morocco's

commercial capital, a working port of nearly four million people, and it does

not arrange itself for visitors the way Marrakech does. There is no great

medina here. The old city is small and unremarkable.

But it holds one building worth crossing a continent for, and a stratum of

1930s architecture that exists nowhere else in Africa. If your flight lands in

the morning or leaves in the evening, you have time for both.

The Hassan II Mosque

This is the reason to stop.

It is the only mosque in Morocco that non-Muslims may enter — the only one,

anywhere in the country — and it is one of the largest in the world. The

minaret stands 210 metres, the second tallest in the world. The prayer hall

holds 25,000 people and the courtyard another 80,000.

It was completed in 1993, designed by the French architect Michel Pinseau and

built by Moroccan craftsmen drawn from every region of the kingdom. That last

detail is what you actually see inside: cedar from the Middle Atlas, marble

from Agadir, granite, zellij and carved plaster executed at a standard almost

nothing modern matches. Part of the structure stands over the Atlantic, which

was deliberate — a verse holding that God's throne was built upon the water.

How to visit, precisely:

Non-Muslims may enter only on a paid guided tour. You cannot wander in.

Foreign adults 140 MAD

Students with ID 70 MAD

Children over 6 30 MAD

Children under 6 free

Museum (separate) 30 MAD

Tours run **Saturday to Thursday at 09:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 15:00 and

16:00. On Friday** the schedule drops to 09:00, 10:00, 15:00 and 16:00,

and the morning tours are frequently cancelled — if Friday is your only day,

plan for the afternoon. During Ramadan visits are mornings only, roughly

09:00 to 11:00.

The interior tour lasts about 45 minutes. Allow 1.5 to 2.5 hours in total once

you account for the ticket queue, security and time outside — the exterior and

the sea wall deserve their own half hour, and the building photographs best

from the plaza to the west in late afternoon.

Dress: shoulders and knees covered, for men and women both. Shoes come off

before you enter. A headscarf is not required for women but is welcome.

The mosque closes to visitors during the five daily prayers, which is why the

tour times are shaped the way they are.

The Art Deco City

This is Casablanca's second act, and almost nobody looks for it.

Under the French protectorate from 1912, Casablanca was built out as a modern

port city in a hurry, at exactly the moment Art Deco was at its height. What

went up was a hybrid — European Deco massing with Moroccan geometric

ornament, carved plaster and zellij worked into balconies and doorways. It got

called Mauresque, and there is more of it here than anywhere else on the

continent.

Much of it is faded and some is in poor repair, which is part of the effect.

Walk the streets around Boulevard Mohammed V and Place Mohammed V and

look up: the detail is all above the shopfronts.

The Habous Quarter

If you want a medina, this is the one to see — with an asterisk.

The Habous, or New Medina, was built by the French in the 1930s as a planned

version of a Moroccan old city: arcades, courtyards, ordered lanes. It is

authentic in the sense that people live and trade there, and inauthentic in

that it was drawn by architects rather than grown over centuries.

It is a good place to buy books and olives, the bakeries are excellent, and

nobody will chase you down an alley. Give it an hour.

What Else, If You Have Time

The corniche at Ain Diab is where the city goes to eat fish and watch the

Atlantic. Good for a late lunch.

Rick's Café is a themed restaurant opened in 2004 by a former American

diplomat. It has nothing to do with the 1942 film, which was shot entirely in

Burbank, California, and never came near Morocco. It is a handsome room and a

pleasant evening; just know what it is.

Is Casablanca Worth a Day?

Yes, if it costs you nothing extra. If you land in the morning or fly out

at night, the mosque and a walk through the Deco streets fill that time better

than an airport lounge.

Probably not, if you would take a day from somewhere else. Fes and

Marrakech both reward a third day more than Casablanca rewards a first. The

honest ranking puts it behind Rabat too, which is an hour up the coast and has

far more to look at.

The exception is the mosque. If Islamic architecture is the reason you came to

Morocco, this is the one building you can go inside, and that changes the

calculation entirely.

Getting Out

The train station, Casa Voyageurs, connects to everything. Roughly one hour to

Rabat, three and a half to

Fes, and three to

Marrakech. There is a direct train

from the airport, so you never need a taxi if you do not want one.

If you are travelling the north as a circuit, Casablanca is the natural

starting point rather than a destination: our

5-day Casablanca to Marrakech tour

begins here and runs through Rabat, Meknes,

Volubilis and Fes before turning south.

For the trade-offs of flying into one city and out of another, see

flying into Casablanca and out of Marrakech,

and for what the route costs by group size, our

Casablanca to Marrakech pricing guide.