The hook
Morocco's calm, walkable capital on the Atlantic, where a blue-and-white cliff-top kasbah, an unfinished medieval minaret, and a Roman-Islamic ruin overgrown with storks sit above a mellow modern city.
01Why it's worth it
Overlooked by travellers rushing between Marrakech and Fès, Rabat is an easygoing, elegant introduction to Morocco. On a bluff over the mouth of the river stands the Kasbah of the Udayas, a serene old citadel of blue-washed lanes and a walled Andalusian garden looking out to the ocean. Above the city rises the Hassan Tower, the stump of a colossal minaret begun in the 12th century for what would have been one of the world's largest mosques, left unfinished, beside a field of broken columns and a royal mausoleum. On the edge of town, Chellah is an atmospheric walled site where a medieval Islamic necropolis was built over a Roman town, its ruins now draped in gardens and topped with storks' nests. Add a tidy medina, a good modern art museum, and Atlantic breezes, and Rabat makes a relaxed, uncrowded stop that shows a gentler side of the country.
02How to experience it
Wander the blue kasbah and its garden, see the Hassan Tower and mausoleum, and give unhurried time to the romantic ruins and storks of Chellah. Stroll the medina and the seafront. It is an easy, calm day, well linked by train to the imperial cities.
From the locals
Rabat's champions are the people who actually stayed there. "Rabat was my favourite spot," one solo traveller wrote of a six-week trip. "Not many people recommend it on their route, but I definitely felt the most like I was living among real culture and real people while I was there — and the touting was non-existent." A Moroccan agreed with some exasperation: "I grew up in Rabat, and I never understood why a lot of people don't even include Rabat, the capital, in their itinerary."