What To Do in Casablanca, Morocco: A Two Day Itinerary
This is my perfect two day Casablanca itinerary. We spent one month living in Casablanca during the winter of 2019 and I’ve created the ideal itinerary for travelers who are passing through the city for a weekend to pack in all of the best sights, food and drink.
Arrival day
Getting in:
Once you get through customs at the airport, you will want to follow the signs pointing to the taxi line. Confirm the price with the driver before getting in the car – it should be about 300 dirham (as of spring 2019), which is equivalent to about $30 USD. The airport is located about 30 kilometers from downtown, and will take you 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on traffic.
Lodging:
I recommend choosing a hotel or Airbnb located around Racine or Maarif (see below). None of the main commercial parts of town are particularly pretty or “nice” but this area is close to restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc. and I felt safe walking around alone as a female.
Getting settled:
You’ve potentially just landed from an international flight, so I would get settled in to your place before heading out for a little pampering. One overlooked aspect of Casablanca is that it is an urban city with urban city amenities… at affordable prices! A manicure will cost 50-80 dirham ($5-$8) and a blow-out or “brushing” as they call it, costs 50 dirham ($5).
Head to Racine Nails for your manicure – they do a very professional job and have a wide selection of higher-end nail polish colors.
After your manicure, go across the street to Hssein Lebanon, which is a large hair salon. The hair dressers are all Lebanese men but a woman will do your shampoo and wash. Just say you want a “brushing” and they will get you set up right away.
Two things: 1) Neither of these places will show up on Google Maps, so just follow my pinned locations, 2) Be prepared to pay cash (there are many ATMs in the area)
Dinner:
After you’re finished getting pampered, head home to get ready for dinner. As this may be your first meal in Morocco, you are going to a slightly upscale (but affordable!), traditional Moroccan restaurant, Al-Mounia. I do recommend making a reservation ahead of time by calling +212 5 22 22 26 69
To get to dinner, you will need to flag a “petit taxi,” which is a small red taxi. The taxis here essentially function like Uber Pool — which means even if someone is already in the taxi, the driver will still pick up more people until his car has three people. What is also interesting is that the drivers can tell you “no” if your location is not on their intended route — so you may need to flag a few taxis before someone agrees. The drivers may not know Restaurant Al-Mounia, so I would say “Palais de Justice” which is located right next to the restaurant. The taxi driver SHOULD START A METER for you, and each passenger should have their own meter running. The cabs here are INSANELY CHEAP, so the ride will cost you around 10-15 dirham, ($1-$1.50) for anything up to about 20 minutes. If he doesn’t start a meter (this may happen), he may try to charge you more when you get out — this is annoying but happens,;I would pay around 20 dirham and he will likely be content.
Al-Mounia serves traditional Moroccan food — like couscous, “tajine,” which usually consists of meat and veggies cooked in an earthenware dish, pigeon pastry – which is a flaky, sweet pastry with pigeon meat (that is quite good!), etc.
At Al-Mounia, my favorite dishes were the chicken with plums, couscous with lamb, and the pigeon pastilla. The restaurant also has a variety of Moroccan wines — if you like red wines try the Medallion or Chateau Roslane.
After dinner, if you want to keep the party going, you can head to La Bodega for a more lively scene (think Spanish tapas/sports bar), or go to Casa Jose for a glass of wine or a cocktail (see map at bottom of post). There is a lot on the itinerary for the next day, so calling it a night is also a reasonable thing to do.
day 2
Depending on how you are feeling, you have the option to sleep in. But for those of you that want to stretch your legs, put on some walking shoes because you are going to walk to La Corniche, which is the popular seaside area of Casablanca. It will be around a 1 hour walk through some of the more beautiful neighborhoods of Casablanca.
Because you may need some fuel for the walk, grab a smoothie at one of the numerous “jus” bars in Casablanca. They are easy to spot by the nets of hanging fruit outside and their colorful interiors. My favorite juice is orange juice, avocado and mango – you can enjoy it there or to-go, and will cost about 15 dirham. The juice bars also offer sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, and sweet pastries for affordable prices. The small hard boiled eggs are considered a delicacy because of their much more flavorful yolk. I’ve dropped a pin at a neighborhood juice bar, but they are really located everywhere.
Once you arrive at La Corniche, you can stroll along the boardwalk and watch numerous soccer games happening on the sand. The beach itself isn’t terribly pretty because of the very dark colored sand, but it’s still nice to stretch your legs and get some fresh air.
From La Corniche, you now need to head to Hassan II Mosque (or if you slept in, head from home to the mosque) — this is the largest mosque in Africa and the fifth largest mosque in the world. I recommend hailing a petit taxi, as the walk will take you about another hour.
A few Hassan II Mosque stats:
- Largest mosque in Africa, fifth largest in the world
- Tallest minaret in the world, at 210 meters
- Construction cost between $400-$700 million
- Construction completed in 1993
- Capacity of 105,000 — 25,000 indoors, another 80,000 on the grounds
After the mosque, it’s time for some refreshments. You’ll want to walk about 15 minutes to either 1) Rick’s Cafe or 2) La Sqala.
Rick’s Cafe is a bar/restaurant built in 2004 to recreate the famous Humphrey Bogart bar from the 1942 movie, Casablanca. Many people do not realize that the movie was shot entirely in Los Angeles, California — none of the scenes were shot in Morocco or Casablanca. All of that said, the construction and recreation of the bar is fantastic! Great place to sit at the bar, get a gin martini, and feel like you could see Humphrey Bogart or Ingrid Bergman any second. We thought it would be overly cheesy, but it’s actually a nice spot.
If you are not a gin-martini-at-1pm type of person, I would head on to La Sqala which is a few minutes further down the road. You can get a patio table in their picturesque garden and try Moroccan mint tea (which lands pretty high on my power ranking of teas) and some pastries.
Don’t have too much to eat, however, because you are about to head to one of my favorite places in Casablanca, Rue Anglais! Rue Anglais is a street lined with produce and food vendors. I LOVE this street. You essentially can bounce from one vendor to another, trying anything you lay your eyes on — most breads or pastries will cost 1 dirham, (10 cents).
To get to Rue Anglais, wander through the narrow streets of the old medina. It is safe, so just take in the colorful streets and old, massive doorways.
Now that you’ve filled your belly a bit — you can wander back down Rue Anglais and head through the clothing/purse vendors of the Old Medina. It is a little more hectic here with people trying to flag you down to sell various items — buy stuff if you want, but if you are heading to other cities in Morocco like Fes or Marrakech, I would hold off.
That said, if you are female and are interested in temporary lashes (like one week), there is a group of sub-Saharan African women who gather right inside of the clock tower to do braids, nails, eyelashes. I had my eyelashes done for $10 and was actually quite happy! They lasted about six days (she told me it would last two weeks).
You want to exit the Old Medina by the clock tower.
Now you are going to head across the street to my second favorite place in Casablanca, the Central Market. This market is MUCH more low key than the Medina. It has more artisanal vendors selling things like flowers, fish, woven baskets, and amlou.
Amlou is an almond butter, infused with Moroccan Argan oil. It is then mixed with honey and creates the most delicious topping for toast, fruit, or just to eat plain! You can purchase 8 ounces of amlou for 40 dirham, or $4. A perfect gift for a foodie friend back home.
Now, I don’t know you, but if you are like me, you probably can still find room in your stomach for more snacks. I recommend having a few oysters (they will crack them and top with lemon juice), as well as some sea urchin (or uni).
There are MANY fish and seafood vendors here, you can purchase a whole fish for about 100 dirham ($10)/kilo. They will clean it for you, and then you can take it around back to the numerous make-shift restaurants, the women will season and grill the fish for you, and give you accouterments for about 30-40 dirham ($3-$4)
From here you want to exit the market (noting the horse meat vendor!), and flag a petit taxi to head home to rest up for dinner
For dinner, you are going to Le QuatorZe, a higher-end French restaurant in the neighborhood. There is a large French community in Casablanca and some of the best restaurants are actually French and not Moroccan. Le QuatorZe is located in a small two-story villa, all of the dinnerware is antique china, and the menu is full of decadent dishes like burrata, foie gras, and filet mignon — overall, a wonderful experience. To make a reservation call: +212 5222 09652
If I have not worn you out yet, you can head down the street to Le Kimmy’z, a happening bar for cocktails and live music. It will be loud, full of cigarette smoke, dancing, and a quinessential Casablanca experience. When we visited on a Friday night, we went home around midnight and the night seemed like it was just getting started.
Departure day
If you choose to go to Habous, I recommend taking a petit taxi. It should only cost 10-20 dirham, or $1-$2, and take about 10 minutes to get there. Habous is generally a more relaxed experience but I feel it also looses a bit of it’s authenticity for that same reason. Many people love it, so I will let you decide for yourself
After you have had your fill of the market, I would head home, because it is likely time to head on out to the airport or the train station. If you are planning to travel to another city in Morocco via train, you will need to head to Casa Voyageurs. For how to take the train, see my post on “How To Take the Train in Morocco”.
Have you been to Casablanca? Any recommendations you would include? If you use this itinerary on your trip to Casablanca, please let me know!
I love it! It was very informative. Great pictures. It’s like a deluxe version of a Rick Steves two day visit but with better pictures! Nice job!
John
Thank you, John! Haha maybe I can sell it to Rick Steves
I loved this!! Send me some of that amlou and I’ll take all the seafood!! Thanks for doing this blog. Loved at the pictures. It’s so colorful there. (glad you haven’t had your purse stollen🙌☺️💖)
Haha, thanks, Sue! The amlou was SO good. I intended to bring some home but ended up eating all of ours
Wonderful post Brittany!!! The pictures and narrative say it all! Hope I can visit there someday.
Thanks, Pipi! This is the best of Casablanca… so you may not want to spend more than a few days because the city and country do have some issues which Ill address in future posts
This post is amazing! It is exactly the kind of trip I’m looking forward to in November ’19, unlike all other blogs where it was just a sightseeing trip. Thankyou so much for the details!
Thank you, Pooja!! You have no idea how happy it makes me to know you read and enjoyed the post!
Im here right now and I admittedly did not plan this portion of my trip out very well. This guide is so well-done I want to pay you for it lol! Seriously, thanks for your help.
Thanks, Robert! Somehow I am just seeing your comment. It makes me so happy to know the blog helped out. Please let me know which things you did and how they were!!
wonderful!
wonderful! Im excited to Explore Casablanca
I READ ‘BOUT NEGATIVE’S NORTH OF MARRAKESH ,I SET MY SIGHTS SOUTH BOUND,ESSOUIRA ETC,.COMFORTABLY NORTH IS BACK IN THE BUCKET,THANK YOU!1 Q?,IN OR OUT OF BENI MELLAL,U HAVE TO GO THRU ‘CASABLANCA’?thanx again.
. Great pictures. It’s like a deluxe version of a Rick Steves two day visit but with better pictures! Nice job!
We really linke your article
Come to visit casablanca again