Casablanca

Updated October 2026

Overview and Things to Consider

Casablanca is where Morocco goes to work. The commune counted 3,218,036 people in the 2024 census, the country's largest city by a distance, and it runs the main port and most of the money. Casa, as everyone calls it, has a small, plain medina, a downtown of 1920s and 1930s French apartment blocks going gray in the sea air, and a seafront that ends at the Hassan II Mosque, whose minaret you can see from almost anywhere. It doesn't put on a show for visitors, and that's the reason to come.

You'll like Casablanca if you want to see how urban Moroccans live, eat and dress when nobody is selling them a rug. Young people mix Darija and French in the same sentence, the cafés along the Corniche at Ain Diab fill at sunset, and the trams are full of students and office workers rather than tour groups. You'll hate it if you came to Morocco for riads, souks and snake charmers. The old medina is small enough that you're never more than ten minutes from an exit, and it's nothing like Fez's.

The 2026 moment is construction. Morocco co-hosts the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal, and Casablanca is getting the biggest share of the work: a new airport terminal due by 2029, a high-speed line to Marrakech due in November 2029, a cross-city rail hub called Casablanca Sud due in October 2027, and a 115,000-seat stadium being built to the east. Two tram lines and the busway opened in 2024, and Stade Mohammed V was rebuilt to host the Africa Cup of Nations in December 2025.

Most people treat Casablanca as an arrival lounge, and for one night that's fair. For two nights it's a mistake to leave. The mosque, the Art Deco streets downtown, the Habous quarter and a seawater bath under the mosque fill a full day without strain, and a second day lets you eat properly.

How Casablanca Got Here

There was a Berber town here called Anfa long before there was a Casablanca. It turned into a base for pirates, and the Portuguese bombarded it into ruins in 1468. The town that grew back was called Casa Branca, the white house, and after an earthquake flattened it in 1755 it was rebuilt under the Arabic form of that name, Dar al-Bayda. Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah rebuilt the town and built its port between 1756 and 1790. By the 19th century it was shipping wool to British mills and importing the gunpowder tea that became Moroccan mint tea.

The modern city starts with violence. In 1907 Chaouia tribesmen attacked a European railway crew laying track through a cemetery to the port, and France answered by bombarding Casablanca from gunboats in August 1907, killing somewhere between 600 and 3,000 Moroccans. After the 1912 protectorate, General Lyautey had the planner Henri Prost lay out a European ville nouvelle outside the medina walls and a new Moroccan quarter, the Habous. That's the grid of boulevards and white apartment blocks you walk today, and it's why central Casablanca looks more like Marseille than Marrakech.

Roosevelt and Churchill met at the Anfa Conference in January 1943, two months after American troops took the city in Operation Torch, and Hollywood had already made the place famous with a film shot almost entirely on a studio lot. The April 1947 massacre and the December 1952 riots made it a center of the independence struggle, and after 1956 it kept pulling in migrants from the countryside, many into informal neighborhoods on the edge. The 1965 student protests started outside a Casablanca high school. Hassan II's mosque, finished in 1993 and paid for largely by public subscription, gave the city the monument its old center never had.

Getting There and Around

You'll arrive at Mohammed V International (CMN), about 30 kilometers south of the center at Nouaceur. It's Royal Air Maroc's hub, handled 10.4 million passengers in 2024, and RAM has been a oneworld member since April 2020, so it turns up on a lot of round-the-world fares. The station is inside the terminal building. Al Bidaoui trains leave hourly for Casa Oasis, Casa Voyageurs and Casa Port, take 35 to 45 minutes, and cost Dh60 in second class, according to Lonely Planet's July 2025 guide. The airport security line after the train is slow on the way out, so leave extra time. A taxi into the city runs Dh300 to Dh400.

Citizens of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and every EU country enter visa-free for up to 90 days. The UK government asks that your passport be valid for at least three months after arrival and undamaged, while Canada's advisory says six months beyond departure, so carry one with six months to be safe. Make sure the officer stamps it. The UK notes travelers have had trouble leaving without an entry stamp. Extensions past 90 days go through the police.

Inside the city, use Casatramway, run by RATP Dev, which now operates four tram lines and two busway lines on one ticket system. T1 links Casa Voyageurs station with downtown, T2 runs out to the beach at Ain Diab, T3 starts at Casa Port, and T4 ends at the Parc de la Ligue Arabe. A single ticket is Dh8, or Dh6 a ride on a rechargeable card that costs Dh15 and lasts five years. First trams leave around 5:30 or 6am and the last around 10:30pm. The Casatramway app does journey planning. The Hassan II Mosque is still a 30-minute walk from the nearest tram stop at Place des Nations Unies, because a T4 extension there is only at the study stage.

Red petits taxis carry up to three passengers and pick up strangers along the way. Insist on the meter. White grand taxis run fixed routes and leave when full. Uber came back in November 2025 with UberX and UberXL in Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech, working only with licensed transport operators, because ride-hailing still isn't formally legal in Morocco. The UK advises that cars booked through apps may be unlicensed. For trains to other cities, ONCF's booking site, oncf-voyages.ma, now takes foreign cards most of the time, and Seat61 reports it opens three months ahead.

What's Changed Since 2016

December 2012 to September 2024: the tram arrived. The first line opened on December 12, 2012, a second followed on January 24, 2019, and T3 and T4 were inaugurated on September 23, 2024, bringing the network to four lines. The busway, two lines with 24 kilometers and 42 stations, started on March 1, 2024. A city that used to mean taxis and stalled traffic now has a transit map a visitor can read on day one.

November 2018: Al Boraq, Africa's first high-speed train, started running from Casa Voyageurs to Tangier via Rabat Agdal and Kenitra, cutting the trip from 4 hours 45 minutes to 2 hours 10 minutes. It carried about 5.6 million passengers in 2025. Construction on the 430-kilometer extension from Kenitra through Casablanca to Marrakech began in 2025, with full service planned for November 2029. Railway Gazette reports it will link Rabat with the airport in 35 minutes and Tangier with Casablanca in 1 hour 40 minutes.

May 2025 onward: World Cup works. Morocco's airports authority opened a tender for a new terminal at CMN, about US$1.6 billion, with a new parallel runway and full operation targeted for 2029. The 115,000-seat Hassan II Stadium is rising at El Mansouria, east of the city, with a planned opening in 2027, and the Casablanca Sud rail interchange is due in October 2027. Expect detours, fenced-off boulevards and dust through the end of the decade.

December 2025: Stade Mohammed V, the 1955 stadium in Maarif, came out of a 2024 to 2025 rebuild that removed the running track and hosted Africa Cup of Nations matches from December 22, 2025. It's still the home of Wydad and Raja, the city's rival clubs.

November 2025: Uber returned to Morocco, seven years after leaving, starting in Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech and adding Agadir and Tangier by July 2026. Officials have since signaled movement toward legalizing ride-hailing apps, but as of July 2026 no legal framework for them existed.

What the Usual Advice Gets Wrong

"Have a drink at Rick's Café, the bar from the movie." There never was a bar. The 1942 film was shot entirely on a Warner Bros. studio lot, apart from a few airport scenes at Van Nuys. Rick's Café opened on March 1, 2004, the project of former American diplomat Kathy Kriger, in a 1930 mansion on the medina wall. It's a pleasant, pricey piano bar, Dh100 for a gin cocktail by Lonely Planet's count, but you're paying for a set that never existed.

"Al Boraq will get you from Casablanca to Marrakech in no time." Not until November 2029 at the earliest. Al Boraq runs only north, to Rabat Agdal, Kenitra and Tangier. Marrakech is about three hours on a regular Al Atlas train from Casa Voyageurs, and Seat61 reports that a daytime Tangier to Marrakech journey still means changing trains in Casablanca.

"The Hassan II Mosque has the tallest minaret in the world." It did when it was finished in 1993, at 210 meters. Algiers' Djamaa el Djazaïr opened in April 2019 with a 265-meter minaret and took the title. The Hassan II is still worth the 140-dirham tour for what's inside: the carved cedar, plaster and zellige by thousands of Moroccan craftsmen, and a roof that slides open.

"Grab a taxi at the airport. It's the only sensible way in." The train is cheaper and usually faster at rush hour. It runs hourly from inside the terminal for Dh60 against Dh300 to Dh400 for a taxi, and it stops at Casa Port, a short walk from downtown hotels. Take a taxi only on a late arrival after the trains stop.

"Skip Casablanca. Take the first train out." Half right. If you have one evening, sleep near the station and go. But the mosque, the Art Deco blocks along Boulevard Mohammed V, the Habous quarter and a sunset on the Corniche fill one day, and they show a modern Morocco no other stop on the usual circuit does. Two nights is the right dose.

Ideas to Consider for Your Visit

Have you thought about touring the Hassan II Mosque at 9am, before the groups? The Hassan II Mosque Foundation runs guided visits Saturday to Thursday at 9, 10 and 11am and 2pm, adding 3pm from mid-March to mid-September, with a shorter Friday schedule. Foreign adults pay Dh140. The tour covers the prayer hall, the minaret hall and the basement ablutions hall. Cover shoulders and knees, because shorts and sleeveless tops are refused, and carry your shoes in the bag they hand you. The museum next door is another Dh30.

Have you thought about walking downtown for the architecture? Between Place Mohammed V, Boulevard Mohammed V and the Marché Central, the French built a city of Art Deco and neo-Moorish apartment blocks in the 1920s and 1930s, many with carved balconies and Moroccan tile. The 1918 central post office is on the square. Casamémoire, the association that campaigns to protect this 20th-century city, runs the Journées du Patrimoine, free guided visits to buildings that are normally closed, plus evening Nocturnes du Patrimoine. Check its site for the next dates before you plan.

Have you thought about the Habous? Prost laid out this quarter as a new Moroccan town for migrants from other cities, and it still feels like the 1930s, with arcaded lanes near the Royal Palace selling brass, books and rugs. Buy cornes de gazelle or a pastilla at Pâtisserie Bennis on Rue Fkih El Gabbas, have tea at the Café Imperial tables on the street, and find a guide to get you into the Mahkama du Pacha, the courthouse with more than 60 rooms of carved wood and stucco.

Have you thought about eating at the Marché Central? Lonely Planet's writer recommends the plastic tables at the central market for seafood. For a sit-down Moroccan meal, Dar Dada and Dar el Kaid serve rfissa, chicken and lentils over shredded flatbread. La Sqala, built into the remains of an old fortress on Boulevard des Almohades at the edge of the medina, does a modern take on Moroccan food with live bands many nights and is as popular with well-off Moroccans as with foreign visitors.

Have you thought about the Museum of Moroccan Judaism in Oasis? Opened in 1997, it bills itself as the only Jewish museum in the Arab world, and it holds the bimah from the Beni-Issakhar synagogue along with Berber costume and jewelry. Entry is Dh50, Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm (6pm in summer) and Sunday 11am to 4pm. It's closed Saturday. Casa Oasis station is on the airport line.

Have you thought about the Corniche at low tide? Ride T2 to its Ain Diab Plage terminus, walk the beach past the cafés, and keep going to the Sidi Abderrahmane shrine on its rock, reachable on foot only at low tide. Non-Muslims can't enter the shrine but can walk the tiny village around it. Come back along the seafront for sunset, when the Hassan II Mosque turns pink.

Have you thought about El Jadida for a day? Trains from Casa Port and Casa Voyageurs take about an hour and a half and leave roughly every two hours. The old Portuguese fortress town has ramparts to walk and a vaulted cistern under the walls. Rabat, the capital, is closer, an hour on the shuttle trains for about Dh45 in second class, and makes the better day trip if you'll only do one.

The Part Most Guides Miss

The hammam under the Hassan II Mosque. Guides mention the mosque's vast basement baths as if they were sealed off, and Wikivoyage still calls them unused, but Les Hammams de la Mosquée Hassan II have been open to the public, with separate 3,000-square-meter halls for men and women. A plain entry is Dh50 for 90 minutes, a scrub is Dh90, and Dh150 buys an hour in a heated seawater pool with jets and a waterfall, swimsuit and cap required. It's open daily 8am to 11pm, last entry 10pm, and it's the cheapest way to spend an evening inside a building most people only photograph.

Where to Base Yourself

Downtown, around Boulevard Mohammed V and Casa Port. The pick for a short stay. You're on foot to the Art Deco streets, the Marché Central and the medina, Casa Port takes the airport train and the Rabat shuttles, and T1 and T3 run through. Lonely Planet says most hostels and budget hotels cluster near the port. The catch is the streets empty and get sketchy after dark, and Wikivoyage advises against walking alone at night here.

Gauthier and Maarif. The base for eating and drinking. Gauthier has restaurants and bars like Le Kazbar on Rue Najib Mahfoud, Maarif has the shops, the nightclubs and Stade Mohammed V, and both sit between downtown and the coast. Hotel bars and European-style restaurants like these are where Wikivoyage points women who want a drink in peace. It's mid-range hotel territory with few budget beds, and the mosque is a taxi away.

Ain Diab and the Corniche. For beach walks and sunsets. T2 ends at Ain Diab Plage, the seafront is lined with cafés and newer hotels on Boulevard de l'Océan Atlantique, and the Morocco Mall is at the far end. The catch is distance, a long tram ride from downtown and the stations, and older Corniche hotels that Wikivoyage describes as having seen better days.

Next to Casa Voyageurs. Only if you're passing through. The hotels across Place de la Gare put you a short walk from Al Boraq and the Marrakech trains, and T1 runs from the station into town. Nothing else is here, and Wikivoyage's review of the budget Hotel Terminus is a warning to pay a little more.

Realities to Be Aware Of

Budget roughly US$40 to $55 a day on a dorm bed (Hostelworld shows dorms from about US$17), tram rides at Dh6 to Dh8, cheap market meals and one paid sight. Mid-range, with a central three-star hotel from about Dh600 a night and dinners at licensed restaurants around Dh160 a main, plan on US$110 to $150. Comfortable travel in the Corniche and Sidi Belyout hotels starts around US$250. Lonely Planet notes cash still rules for tips, petits taxis and street stalls, so carry small notes.

Safety is ordinary big-city caution plus a few specifics. The UK's advice lists pickpocketing, bag-snatching and motorbike thieves grabbing jewelry and phones, and occasional knife robberies, and Canada adds card fraud at ATMs, so cover the keypad when you enter your PIN. Wikivoyage reports faux guides here are mostly limited to the area around the old medina. Walk with someone at night downtown and in the medina, and take a taxi back from Ain Diab. Both governments rate the terrorism threat as real, as it has been since the 2003 bombings that killed 33 people.

Women traveling alone get comments more than anything physical, according to Wikivoyage, and the UK suggests loose clothing that covers arms, legs and chest. Many bars are mostly male. Hotel bars and the restaurants in Gauthier are easier. Alcohol is legal only in licensed bars, hotels and restaurants, and supermarkets like Marjane and Acima sell it. Same-sex relations are illegal in Morocco, and the UK warns that public affection can lead to prosecution and that dating apps carry risk.

Don't drink the tap water, Wikivoyage advises for all of Morocco. The pipes are the problem more than the supply, and a liter of bottled water costs a few dirhams. Canada's advisory says Casablanca has good private clinics if you need one. Restaurants open around 7pm at the earliest and fill late. During Ramadan, expected to begin around February 7 in 2027, eating, drinking and smoking in public in daylight are off limits.

If Casablanca Is Part of a Longer Trip

Casablanca is the rail hub of Morocco, so plan the country around Casa Voyageurs. Al Boraq runs north to Tangier in 2 hours 10 minutes, hourly through most of the day, for Dh99 to Dh224 in second class on Seat61's figures. Shuttle trains reach Rabat in about an hour, and Marrakech is about three hours south on a classic train. The usual mistake is to start in Marrakech and work north. Flying into Casablanca, taking the train to Marrakech first and finishing in Tangier lets you leave by sea. More of Morocco opens up from there by Supratours bus, which connects at Marrakech for Essaouira and Agadir.

From Tangier, Balearia and AML ferries cross the Strait of Gibraltar to Tarifa in an hour, with a free bus on to Algeciras, where trains leave for Madrid and the rest of Spain, though Seat61 warns the Algeciras line is being upgraded through most of 2026 and may mean a rail replacement bus. Seat61's overland route from London runs this way, through Paris, Barcelona and Madrid to Algeciras, with overnight stops along the way. That makes Casablanca a natural start or end point for an overland Europe and North Africa loop. Royal Air Maroc flies nonstop to New York, Washington, Miami, Montreal and Toronto, and because RAM is in oneworld, an open-jaw into Casablanca and out of Madrid or Lisbon fits on a single ticket. AirTreks builds that kind of routing.

Yearly Things to Consider

The Atlantic sets the calendar, and it's gentle. The cool Canary Current keeps Casablanca's climate close to coastal Los Angeles: highs of 64°F (18°C) in January, 80°F (27°C) in August, and almost no rain from June to August. The wet season runs October to April, peaking at 3.3 inches in November. Most travelers come through in spring and fall because those are the months for the Sahara and the mountains, so the city sees its busiest stretch from March to May and September to November. Summer brings Jazzablanca, set for July 1 to 10 in 2027 for its 20th edition.

The counterintuitive pick is December to February. Casablanca's highs still sit in the mid-60s°F, the mosque tours are half empty, and when inland Morocco is cold at night, this is the most comfortable city in the country. The trade-off is a few rainy days a month and gray skies over the sea. Check the Ramadan dates before you go, expected to start around February 7 in 2027, because the city's café life moves to after dark.

Ideas for Itineraries

3 Days in Casablanca

Day one, take the train from the airport to Casa Port, drop your bag downtown and walk Boulevard Mohammed V to Place Mohammed V and the Marché Central for a fish lunch, then cross the medina to the seafront for sunset at the mosque. Day two, take the 9am mosque tour, spend the afternoon in the Habous with pastries from Bennis and tea at the Café Imperial, and book the mosque hammam for the evening. Day three, ride T2 to Ain Diab, walk to Sidi Abderrahmane at low tide, and take the afternoon train to Marrakech or Rabat.

5 Days in Casablanca

Use the three-day plan, then add the Museum of Moroccan Judaism and the Villa des Arts gallery on day four, with dinner in Gauthier. On day five, take the train to El Jadida for the Portuguese cistern and ramparts and come back for a late dinner. If football is in season, swap an evening for a Wydad or Raja match at Stade Mohammed V, from Dh50 a ticket, and go with a local if you can.

1 Week in Casablanca

Spend three nights in Casablanca, then ride the shuttle train an hour to Rabat for two nights in the capital's kasbah and medina, which are calmer and older than anything in Casa. Take Al Boraq on to Tangier for the last two nights, or loop back south. If your flight leaves from Casablanca, sleep the final night near Casa Port so the airport train is a short walk away.

2 Weeks or More in Casablanca

Two weeks only makes sense if Casablanca is your base for a job, a course or a slow look at modern Morocco. Settle in Gauthier or Maarif, where the cafés, gyms and groceries are, buy a weekly tram pass for Dh60 plus the Dh15 card, and learn the T1 and T2 routes. Use weekends for Rabat, El Jadida, or a train to Marrakech for two nights. Weekdays are for the Habous, the Corniche at sunset and the city's restaurants, which change fast as new places open ahead of 2030.

Sources

What this guide is built on. Every page below was read for this guide; prices and rules were checked in October 2026.

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