Things to do in Rabat

Landmark · River mouth, above the Bouregreg

A twelfth-century Almohad fort turned blue-and-white walled village, with an Andalusian garden and a terrace over the Atlantic.

Local tip: Free to enter and residential — people live here. Go in late afternoon when the light turns the walls gold and the Salé ferry is running. The café at the far end has the best terrace view in Rabat and charges accordingly; the garden below it is free and better.

Culture · South of the centre, on the Bouregreg slope

A Roman town that became a Merinid necropolis, now half-ruin and half-garden, with a resident colony of storks.

Local tip: It is the most atmospheric place in Rabat and almost nobody comes on a weekday morning. The Roman forum and the Merinid tombs are in the same enclosure, which is unusual anywhere. The storks nesting on the minaret are permanent and unbothered.

Neighborhood · South-west of the centre

The modern middle-class heart of Rabat — avenues of cafés and shops, the university, and where much of the professional city lives.

Local tip: Avenue Fal Ould Oumeir and the streets around it are where Rabat actually spends its evenings. It is far livelier than the administrative centre and much better value than Souissi. The tram runs through it, which is the whole point.

Neighborhood · Across the river

Rabat's older, larger and much less visited twin — a walled medina, a working port, and the marina development between them.

Local tip: Take the small rowing boats that still ferry people across the river mouth for a few dirhams rather than the tram — it is a two-minute crossing that has run for centuries. Salé's medina has the souks Rabat's lost, and prices to match.

Nature · North-west, below the Oudayas

A working Atlantic beach beneath the kasbah walls, with a surf break and a long coastal road running south.

Local tip: The beach directly below the Oudayas is where Rabat swims and where the local surf school operates — it is genuinely used, not decorative. The water is cold year-round and the current is real; ask the lifeguards which end is safe on the day.

Nature · 20 minutes north along the coast

A 1950s botanical folly of themed gardens — Brazilian, Congolese, Japanese, Polynesian — built by a French engineer and restored.

Local tip: Half an hour from the centre and almost entirely unknown to foreigners here. It is shaded, cool, full of birds and effectively empty on a weekday. Combine it with the beach at Bouknadel and the Plage des Nations, which is where Rabat goes on a hot Sunday.