The best things to do in Morocco.

Morocco's capital pairs Atlantic light with monumental history, from a riverside kasbah to Roman-and-Merinid ruins. Here are twelve experiences worth your time in calm, walkable Rabat.

Rabat's older twin sits just across the Bouregreg, a short tram ride or boat crossing from the capital. Calmer and more traditional than Rabat, Salé rewards a half-day of wandering its medina, monuments and seafront. Here are ten experiences worth your time.

Just an hour south of Rabat by train, Morocco's largest city and economic heart pairs Art Deco boulevards with a vast oceanfront mosque. An easy day trip from the capital, Casablanca runs from the Atlantic Corniche to the old medina. Here are twelve experiences worth your time.

About two hours east of Rabat by train, Meknes is the imperial city of Sultan Moulay Ismail, blending monumental gates, vast granaries and a relaxed medina with easy day trips to Volubilis. A rewarding overnight or long day from the capital. Here are twelve experiences worth your time.

An easy 40 kilometres north of Rabat on the Sebou river, Kenitra is a relaxed Atlantic city ringed by lagoons, cork forests and long empty beaches. A 20th-century port town rather than an imperial capital, it makes an unhurried day trip from Rabat for birdlife, beaches and nature. Here are ten experiences worth your time.

Rabat is compact, calm and walkable, which makes Morocco's capital ideal for a single well-paced day. This itinerary moves from the riverside kasbah through the great Almohad monuments to the medina and seafront, with realistic timings and short hops between each stop.

Rabat's central position on the Atlantic coast and the high-speed rail line make it a comfortable base for day trips. Within an hour or two you can reach an imperial city, Roman ruins, a Portuguese-era port and quiet lagoons. These are the day trips most worth taking from the capital.

Calm, green and walkable, Rabat is one of Morocco's easiest cities for families. Wide boulevards, a tram, gardens, a beach and open monument grounds mean children have room to roam. Here are the family-friendly experiences that work best in the capital.

The walled heart of the capital runs from the Atlantic ramparts up to the blue-and-white Kasbah des Oudayas above the Bou Regreg. It is one of the calmest old quarters in Morocco — easy to read on foot, free of the hard sell, and laced with craft streets, sea views and a 12th-century Almohad gate. Here is how to explore Rabat's medina and kasbah.

On a high terrace above the Bou Regreg, Rabat's most photographed ensemble pairs the unfinished minaret of a 12th-century Almohad mega-mosque with the gleaming 20th-century mausoleum of Morocco's modern kings. Together they tell eight centuries of the city's story in a single open square. Here is what to see and know before you go.

On a green hillside just outside Rabat's walls, Chellah is the capital's most atmospheric site — a walled garden where a Roman port town and a 14th-century Merinid royal necropolis lie tangled together, watched over by nesting storks. It is quiet, shaded and unhurried, the kind of place you linger longer than planned. Here is what to find inside the gates.

Rabat is an Atlantic capital, and its relationship with the ocean runs from the surf break beneath the kasbah to the long Corniche south of the centre. The water is brisk and the swell can be strong, but the seafront is where the city unwinds — surfers, families, joggers and café-goers sharing the same salt air. Here is what to do along Rabat's coast.

As Morocco's capital, Rabat holds the country's flagship national collections — from the modern-art museum that opened a new chapter for Moroccan painting to the archaeology hall that gathers the finest Roman bronzes from Volubilis. Add the restored kasbah palace and a handful of contemporary spaces, and the city makes an easy, rewarding day for culture. Here is where to go.

Rabat eats well and quietly. As an Atlantic capital it leans on fresh fish and seafood, but it also keeps the full repertoire of Moroccan classics, French-protectorate café culture and a polished modern-dining scene in the Ville Nouvelle and Agdal. Here is how to eat your way through the city, from medina street stalls to the marina.

For a capital, Rabat is unusually green. Andalusian courtyards, a vast exotic garden of bamboo and cacti, a royal botanical test garden and the wild walled garden of Chellah give the city a calm, shaded counterpoint to its monuments. Here are the best gardens and green spaces to slow down in.

About 170 km east of the capital, Morocco's finest Roman ruins and its holiest little town sit a few kilometres apart in the green hills below Meknes. Volubilis spreads its mosaics and arches across an olive-covered plateau; whitewashed Moulay Idriss tumbles down two hills around the shrine of the man who founded Morocco's first dynasty. Paired with Meknes, they make a rich long day from Rabat. Here is what to see.

Just 40 km north of the capital, Kenitra is a relaxed Atlantic-and-river city, and its seaside suburb of Mehdia adds a long beach, a kasbah on the bluff and the bird-rich lagoon of Sidi Boughaba. Reachable in well under an hour by train, it makes an easy, low-key escape from Rabat for sand, seafood and wetlands. Here is what to do.

Tucked into the Rif mountains about 200 km northeast of the capital, Chefchaouen is Morocco's famous blue town — a maze of lime-washed lanes in every shade of indigo, climbing toward green peaks. It is too far for a comfortable single day from Rabat, but it makes a perfect overnight or two-day escape into cooler, mountain air. Here is what to do in the blue city.

Rabat's evenings are easygoing and civilised rather than wild — this is a diplomatic capital, and it shows. The night runs on café terraces, riverside dinners, theatres and concert halls, with a handful of bars and clubs along the Corniche and Agdal for those who want them. Here is how to spend an evening in the capital.

Where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean and Africa faces Spain, Tangier has always been a city apart — a former international zone of writers, spies and painters, now smartly reborn around its bay. The Al Boraq high-speed train links it to Rabat in little over an hour, putting the kasbah, the Strait of Gibraltar and Cape Spartel within reach for a long day. Here is what to see.

Rabat is one of the best places in Morocco to shop without the pressure. The capital is famous for its fine carpets and embroidery, and its medina's craft streets are calmer and more honest than the souks of Fes or Marrakech. Add the colonial-era new town, the Habous-style arcades and modern malls, and the city covers everything from a handmade rug to a high-street label. Here is where to shop.

Calm, walkable and washed in Atlantic light, Rabat makes a quietly romantic escape — less frenetic than Marrakech, more refined than the coast resorts. Blue-and-white kasbah lanes, sunset over the river, tea on a rampart terrace and dinners by the marina give a couple plenty to slow down over. Here is how to spend a romantic weekend in the capital.

Few capitals pack so much history into so small a space. Rabat layers a Roman port, an Almohad imperial vision, a Merinid necropolis, a Barbary corsair republic and a French-built modern city — most of it inscribed by UNESCO as the model of a city blending past and present. For history lovers, here is the capital's story told through its monuments.

The capital sits on a stretch of Atlantic coast that surfers have quietly enjoyed for decades. From the break beneath the Kasbah des Oudayas to the long open sands at Plage des Nations and the cliff-backed beaches south through Harhoura and Temara, Rabat offers reliable cool-season swells, beginner-friendly surf schools and plenty of room to swim in summer. The water is brisk and the currents are real, so this is a coast best enjoyed with local knowledge — here is where to surf and swim around Rabat.

The Bou Regreg is the slow tidal river and estuary that separates Rabat from its twin city of Salé before spilling into the Atlantic beneath the Kasbah des Oudayas. For centuries it has been the link — and the dividing line — between the two cities, crossed by small wooden rowing boats long before the bridges and tram. Today the riverbanks blend that old crossing with a modern marina, landscaped walks and birdlife on the mudflats. Here is how to experience Rabat from the water.

Perched on a bluff where the Bou Regreg river meets the Atlantic, the Kasbah of the Udayas (Oudayas) is the oldest corner of Rabat — a fortified Almohad citadel of the 12th century, later given its blue-and-white lanes by Andalusian refugees from Spain. A UNESCO-listed part of historic Rabat, it is largely free to wander: a grand gate, painted alleys, an Andalusian garden, a clifftop café and sweeping views across to Salé and the ocean. Here is how to make the most of it.

South of Rabat's medina, behind long ochre walls, lies the Dar al-Makhzen — the official residence of the King of Morocco and the working seat of the monarchy. The palace interior is closed to visitors, but the walled Mechouar district around it is open to walk through, and its ceremonial gates, vast esplanade and palm-lined avenues are among the capital's most striking set-pieces. Here is what to see and how to visit respectfully.

On the southern edge of Rabat, out toward Témara, the Rabat National Zoo (Jardin Zoologique de Rabat) is one of Morocco's largest and most modern zoological parks. Reopened in its current form around 2012, it is laid out not by cages but by ecosystems — Atlas mountains, desert, savannah, wetlands and tropical forest — and is best known for its Atlas (Barbary) lions, descended from the former royal collection. Spacious, shaded and built for walking, it makes an easy half- to full-day outing for families. Here is what to find and how to plan a visit.

On Avenue Mohammed V in central Rabat, the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Musée Mohammed VI d'art moderne et contemporain, often abbreviated MMVI) opened in 2014 as Morocco's first major purpose-built museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art. A handsome modern building softened with traditional Moroccan decorative touches, it pairs a permanent collection tracing twentieth-century and contemporary Moroccan art with a programme of significant international touring exhibitions — shows that have brought major European masters to the capital on loan. Central, walkable and easily folded into a day in Rabat, it is the anchor of the city's art scene. Here is what to see and how to plan your visit.

When France made Rabat the capital of its Moroccan protectorate in 1912, a whole new city rose beside the old medina — wide boulevards, palm-lined avenues and a generation of art deco and Mauresque buildings laid out under Resident-General Lyautey and the planner Henri Prost. Today this Ville Nouvelle is the capital's working heart, and its spine, Avenue Mohammed V, is the best place to read Rabat's modern story. The new town forms part of the UNESCO-listed 'Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City'. Here is how to explore it on foot.

As the national capital, Rabat hosts some of Morocco's biggest cultural moments — headlined by Mawazine, one of the largest music festivals in the world. Festival dates shift from year to year and not every event runs every year, so treat the timings below as a rough guide only and always confirm the current programme before you build a trip around them. Here is what to look out for and how a major festival can reshape a visit to the capital.

Beyond its historic monuments, Rabat has quietly become one of Morocco's most notable street-art cities — largely thanks to Jidar – Toiles de Rue, an urban-art festival that has invited Moroccan and international muralists to paint large-scale works across the capital's walls and buildings. The result is a free, walkable open-air gallery of contemporary murals scattered through the Ville Nouvelle, Agdal and the Hassan district, where bold modern colour plays against the old capital. Murals are added, weathered and sometimes painted over from year to year, and the festival's timing and exact locations vary, so treat the details below as a guide and confirm the current programme and map before you set out. Here is how to find the murals and weave them into a day in Rabat.

In 2012, Rabat was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as 'Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City: A Shared Heritage' — a listing that, unusually, celebrates both the old city and the twentieth-century modern capital laid out under the French protectorate. Rather than a single monument, the inscription draws together a string of sites across the city: the new town with its avenues and gardens, the historic medina, the Almohad-era walls and gates, the Hassan Tower, the Kasbah des Oudayas and the Chellah. Together they tell the story of how Islamic and European, ancient and modern, were woven into one capital. The site name, descriptions and visitor details around any single monument can change, so treat the specifics below as a guide and confirm the current programme and opening details before you go. Here is how to read Rabat as a single World Heritage city.