Last updated: September 2026
Casablanca holidays offer a different and often underappreciated dimension of Morocco — the country’s largest, most modern and most cosmopolitan city.
Extraordinary Art Deco architecture, one of the world’s most spectacular mosques, a thriving Atlantic seafood culture and the liberal energy of a major commercial metropolis combine to produce an experience quite unlike the imperial medina cities of Marrakech and Fez.
Casablanca is contemporary Morocco — a city of five million people that drives the country’s economy and gives an honest, vivid picture of 21st-century Moroccan urban life.
The Hassan II Mosque alone justifies a visit to Casablanca.
Built on a promontory over the Atlantic Ocean and completed in 1993, it is the largest mosque in Africa, with a 210-metre minaret — the tallest religious structure in the world — and an electrically retractable roof.
It is one of the very few mosques in Morocco open to non-Muslim visitors on guided tours, and its interior craftsmanship of hand-carved cedarwood, hand-laid zellige tilework and Italian marble is extraordinary.
This guide covers Casablanca’s key attractions, how to get there, and how to book a Casablanca holiday with confidence.
Casablanca is routinely bypassed by tourists heading straight to Marrakech or Fez — an oversight that leaves a genuinely rewarding city largely to those who know it.
The Hassan II Mosque is one of the most extraordinary buildings in the world and reason alone for a visit.
The French Protectorate city centre — built between 1912 and 1956 — contains one of the finest concentrations of Art Deco and Mauresque (Franco-Moroccan fusion) architecture anywhere, largely intact and increasingly well-restored.
The Atlantic Corniche seafood scene is superb and excellent value. As Morocco’s primary air and rail hub, Casablanca also makes a practical gateway for wider Morocco exploration.
Casablanca pairs naturally with other Morocco destinations in a two-centre holiday. Casablanca plus Marrakech gives you contemporary modernity alongside historic medina intensity; Casablanca plus Fez combines the country’s commercial capital with its cultural one; Casablanca plus Agadir adds beach relaxation.
The high-speed Al Boraq train connects Casablanca to Rabat in 35 minutes and to Tangier in just over 2 hours — Morocco’s most comfortable and modern rail experience.
For UK travellers interested in experiencing Morocco beyond the tourist circuit, Casablanca is an essential and endlessly rewarding city.
The Hassan II Mosque stands on a promontory at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, its foundations partially built on the sea in fulfilment of a verse from the Quran that the throne of God was built upon water.
Completed in 1993 after six years of construction involving 10,000 craftspeople working around the clock, it is the largest mosque in Africa and the seventh-largest in the world by capacity.
The minaret — at 210 metres — is the tallest religious structure on earth, visible from across the city and from ships far out at sea.
Non-Muslim visitors can enter on guided tours, making it one of the very few mosques in Morocco accessible to all.
The interior is extraordinary: a vast prayer hall of 20,000 worshippers beneath a retractable roof, with hand-carved cedarwood ceilings, columns of Carrara marble, floors of pale Moroccan marble, and walls entirely covered in hand-laid zellige tilework of extraordinary precision.
The lower level contains hammam and ablutions facilities — public areas open to guided view — decorated to an equally high standard. The mosque is located 6 kilometres from the city centre; taxis and the tramway provide access.
The French Protectorate city built around the Boulevard Mohammed V is one of the finest concentrations of interwar European architecture outside France itself.
The style ranges from pure 1930s Art Deco (streamlined facades, decorative metalwork, porthole windows) to Mauresque (Moroccan-European fusion with zellige tilework, horseshoe arches and Moorish decorative elements applied to European building forms).
The Central Post Office, the Wilaya (Prefecture), the Banque du Maroc building and dozens of apartment buildings along Boulevard Mohammed V and its surrounding streets represent this fusion at its finest — many now restored as part of the city’s architectural conservation programme.
The Habous Quarter — a planned medina-style neighbourhood built in the 1930s in a deliberately traditional Moroccan style — offers a more accessible and less intense version of the Fez or Marrakech medina experience, with well-organised craft shops and a central square.
The Villa des Arts, a restored 1930s mansion housing a permanent collection of contemporary Moroccan art, is one of the better art spaces in North Africa.
The Museum of Moroccan Judaism, the only museum of Jewish heritage in the Arab world, tells the story of Morocco’s historically significant and remarkably well-preserved Jewish community.
The Ain Diab Corniche stretches for 4 kilometres of Atlantic seafront west of the Hassan II Mosque — Casablanca’s beach and evening entertainment strip, with beach clubs, seafood restaurants, bars and the restored historic fortification of La Sqala serving as anchors.
The Atlantic beaches along the Corniche are popular with city residents and provide an informal seaside atmosphere quite different from the resort beach of Agadir.
The evening seafood restaurants along the Corniche — from casual fish grills to smart brasseries serving Atlantic lobster, sea bass and tuna — represent some of the finest and best-value seafood dining in Morocco.
The Central Market (Marché Central) on Boulevard Mohammed V is one of the finest covered food markets in North Africa — extraordinary displays of Atlantic fish, Moroccan produce, spices, preserved lemons and fresh flowers, surrounded by traditional restaurants and French-style cafés serving the city’s workers since the 1930s.
Rick’s Café — a faithful recreation of the Humphrey Bogart film’s fictional bar (the actual film was shot entirely in California) — operates as a genuine restaurant and bar with live jazz and a menu of Moroccan-French dishes, a tourist attraction in its own right and thoroughly enjoyable as a result.
Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport (CMN) is Morocco’s primary hub and receives direct flights from London Heathrow (British Airways and Royal Air Maroc), London Gatwick and several UK regional airports, with flight times of approximately 3 hours from London.
The airport train (ONCF) connects directly to Casablanca’s central stations (Casa Port and Casa Voyageurs) in 45 minutes, with trains running every 30 minutes throughout the day.
Casablanca is the hub of Morocco’s rail network, with direct trains to Marrakech (3 hours), Fez (3.5 hours), Rabat (45 minutes) and Tangier (via Al Boraq, 2 hours 10 minutes).
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Casablanca’s food scene reflects its identity as Morocco’s commercial capital and most cosmopolitan city.
The Atlantic coastline provides exceptional fish and seafood — the morning catch of sardines, red mullet, sea bream, prawns and oysters from the Oualidia lagoon arrives daily at the Central Market (Marché Central) on Boulevard Mohammed V, one of North Africa’s finest covered food markets.
The surrounding block of traditional Moroccan restaurants and French-style brasseries has served the city’s workers since the 1930s.
The port area’s informal fish grill restaurants, where the day’s catch is displayed on ice and cooked over charcoal, represent some of the best-value eating in Morocco.
Casablanca’s café culture is deeply French in character — a legacy of the Protectorate years.
The grand cafés along Boulevard de Paris and around Place Mohammed V serve coffee and pastries at marble-topped tables with the unhurried pace that distinguishes North African café life from its European counterpart.
The city’s restaurant scene spans the full international range: Lebanese, French, Italian and Japanese establishments serve Casablanca’s international business community, while traditional Moroccan restaurants in the old medina and the Habous quarter (the “new medina” built by French planners in the 1930s) maintain the country’s culinary heritage.
Casablanca is Morocco’s most architecturally diverse city. The old medina — modest compared with Fez or Marrakech — dates from the 18th century.
The French Protectorate city, planned from 1912, produced one of Africa’s most significant concentrations of Art Deco architecture: the Central Post Office, the Wilaya (regional administration building), the Banque du Maroc and dozens of apartment buildings along the central boulevards represent a coherent Modernist urban vision.
The Habous quarter, built in the 1930s to rehouse rural migrants, is an extraordinary experiment in planned traditional architecture — French administrators working with Moroccan craftsmen created a new medina with souks, a royal palace annex, a courthouse and a mosque designed in pure Moroccan style.
The Hassan II Mosque, completed in 1993, dominates the oceanfront: its 210-metre minaret is the tallest in the world, and the prayer hall accommodates 25,000 worshippers inside with a further 80,000 in the surrounding esplanade.
Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport is Morocco’s busiest, handling the majority of the country’s international traffic. Direct flights from London Heathrow operate with Royal Air Maroc and British Airways, with additional services from Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester with budget carriers.
Flight time from London is approximately 3 hours 30 minutes.
The airport sits 30 kilometres south-east of the city centre; the Airport Express train (Casa Train) connects the airport to Casablanca’s main stations in around 45 minutes — a reliable, affordable alternative to taxis that deposits passengers in the heart of the city.
Casablanca’s position as Morocco’s rail hub means the city is the natural starting point for train journeys to Marrakech (3 hours), Fez (3.5 hours), Rabat (1 hour) and Tangier (2 hours 10 minutes).
Casablanca rewards at least two to three full days of exploration. The Hassan II Mosque is one of the most extraordinary buildings in the world and alone justifies a visit.
The Art Deco architectural heritage of the city centre, the excellent Corniche seafood restaurants, the Habous Quarter craft shopping and the city’s genuinely cosmopolitan energy give Casablanca a character that the more tourist-oriented medina cities cannot replicate.
It is an honest, modern, fascinating city — and widely underestimated by visitors who pass straight through to Marrakech.
The 1942 Bogart film was shot entirely in California and has almost no connection to the real city.
The real Casablanca is famous as Morocco’s commercial and industrial capital, home to the Hassan II Mosque (the largest in Africa), an extraordinary collection of Art Deco and Mauresque French Protectorate architecture.
Its Atlantic seafood restaurants rank among the finest in North Africa, and the Al Boraq high-speed train — Morocco’s TGV — connects the city to Tangier in just over two hours.
The ONCF airport train is the most convenient and economical option — it runs every 30 minutes from Terminal 1 directly to Casa Port (city centre, 45 minutes) and Casa Voyageurs (main station, 35 minutes).
Taxis are available at higher cost; agree the price in advance.
The train is air-conditioned, comfortable and far preferable to a taxi in traffic.
A first-class rail ticket (recommended) costs a few euros and is available at the airport station.
Many Casablanca holiday packages listed on Search4Sun are offered by ATOL-protected UK tour operators. Always check your holiday protection before booking — our guide explains exactly what cover applies to your Casablanca booking.
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