Our next destination was Rabat via a local train with our tour group consisting of 16 people plus 1 guide whom we had met on the last day of Casablanca. Our group only had an afternoon here before jumping on another train to Meknes. It really is an interesting mix of emotions involving the excitement of being in another culture & tackling my shyness around a large group of people who became a mini family over the course of the adventure.
This group of wonderful people were like a fruit salad full of different personalities & up-beat energies.

Rabat (Arabic: الرباط, ar-Ribaaṭ, literally “Fortified Place”) is the Political capital and fifth largest city of Morocco. This city is relatively modern in comparison to Casablanca and actually reminds me of Limassol in Cyprus (or London on a sunny day) with it’s glistening contemporary buildings & pretty, modern streets. Rabat has not quite established itself as a tourist destination, however visitors who do go find a gem of a city. The colonial architecture is stunning, the palm-lined boulevards are well kept and relatively free of traffic, and the atmosphere has a cosmopolitan flair, even a lot of the locals walk around with a graceful & confident air wearing designer clothing, trendy accessories & driving stylish cars. All in all, life here is pleasant and civilised. Although at times Rabat can be rather dull in comparison to other Moroccan destinations because there are very few areas within the city that has that charm most tourists search for. Yet the city is more laid-back, pleasant and more provincial than Casablanca or Marrakesh, and far less grimy and frantic. This would be a good place to possibly live if you were considering living in Morocco because it would be an easier place to adjust & adapt to the lifestyle as oppose to the hustle and bustle of other Moroccan cities.

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We landed in Casablanca after a 3 hour flight (plus a full day of travelling from Plymouth to London Gatwick) on the 11th March. We were a day early & were to meet the rest of our group that evening. It was a warm dusk in this busy city and even in the taxi ride to our hotel we could see how vast this place is. Casablanca’s architecture is a fusion between contemporary glass sky scrapers & beautifully crumbling French buildings. Casablanca is Morocco’s chief port and industrial, economic and business centre, while the national political capital is Rabat.
One tip we learned from our Lonely Planet book, that I am going to tell you is: You will mostly likely be pestered by individual men claiming they are taxi drivers the moment you step out of the airport and they will try to usher you into their car if you look like a little lost tourist. Don’t follow them. Chances are it’s a con. You will usually see the majority of Taxi drivers waiting in a group & by their rusty, beige Mercedes (that looks like it’s driven out of a 1970’s film set, which I find quite charming) just across the road. With a Taxi ride from the Airport to your hotel discuss the charge before you get into the car and you usually pay about 250 Dirham (which is about 20 pounds), do not let the driver over charge. Tipping is also a must do in all of Morocco, so remember to tip!
After a 20 minute drive from the airport and through the streets of Casablanca (Including what looked like a rough area & we worried the driver had taken us to the wrong place), we finally arrived at the lovely Hotel Maamoura. Apart from one noisy neighbour who left his television on loud, the hotel was decent with Moroccan interior design through out, our room was simple & spacious, yet elegant with a balcony and we had a flushing toilet, oh the luxury! This hotel is great for the traveller who needs an over night pit stop or for those who perhaps want a couple of nights stay in Casablanca in order to see the main sights like the Mosque, ancient medina & market place.

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