Question 1

Casablanca on Your Own

Accepted Answer

An independent Casablanca day can stay close to the port: the old medina is beside it, the Hassan II Mosque is a taxi ride along the shore, and the central squares of the French-built city are a walk inland. Leave the Corniche and its beaches for a longer call. The mosque tour: Visitors see the inside on a paid guided tour through the prayer hall, the minaret hall and the ablution hall. Tours run at set times, mostly in the morning and fewer on Fridays, and the times change with the season and during Ramadan. Dress and rules: Clothing must cover the shoulders and torso and come below the knee, and shorts and sleeveless tops are refused. You take your shoes off and carry them in a bag, and the group stays together and quiet. Tour prices in 2026: Foreign adults paid 140 dirhams, children over six and Moroccan students 30 dirhams, and children under six went free. Check before you go. The old medina: It is small, and even if you lose your way you are never far from a gate. Unofficial guides are mostly found around the medina. The colonial center: Mohammed V Square was laid out in 1916, and its courthouse of 1923 and the other buildings around it went up in the 1920s and 1930s. Locals call it Pigeon Square. Mind your things: Pickpocketing and theft of jewelry and bags from passing motorbikes are common in the medina and on the beaches. Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own. Watch the clock: All-aboard is given in ship's time, which may not match the local clocks or your phone. Morocco has kept UTC+0 all year since September 2026, after several changes to its clock rules, so compare the local time with your ship's time when you go ashore.

Question 2

Getting Around Casablanca

Accepted Answer

Casablanca has four tram lines, and the red petit taxis cover the rest. The trams are low-floor and frequent, and they announce stops in Arabic and French. Line T3 starts at Casa-Port station, by the port. Line T2 runs out to Aïn Diab on the Corniche. Most ticket machines at tram stops take only coins, and a rechargeable card is cheaper per ride than a single ticket. White grand taxis follow fixed routes and leave only when full, with two passengers beside the driver and four in the back. Al Boraq high-speed trains to Rabat and Tangier leave from Casa-Voyageurs station, about 2 kilometers from the center. Marrakesh is about three hours away by train in each direction, too far for most port calls.

Question 3

Tagine, Harira, and Moroccan Pastries

Accepted Answer

Moroccan cooking is the reason to eat ashore here: tagine, named for the clay pot with a cone-shaped lid it is cooked in, harira soup, couscous and bastilla, a pie of thin warqa pastry. Restaurants often open late for dinner, so plan a long lunch rather than an evening meal ashore. A tagine braises spiced meat, poultry or fish with vegetables under the tall lid, which returns the steam to the pot so little water is needed. Harira is a soup eaten as a starter or a light meal, mostly during Ramadan but available all year. Bastilla is a pie of poultry or seafood, served in Morocco as a starter at special meals. Mint tea, Morocco's national drink, is made with gunpowder tea, which British merchants began shipping to Casablanca in the 19th century in exchange for wool. A restaurant now occupies the Sqala, an 18th-century bastion on the edge of the old medina.

Question 4

Culture & Local Life

Accepted Answer

Casablanca's mix of peoples shows in a museum of Moroccan Jewish life, the Moorish Revival and Art Deco streets of the colonial city, and the Hassan II Mosque, which visitors can enter on a guided tour. French is widely spoken alongside Arabic. The Museum of Moroccan Judaism, founded in 1997 in the Oasis district, was the first museum devoted to Judaism in the Arab world. It shows ritual objects, costumes, jewelry and reconstructions of Moroccan synagogues. Before 1948 Morocco had 250,000 to 350,000 Jews, the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world; fewer than 2,500 remain. The Hassan II Mosque holds 25,000 worshippers in its prayer hall and 80,000 more on its esplanade. Its roof slides open in five minutes, and its chandeliers came from Murano. In 1917 Casablanca became the second city in the world, after New York, to adopt a comprehensive urban plan. Marius Boyer and other architects filled the new city with Art Deco and Moorish Revival buildings through the 1930s. Women may draw unwanted comments in the street, and modest dress helps, as it does everywhere in Morocco.

Question 5

A Brief History

Accepted Answer

The town of Anfa stood here for centuries before the Portuguese bombarded it in 1468, and after the earthquake of 1755 the sultan rebuilt it under the name that means White House. French troops landed in 1907, the protectorate made it Morocco's economic capital, and it is now the largest city in the Maghreb. Anfa: Berbers settled the site by the seventh century BC, Phoenicians and Romans used it as a port, and under the Merinids in the 14th century it grew in importance. 1468, destroyed: The town had become a base for pirates and privateers, and the Portuguese bombarded it into ruins. After 1755, ad-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ: Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah rebuilt the town after the earthquake as ad-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, the White House. European sailors already knew it by the Portuguese form, Casa Branca, which Spanish traders made Casablanca. 19th century, wool and tea: Casablanca became a major supplier of wool to Britain's textile mills, and British ships brought back the tea that Moroccans drink with mint. August 1907, the bombardment: After an attack on workers building a port railway, French gunboats shelled the town and troops landed, killing between 600 and 3,000 Moroccans. 1912, the protectorate: The Treaty of Fez made Morocco a French protectorate, with Rabat as the administrative capital and Casablanca as the economic one. Henri Prost planned the new European city outside the medina walls. November 1942, Operation Torch: American forces under Major General George S. Patton landed in French Morocco and took Casablanca from Vichy control. January 1943, the Anfa Conference: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met in Casablanca to plan the next stage of the war. 1956, independence: Morocco became independent from France. 1986 to 1993, the mosque: Work on the Hassan II Mosque began on July 12, 1986, and it was inaugurated on August 30, 1993. To learn more ashore: The Museum of Moroccan Judaism, at 81 Rue Chasseur Jules Gros in the Oasis district, tells one strand of the city's story, that of its Jewish community.

Question 6

Traveling with Family

Accepted Answer

With children, the Hassan II Mosque works well: the tour is free for under-sixes, and its esplanade and gardens are where Casablanca families come for picnics. Farther out, the Corniche at Aïn Diab has beaches and the Morocco Mall, whose large cylindrical aquarium has a ride through the middle. Younger children: The mosque tour asks visitors to stay with the group and keep quiet, which suits some small children better than others, so the gardens outside may be the better plan. School age: The Morocco Mall's aquarium holds about a million liters of water and more than 40 species of fish, and visitors can ride through the center of the tank. Teenagers: Visitors can also scuba dive inside the same tank with an instructor; ask about age limits before you book. The tram as an outing: Line T2 runs to Aïn Diab, so the trip to the beach can be part of the day. The shrine island: The Sidi Abderrahman shrine stands on a small island off the Corniche, now joined to the shore by a bridge; the shrine itself is closed to visitors who are not Muslim.

Question 7

Shopping in Casablanca

Accepted Answer

The lanes around the old medina, beside the port, are the place for traditional Moroccan goods such as tagine pots, pottery, leather and hookahs. For international brands, the Maarif district and the Morocco Mall, which opened in 2011 on the far side of Aïn Diab, are a taxi ride away. In the big Derb Ghalef souq, prices are negotiated, so expect to bargain hard. Maarif has many European and American fashion chains. The Hassan II Mosque foundation sells miniature models of the mosque, medallions and cups. Keep wallets and phones out of sight in the medina, where pickpocketing is common.

Question 8

Beaches

Accepted Answer

Casablanca's beaches are along the Corniche at Aïn Diab, west of the Hassan II Mosque, where Lalla Meryem Beach and Aïn Diab Beach front a strip of hotels, restaurants and nightclubs. Cafés with ocean views line the boulevard. Tram line T2 ends at Aïn Diab. The Sidi Abderrahman shrine, on a small island beyond the Corniche, is now reached by a bridge, and visitors can explore the little neighborhood around it. Petty theft is common on Moroccan beaches, and thieves have used knives in some attacks, so bring only what you need.

Casablanca, Morocco

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