Is Casablanca Safe? An Honest Guide for Travellers
Fes & Imperial Cities · · Updated

Is Casablanca Safe? An Honest Guide for Travellers

by Nadia Berrada
Home  ›  Travel guides  ›  Fes & Imperial Cities

★★★★★ Rated 4.5/5 — 204 Google reviews · 576 reviews · 5.0/5 on Tripadvisor · Written by a licensed Marrakech tour operator, on the road since 2011

Short answer: yes — Casablanca is a big, busy, working metropolis, and it asks of you exactly what Lyon or Manchester would: ordinary city sense, nothing more.

What safety actually looks like here

Violent incidents involving tourists are rare. What exists is big-city friction: pickpocketing in crowded spots, taxi drivers who forget the meter, and the odd overeager guide around the port. All three dissolve with the basics — bags zipped, prices agreed before the ride, a polite no thank you delivered while walking.

Is Casablanca Safe? An Honest Guide for Travellers

Neighbourhood notes

The Hassan II Mosque esplanade, the Corniche, the Art Deco centre and the Habous quarter are comfortable at any daylight hour and fine in the evening. Like every port city, some districts are simply uninteresting rather than unsafe — with a driver, the question never arises.

For women and solo travellers

Casablanca is Morocco’s most cosmopolitan city; local women fill its cafés, offices and trams. Solo visitors report less attention here than in the tourist medinas. Our solo travel FAQ covers the details honestly.

The sensible way to visit

Most travellers give Casablanca half a day — the mosque, a seafood lunch, the drive along the Corniche — as the opening chapter of a longer route. That is precisely how our 7-day grand tour and 9-day Casablanca-to-Marrakech treat it: arrive, see the great mosque properly, and let the road unfold from there.

Two useful follow-ons: common tourist scams in Morocco — most are Marrakech tricks, but the taxi chapter applies here too — and our petit-taxi tips for meters and fair fares.

Plan it properly

Everything on this page can be woven into a private itinerary — start from Morocco city breaks or book the 7-day Imperial Cities circuit, and we shape the rest around you.

About the author

Nadia Berrada — Nadia's beat is the imperial cities — Rabat and Fes above all. She came to travel writing from a family of Rbati craftsmen, which shows in what she notices: zellij patterns, cedar ceilings, the difference between a restored fondouk and a rebuilt one. Her guides lean practical — opening hours that are actually current, quarters worth staying in, and the train timings that make a two-city itinerary painless.

Keep reading

Questions travellers ask

How long does it take to get from Marrakech to Fes?+

Around 530 km: 5 to 6 hours by road across the Middle Atlas, or about 7 hours by train via Casablanca. The scenic answer is to not go direct at all — our 4-day desert crossings link the two cities through Merzouga, turning the transfer into the trip's highlight.

How do you navigate the Fes medina?+

Accept that you will be pleasantly lost, then use the system: the two main arteries (Talaa Kebira and Talaa Sghira) run downhill through the medina, downhill generally leads toward the river and the tanneries, and blue Bab Boujeloud is the compass point. Take a licensed guide the first day — the maze reads like a map afterwards.

Is Fes worth visiting?+

For history, unreservedly: it is the oldest imperial city, home to Al-Qarawiyyin — regarded as the world's oldest continuously operating university — the finest carved madrasas in the country and the famous tanneries. Give it a full guided day plus an evening on the rooftops.

How old is the Fes medina?+

Founded in 789 by Idriss I and built into a capital by his son from 809, Fes el-Bali is over 1,200 years old — and continuously inhabited the entire time, which is the real marvel. Al-Qarawiyyin, teaching since 859, is routinely cited as the world's oldest existing university. When you press against a wall to let a donkey pass, that scene has been running unchanged for a millennium.

More answers in the “Fes” chapter of our Travel FAQ →

Turn the reading into a journey

The private tours below pass through the places this guide talks about — every departure is yours alone, on your dates.

Plan this trip on WhatsApp