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Casablanca tour question


pjo
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Our family is going on a Canary Islands cruise in January and will be in Casablanca for one day. I contacted 2 highly rated tour companies in Casablanca for a Casablanca highlights tour and both responded in different fashion.

 

One company says they can do a 5-6 hour tour of Casablanca with a tour of the mosque as the main stop. The second company said that there is nothing special about Casablanca and the tour they offer is a combo Casablanca/Rabat tour. The only site worth seeing in Casablanca, according to them, is the mosque and Rick's Cafe and then they go to Rabat for the rest of the day. So....which is it? For anyone familiar with Rabat and Casablanca I would like to hear from you. Is there enough to do in Casablanca to fill the day or is it worth it to do the combo tour.

 

I don't mind the combo tour or the extra expense if it is worth it, but I don't want to spend traveling 90 minutes each way to Rabat if there is enough to do in Casablanca. Your opinions please.

 

Paul

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I absolutely agree with option 2. Casablanca is a dump. I had the great misfortune to visit Casa for work several times. In no other dodgy city in the world I felt as unsafe as in Casablanca. On several occasions colleagues who are all experienced travellers were held up and mugged in broad daylight, not to mention the lovely ladies who offer their 13 year old daughters for recreational purposes in front if 5star hotels.

 

The mosque is ok, as far as mosques go. Ricks cafe cafe is totally fictional and a tirust trap.

Now, RABAT is lovely, charming and well worth a visit. Nice people, cool Medina and good restaurants and cafes.

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I absolutely agree with option 2. Casablanca is a dump. I had the great misfortune to visit Casa for work several times. In no other dodgy city in the world I felt as unsafe as in Casablanca. On several occasions colleagues who are all experienced travellers were held up and mugged in broad daylight, not to mention the lovely ladies who offer their 13 year old daughters for recreational purposes in front if 5star hotels.

 

The mosque is ok, as far as mosques go. Ricks cafe cafe is totally fictional and a tirust trap.

Now, RABAT is lovely, charming and well worth a visit. Nice people, cool Medina and good restaurants and cafes.

 

I appreciate your honest opinion. Looks like a road trip to Rabat is coming up.

 

Paul

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Casablanca is a dump and I agree with the tour guide that the mosque is worth visiting, but we skipped Rick's cafe because I heard it was a tourist trap. Haven't been to Rabat, but have visited several other towns in Morocco and they were all so much better than Casablanca.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have not been able to stop discerning about Morocco since Ileftward. The culture was incredible, our home stay prepared us feel like wewere family, and the other parallel volunteers have become life time friends. Iwent to Morocco to comfort people, and I feel like I did, but the major impactwas on me. Because of Morocco, I am constantly changed for the better. Sotravel out of your ease zone and make some of the most unbelievable memories ofyour life.

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I have not been able to stop discerning about Morocco since Ileftward. The culture was incredible, our home stay prepared us feel like wewere family, and the other parallel volunteers have become life time friends. Iwent to Morocco to comfort people, and I feel like I did, but the major impactwas on me. Because of Morocco, I am constantly changed for the better. Sotravel out of your ease zone and make some of the most unbelievable memories ofyour life.

we enjoyed RABAT - shared a cab with another couple- very reasonable and interesting scenery

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  • 2 weeks later...

A couple of years back our cruise stopped in Casablanca for a day and we did the Casablanca/Rabat tour. In Casablanca, the Hassan II Mosque is quite beautiful and built over the water. Then we took a drive through a "wealthy" residential district and then headed off to Rabat. We stopped for a pre-arranged lunch at a hotel and the food was excellent, then went on to see the Royal Palace and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V and in the end we walked with our guide through a lovely residential maze of small streets to get an idea of how people live. It was a quite a nice tour and we're glad we saw something of Morocco. The only thing I wish was that I had brought some sort of neck pillow with me because on the bus drive back I was sleepy and my head kept jerking forward. We did drive along the coast on the way back (inland on the highway going to Rabat).

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  • 1 month later...
  • 8 months later...

The Hassan II mosque is worth a visit - it really is rather wonderful - but the rest of Casablanca? Not so much. I'd definitely go for the second option if time and finances permit.

 

Rick's Bar in Casablanca is purely commercial and has no connection to or similarity with the fictional bar depicted in the eponymous film.

 

Edit: Whoops. Just noticed that the OP went earlier this year. Sage advice but 8 months late!

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  • 6 months later...
On 10/23/2017 at 5:40 PM, Steirisch said:

A couple of years back our cruise stopped in Casablanca for a day and we did the Casablanca/Rabat tour. In Casablanca, the Hassan II Mosque is quite beautiful and built over the water. Then we took a drive through a "wealthy" residential district and then headed off to Rabat. We stopped for a pre-arranged lunch at a hotel and the food was excellent, then went on to see the Royal Palace and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V and in the end we walked with our guide through a lovely residential maze of small streets to get an idea of how people live. It was a quite a nice tour and we're glad we saw something of Morocco. The only thing I wish was that I had brought some sort of neck pillow with me because on the bus drive back I was sleepy and my head kept jerking forward. We did drive along the coast on the way back (inland on the highway going to Rabat).

 

Do you possibly remember the name of the tour company you used?

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