48 hours in Casablanca Travel Guide

I still can’t believe we just spent the last ten days in Africa. If I’m being honest, this was by far the best trip I’ve been on to date. Such an amazing way to ring in year 30 and I have to just give major kudos to Brandon for helping me make this adventure so special!

I shared a lot of our favorite moments on Instagram but am so excited to share the first part of my travel guide series today. I had every intention to wait until next week to start releasing the guides but got too excited (and restless) on our flight back yesterday and knocked them all out.

First up, Casablanca. More about why we added Casablanca to our itinerary below but I’ll be honest, a lot of people told us to skip Casablanca and do Fez and Marrakech. I didn’t really understand why and I’m so glad we ignored their advice. I’ve always heard about Casablanca and while I may or may not have had a romanticized idea of what it would be, if we were going to Morocco I wanted to visit Casablanca and we did and it was the perfect starter to our trip. We only spent 48 hours in the city which was enough time for us but there is so much to do and see if you wanted to stay longer.

Get all of the detail on this shortest leg of our trip below and if you have any questions or need travel tips, comment below or shoot me an email!

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My Casablanca Travel Guide

Getting to Casablanca:

We initially booked our flights for just Marrakech. Once we decided we wanted to also visit Cairo during the trip, after doing some research, we found that it was a lot easier (and cheaper) to fly out of Casablanca vs Marrakech. We booked flights to fly straight from Marrakech once we landed on Thursday and it was only a 50-minute flight. 

Where we stayed:

We stayed at The Four Seasons Casablanca. I spent a lot of time researching hotels but I fell in love with the Four Seasons immediately and am so glad we pulled the trigger to stay here. I loved that this gorgeous hotel was on the water, in a great location (close to the Hassan II Mosque and nightlife), only 30 minutes from the airport and, well, any excuse to live my best life at a Four Seasons and you better belive I’m so in.

The hotel is very secure which I loved. It’s a gated property with 24/7 security guards at the gates and at the hotel entrance. The staff is so friendly and helpful and I can’t even explain how gorgeous the hotel is. Such a great stay and it wasn’t as expensive as I would have thought for a Four Seasons. Because we stayed for two nights, they had a special rate so it was totally worth it!

Our itinerary:

Day 1

7:30pm Arrived in Casablanca, arranged an airport transfer through our hotel (highly suggest doing this vs looking for a taxi). I’m extremely paranoid when I travel so I always build in a little extra money into our budget for hotel coordinated airport pickups/drop offs.

8:30pm Settled into our room at the Four Seasons Casablanca and freshened up for dinner.

9:30pm Enjoyed our first traditional Moroccan tea service before grabbing dinner in the hotel’s restaurant, Mint. I’m so glad we had our first meal in the hotel! The food was so delicious, the service was incredible, and the atmosphere was exactly what we wanted for our first night. Very laid back but all of the glam you could ask for in a nice dinner. There was a mix of hotel guests and non-guests so I highly suggest booking dinner or dessert at Mint when visiting Casablanca. One thing to note: the hotel and the restaurants on site do not serve liquor but they have some amazing mocktails.

Day 2

6:00am Early wakeup for a morning. I can’t believe we woke up this early but it was so worth it – this might be one of the best hotel gyms I’ve ever seen.

7:30am Breakfast at the Four Seasons (seriously, I can’t recommend this hotel enough). The view of the ocean over breakfast is the perfect way to start your day.

8:30am Arrived at Hassan II Mosque to get our tickets for the 9:00am tour. Our taxi took us to the wrong entrance so make sure you ask to be dropped off at the ticket office to avoid a very long walk. There are a few different guided tours of the mosque and you’ll need tickets if you want to go inside. (tickets cost 120 MAD which is around $120 USD) The outside is equally gorgeous though if you’re just passing through or don’t have time for the full hour tour.

10:30am Hopped in another taxi to go to the Old Medina. I suggest getting dropped off at the Hyatt and walking to the medina from there. We enjoyed an early afternoon glass of wine at the Hyatt before going to the medina – they do have a liquor license so we thought, why not!

11:00am Walked around the Old Medina and picked up a few goodies like a gorgeous Moroccan style dress and shirts. We also snagged a few little souvenirs for our family. We only spent about an hour walking around and that’s all we needed. We did feel safe but I would just be extra cautious when exploring this part of the city. Lots of vendors and lots of hustlers but If you’re paying attention and being smart, you’ll be totally fine.

12:30pm Lunch at Rick’s Café. If you’ve seen the movie Casablanca, you know all aboutRick’s Café so it’s only natural that we had lunch here. A little piece of Hollywood history with the most delicious mojitos – and it’s totally IG worthy. You definitely need to make a reservation as it’s not a large place but you can easily make them online or via email (or through your hotel). The restaurant has a mix of traditional Moroccan food and a few international dishes and the food does not disappoint.

2:30pm We ventured back to the hotel to relax. At this point, we were going off about four hours of sleep so we wanted to just spend the rest of the afternoon hanging out by the pool and getting in a quick nap. We originally planned to wake up by 5:00pm for a 7:00pm dinner reservation BUT we didn’t make it. We slept past both alarms and groggily woke up at 8:00. Honestly, best thing that could have happened because if we wouldn’t have overslept, we wouldn’t have had the coolest nice – more below!

8:00pm Hopped out of bed, showered and got dressed. We went down to the lobby and they suggested a cool place for dinner within walking distance of our hotel – a cute café. We walked down the street about two blocks and accidentally went into the wrong restaurant – again, another awesome mistake.

8:30pm Theatre Du Liban is right next door to the café the hotel suggested so it was pretty easy to walk into the wrong place if you didn’t know where you were going. We just followed the crowd and assumed we were going to the right place. They apparently had just opened their doors. The moment we walked into this gorgeous place, we knew we had to stay. What we didn’t realize is that Theatre Du Liban isn’t just for dinner, they have an epic show full of entertainment which was starting at 9:00 (perfect timing). We initially couldn’t get a table since they were full so we sat at the bar, ordered a few drinks and were planning to just take it all in from there. But like Brandon usually does, he made friends with the host who then secured us a table front row. Win.

You have the option of ordering a pre fixe style dinner or a la carte – go ahead and order the pre fixe if you want the full experience. They start with a variety of traditional Moroccan salads followed by bread, more appetizer style snacks, a few entrees and then you can order dessert. We had hookah, ordered a bottle of wine, enjoyed a full ten course meal (at least ten courses) and of course had dessert and spent less than 1400 MAD which is around $140. I mean, an amazing price for two people, a huge dinner, wine AND a show.

Speaking of the show, I’m talking belly dancers, live music, acrobatics, dancing and so much more. It was seriously one of the best nights of the whole trip.

12:30am After finishing up at Theater Liban, we walked next door to this cool lounge/club called SkyBar. The vibe is very European and trendy – and we loved it. We ordered cocktails and just danced for a few hours. Such a fun way to end the night and our stay in Casablanca!

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