After the Casablanca International Marathon: Hassan II Mosque and the Old Medina

The Route: Hassan II Mosque → Old medina walls → La Sqala → Hotel Logistics: Walking and short petit taxi rides inside Casablanca. Nothing here needs a train or a booking more than a day ahead. Marathon Month: October Duration: Day trip

Hassan II Mosque ──(guided tour, about 1 hr)──> Boulevard Sour Jdid
                                                        │
        Hotel ◄──(petit taxi, 10 mins)── La Sqala ◄──(petit taxi or 25 min walk)

The race starts and finishes beside the Hassan II Mosque, so the best first stop on Monday is the building you stared at for the last seven kilometres. The tour involves standing, a shoes-off policy and a lot of marble underfoot, which is gentler on tired legs than it sounds.

October in Casablanca: the month averages about 20°C with some rain, so mornings are cool and the esplanade is comfortable by mid-morning. A shower is possible, and the mosque tour is indoors for most of its length.

The Mosque

The Hassan II Mosque stands partly over the Atlantic on a platform of reclaimed land. The French architect Michel Pinseau designed it, it opened in 1993, and the minaret rises to roughly 200 metres. The prayer hall has a roof that slides open and a section of glass floor, so you are sometimes looking at moving water through your feet.

Guided visits are in English as well as French and Arabic. Tours have run on weekday mornings and early afternoon, with a reduced timetable on Fridays, and the foreign adult ticket has been 140 MAD (about £11). Slots change with the prayer calendar, so check the timetable on the mosque's own website and buy the ticket for a specific time. The esplanade outside is flat, paved and has almost no shade, which suits a slow shuffle but not a long stay.

Lunch Beside the Old Walls

La Sqala sits on Boulevard des Almohades against the old medina ramparts, in a restored bastion with a courtyard garden. It opens daily and serves breakfast until noon, then lunch and dinner. The kitchen runs Moroccan dishes such as tagines and pastilla, and a table in the garden is a sensible place to sit for an hour. Book ahead if you want the courtyard.

From there the old medina is on your doorstep. It is flat and compact, and the streets near the main gate are the easiest on legs. Expect narrow lanes, stray bicycles and the occasional kerb. A short wander is plenty.

An Evening Choice

Rick's Café on Boulevard Sour Jdid is a tribute to the 1942 film, opened in 2004 and not the original. The dress code excludes sportswear, so change first, and reserve a table.

Getting Back

Petit taxis (the small red cars) are everywhere and are metered; ask the driver to start the meter. The tramway runs through the centre and is cheap, though the stops nearest the mosque and the old medina differ, so check the route map before you ride.