What is Asilah beach like?

Asilah is one of the prettiest small towns on the Atlantic, and people are often surprised it's only about forty minutes south of Tangier. The draw isn't really the beach first — it's the walled medina, a compact maze of dazzlingly whitewashed houses with blue-and-ochre doors, ramparts you can walk above the crashing Atlantic, and, famously, large colourful murals painted on the walls each summer during the town's long-running international arts festival (the Moussem). It's clean, artsy, relaxed and very photogenic.

For beaches, the town's own strand right by the medina is fine for a stroll and a paddle, but the one I point people to is Paradise Beach (Sidi Mghait), a few kilometres south — a long, wide arc of soft golden sand that genuinely earns the name, reachable by a short taxi or a horse-cart ride in summer. There's also the beach at Briech to the north. In Moroccan summer these fill with domestic holidaymakers and have a lively, family seaside-resort atmosphere; out of season they're beautifully quiet.

The water is northern Atlantic — cool, fresh and breezy rather than warm and still — so it's swimmable in high summer but not the bathtub-calm of the Mediterranean coast a couple of hours east. There's some surf and a steady wind, though Asilah is far gentler than Essaouira. It's a swim-and-walk beach, best enjoyed with the town's seafood (the grilled fish here is excellent) and a sunset on the ramparts.

I love Asilah as a calm, characterful base for the far north, easily combined with Tangier and a side trip to Chefchaouen's blue streets inland. It gives you Atlantic coast, a gorgeous little medina and real Moroccan summer-holiday culture in one small, walkable, unhurried package — a lovely change of pace from the big imperial cities.