What is Rabat like in spring?

Rabat is Morocco's calm, green, Atlantic-facing capital, and spring is when it shows its best face. The ocean keeps the city mild all year, and in March to May that translates into gently warming days — high teens early in spring, climbing into the comfortable low-to-mid 20s°C by May — with fresh sea breezes, long stretches of clear bright weather, and just enough warmth to spend whole days outdoors without ever wilting. After the wet Atlantic winter, the city greens up beautifully, and spring is the season I most enjoy walking it.

The defining spring pleasure here is the gardens and the blossom. Rabat is unusually leafy for a Moroccan city — wide boulevards, parks and citrus trees — and in spring the orange blossom scents whole streets while the famous Andalusian Gardens inside the Kasbah des Oudaias burst into colour. That blue-and-white Kasbah, perched above the mouth of the Bou Regreg river where it meets the ocean, is glorious in spring light: cool breezes, the river and sea spread out below, café tables in the sun. The riverside between Rabat and Salé, and the broad ocean corniche, are at their most inviting in these mild, breezy months.

Spring also suits the city's unhurried sightseeing rhythm. Rabat's great monuments are spread out and best explored on foot or by the easy tram — the soaring Hassan Tower and its plain of columns, the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, the extensive Roman-and-Merenid ruins of Chellah with their storks nesting on ancient walls and gardens running wild, and the compact, walkable medina. In spring all of this is a pleasure rather than a sweat, the light is kind for photographs, and the crowds — never heavy in Rabat anyway — are gentle.

My honest verdict: Rabat is an underrated, dignified, easygoing capital, and spring is the ideal time to give it its due. The weather is at its most comfortable, the city at its greenest and most fragrant, and the combination of ocean, gardens, Roman ruins and clean modern order feels especially appealing. It pairs naturally with Casablanca just down the coast and with the imperial circuit; a couple of unhurried spring days here are time genuinely well spent, and a calming contrast to busier Fes or Marrakech.