Where should I stay in Casablanca?

Casablanca is a big, sprawling, real city, so where you base yourself genuinely changes your experience — more than in a compact medina town like Fes. I steer clients toward two areas depending on what they want from their one or two nights.

If you want to be efficient and connected, stay in the city centre near Place Mohammed V and the Marché Central. This puts you in the middle of the Art Deco downtown — the part of Casablanca I actually find romantic — and within easy reach of Casa-Port and Casa-Voyageurs train stations, which matters enormously if you are taking the high-speed train onward to Marrakech, Rabat, Tangier or Fes the next morning. It is also where the grand old hotels and a clutch of stylish newer boutiques sit. You can walk to dinner, and you can roll your suitcase to the train.

If you would rather end the day with the Atlantic in front of you, stay along the Corniche in the Ain Diab district. This is the seafront strip: ocean-view hotels, beach clubs, breezy seafood restaurants, and a relaxed evening atmosphere. It is also the closest hotel zone to the Hassan II Mosque, so it works beautifully if your priority is sunset at the mosque followed by fish on the water. The trade-off is that you are a taxi ride (cheap and easy) from the downtown sights and stations.

One thing I gently warn against: do not seek out a riad-style stay deep in Casablanca's old medina the way you would in Marrakech or Fes. Casablanca's medina is smaller and grittier, and the city's charm is its modern, cosmopolitan, oceanfront character — lean into that. Save the magical-riad experience for the imperial cities, where it is the whole point.