Which Casablanca neighbourhood is best to stay in?

Casablanca surprises travellers because it isn't the Morocco of the postcards — it's the country's economic capital, a big, modern, working port city, and you choose your neighbourhood by what you've actually come to do rather than by which medina is prettiest. Let me give you the practical lay of the land, because the right area here makes a real difference to your stay.

For leisure travellers, I usually point to the Corniche at Ain Diab — the seafront strip west of the centre. This is where Casablanca relaxes: beach clubs, seafood restaurants, cafés, and a row of hotels with ocean views, and it's an easy taxi from the spectacular Hassan II Mosque, which sits right on the water nearby. It's the most pleasant, holiday-feeling part of the city, with sea breezes and a lively but not frantic atmosphere in the evenings. Central Casablanca, around the downtown and the United Nations Square, suits those who want to be near the Art Deco architecture the city is quietly famous for, the mosque, and the main transport links — it's well placed for sightseeing and for catching the train onward to Marrakech or Rabat.

Business travellers tend to want the central business district and the area around the Casa-Port and Casa-Voyageurs stations, where the modern corporate hotels cluster and you're close to offices and the airport train. It's efficient rather than charming. For a taste of old Casablanca, the Habous quarter — the 'new medina' built in the 1930s in a romanticised Moorish style — is a lovely place to wander and shop for crafts, olives, and pastries, though most people visit rather than stay there.

My honest framing is this: Casablanca is a one- or two-night city for most itineraries — usually a gateway because of the airport, or a stop for the Hassan II Mosque, which genuinely is unmissable. So I match the neighbourhood tightly to the trip's shape: Corniche for a relaxed seafront night, central downtown for sightseeing and onward trains, the business district for work. If you want classic Moroccan medina romance, that's Marrakech, Fes, or Essaouira — in Casablanca, lean into what it actually is, a cosmopolitan modern metropolis with one of the most beautiful mosques on earth.