Rabat is where South Africans in Morocco on official or corporate business spend their time, and where leisure travellers consistently underestimate how much they will enjoy the place. The South African Embassy sits here alongside the ministries and most of the diplomatic corps, and the city carries a measured, orderly feel far removed from Marrakech.
It is also a genuinely rewarding place to visit. The Kasbah of the Udayas is a blue-and-white quarter above the mouth of the Bou Regreg looking across to Sale; the Chellah is a Roman city that became a Merinid necropolis and is now half garden, half ruin and full of storks; the Hassan Tower is the unfinished minaret of what was meant to be the largest mosque in the world.
Driving here is easy by Moroccan standards, but the embassy quarter, the government district and the medina all sit apart from one another, and parking near the kasbah is tight. A driver takes the friction out of it. Every booking is private and the rate is agreed in advance.
Why hire a driver here
- Embassy and ministry quarters sit scattered across the whole city
- Around the kasbah and medina, parking is limited and attendant-run
- An hour distant, Casablanca airport is where most people actually land
- The tram runs the centre but not the places visitors actually want
- On a north-south route Rabat serves well as a first or last night
Included in every booking
- Fuel, tolls and the driver's fee for the agreed route
- Airport, hotel, embassy or Rabat-Ville station pickup
- English-speaking drivers as standard on the South African site
- Waiting time between appointments at no extra hourly charge
- Bottled water and phone charging in the vehicle
