An Asilah day trip from Tangier is the gentlest introduction to Morocco we run. The town is 46 kilometres down the Atlantic coast, forty minutes on the motorway, and it could hardly be less like the intensity of a big medina: whitewashed walls, blue doors, Portuguese sea ramparts you can walk along, and almost no hassle at all.
Asilah was Phoenician, then Roman, then Portuguese — the walls that ring the old town were built in 1471 and still stand. In the twentieth century it fell into decline, and then in 1978 two local men started an arts festival that has painted murals onto the medina houses every summer since. Some were done by artists who later became well known. The result is a small white town that doubles as an open-air gallery.
We start with a guided walk through the walled medina: the Bab el-Homar gate, the Krikia bastion looking straight out over the Atlantic, the Palace of Raisuli — built by a bandit-governor who kidnapped an American businessman in 1904 and made headlines across two continents — and the mural-painted lanes behind it.
After the walk you have free time. Most people spend it on a rampart café terrace, or browsing the small shops, or on the beach that runs north from the walls. Lunch is by the fishing harbour, where the catch comes in each morning and the grills start around midday.
The return route stops at Cape Spartel, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, and at the Caves of Hercules with their Africa-shaped sea opening. Camel rides are available on Achakkar beach for a small fee paid locally. If you would rather stay longer in Asilah and skip the coastal stops, the vehicle is yours — just say so in the morning.
| Destination | Asilah and Cape Spartel, Morocco |
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| Departure | Tangier hotel, riad, port or airport |
| Departure Time | 09:00 |
| Return Time | Around 17:00 |
| Duration | 7–8 hours |
| Group Size | Private 1–16 · Small group maximum 8 |
| Languages | English, Spanish, French and Arabic |
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Asilah is small and flat, which makes it one of the few northern Moroccan old towns that is comfortable for anyone with limited mobility. Vehicles cannot enter the walled medina, but the drop-off point at the main gate is two minutes from almost anywhere inside.
Come in summer and the town is at its busiest — the arts festival runs in July and August and Moroccan families fill the beaches. Come in spring or autumn and you will often have the ramparts to yourself. Winter is quiet and windy, and the Atlantic is spectacular from the Krikia bastion.
46 kilometres, about forty minutes each way on the A1 motorway.
Its Portuguese ramparts, its whitewashed medina, and the murals painted on the old town walls during the annual arts festival, held every summer since 1978.
Several. The main town beach begins just north of the walls, and Paradise Beach lies five kilometres south — quieter, wider and reachable only by track or boat.
You can, and it is cheap. The trade-off is that the station sits outside town, the timetable is fixed, and you cannot add Cape Spartel or the caves to the day.
For the coastal stops on their own, see our Caves of Hercules and Cape Spartel tour. For a straight one-way journey, take the Tangier to Asilah private transfer, and for the emptier sand south of town see Paradise Beach.
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