Relaxed Moroccan Atlantic town beside an estuary, with Spanish colonial streets and nearby Lixus ruins.
Larache is a relaxed Atlantic coast town where few tourists venture, making it a good place to experience everyday Moroccan life without the hustle of the more popular destinations. The town sits beside an estuary that opens into the Atlantic, with sea cliffs to the west and tangerine and orange groves to the south.
The old medina and Spanish colonial new town are worth a wander, as is the Château de la Cigogne (Stork Castle) on its clifftop above the estuary mouth. The crumbling walls that once surrounded the medina and kasbah add character, and the new town beyond has attractive Spanish colonial architecture in white and blue. A pleasant morning activity is taking a boat taxi from the port across the estuary to the beach on the far side.
Four to five kilometres outside town are the Roman remains of Lixus, one of the oldest settlements in North Africa — and, according to ancient legend, the site of the Garden of the Hesperides. The site is less monumental than Volubilis, but watching the sunset from the Phoenician temple above the river is a memorable experience.
Larache is also where Jean Genet, the French novelist, chose to be buried. His grave in the Spanish Cemetery on the southern edge of town draws a quiet stream of literary visitors. It is as good a reason as any to pause here rather than pass through.
Guide
Books
The Thief's Journal by Jean Genet. Genet's most autobiographical work traces his years as a wandering criminal through Spain and North Africa in the 1930s. It has nothing directly to do with Larache — Genet came to the town much later in life — but it is the essential companion to understanding the man who chose to be buried here.
The Voices of Marrakesh by Elias Canetti. A short, piercing account of Canetti's visit to Morocco that captures the sensory texture of North African life better than most travel books. The Larache it describes is not Larache specifically, but Canetti's way of noticing — the sounds, the silences, the faces — translates directly to any Moroccan town.
Morocco That Was by Walter Harris. Harris was the Times correspondent in Morocco from the 1880s to the 1920s and witnessed the final decades of the old sultanate and the imposition of the French and Spanish protectorates. His account covers the northern towns, including the coast near Larache, with an outsider's eye that remains vivid more than a century later.
Guide
Getting There
Larache has no airport or train station of its own. The nearest rail connection is at Ksar el-Kebir, about 35 kilometres inland, on the main line between Tangier and Rabat. Taxis and shared grands taxis run from Ksar el-Kebir to Larache.
The most direct route is by bus or grand taxi. CTM and other bus companies run services from Tangier (about 1.5 hours), Rabat (around 4 hours), and Casablanca (5–6 hours). Larache is on the N1 coastal road, and grands taxis also connect it to Asilah to the north, making it easy to combine the two towns on a coastal trip down from Tangier.