Oujda is the easternmost city in Morocco, pressed up against the Algerian border and culturally closer to Oran than to Casablanca. This is where Rai music — the raw, politically charged Arabic pop that made Cheb Khaled famous — has its Moroccan home. The Algerian influence runs deep, from the music to the food to the way people talk.
When Algeria closed the border in 1994, Oujda lost the cross-border trade that had sustained it. The city adapted, but quietly: it does not have the monumental medina of Fes or the beach appeal of Mediterranean towns. What it does have is an atmosphere unlike anywhere else in Morocco — a frontier city with its own identity, worth including in any itinerary to the eastern part of the country.
The centre of town runs along Boulevard Mohamed V, where you will find hotels, banks and the tourist office. The small medina is walkable and uncrowded compared to its more famous counterparts further west.