Rabat

Rabat has two surf spots worth the trip and they could hardly be less alike: a rivermouth right under the walls of a twelfth-century kasbah, and a long, exposed beach twenty minutes north.

Oudayas breaks at the mouth of the Bou Regreg, directly beneath the Kasbah des Oudaias. When the sandbanks line up on a solid winter swell it is one of the best waves on this half of the coast — a long, punchy right that draws every good surfer in the city. It needs size to work, the current beside the jetty is real, and it is not a beginner wave when it is on.

Plage des Nations, north towards Salé and Kenitra, is the opposite: a wide, exposed beach that picks up far more swell and breaks with less shape. It is powerful and has rips, but on a small day it is where lessons happen, and it is rarely crowded.

Between the two, Rabat covers most conditions. The city itself is the easiest of Morocco's big cities to spend time in — walkable, green, with the Chellah ruins, a compact medina and none of Casablanca's intensity.