Rabat Outdoors: The Atlantic Beach, the Bou Regreg Waterfront, the Sale Corniche, the Kasbah Oudaias Terrace, and the Rabat Outdoor Life
The Rabat outdoors route covers the Atlantic beach as the most centrally located single capital city beach in Africa, the Bou Regreg waterfront development, the Sale Corniche coastal walk, the Kasbah Oudaias sea terrace, and the Rabat outdoor lifestyle.
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Rabat Atlantic Beach: The Capital City Surfing
The Rabat Atlantic beach south of the Kasbah Oudaias, the most conveniently located single surf beach of any African capital city, receives the consistent Atlantic swell from September to April that produces the most reliable single beginner-to-intermediate surf conditions of any Moroccan Atlantic city north of Taghazout. The Rabat surf scene, centered on the Plage de Rabat and the Plage de Sale, is the most socially mixed single Moroccan surf scene with the student population from Mohammed V University, the diplomatic community children, and the international residents creating the most demographically diverse single surf lineup in Morocco.
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Bou Regreg Waterfront: The New Rabat Riverfront
The Bou Regreg valley development project (launched 2006, the most ambitious single urban waterfront project in Moroccan history with a 2.5 billion dirham investment), transforming the industrial and the abandoned riverbanks between the Rabat and the Sale medinas into the new marina, the tramway bridge, the Bab Al Bahr gate, the cultural promenade, and the riverside residential and commercial development, is creating the most dramatically reimagined single Moroccan waterfront in the 21st century urban development. The Bab Al Bahr (Gate of the Sea) cultural center on the Bou Regreg bank is the most architecturally contemporary single Moroccan public building and the design that most clearly signals the Rabat ambition for the 21st century African capital identity.
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Kasbah Oudaias Terrace: The Atlantic Overlook
The Kasbah of the Oudaias sea terrace and the Atlantic platform overlook, accessed through the Bab Oudaias Almohad gate, provides the most panoramically complete single Rabat coastal view with the Bou Regreg river mouth, the Sale medina across the estuary, the Atlantic Ocean horizon, and the blue and white Kasbah residential quarter below in the most visually concentrated single Rabat panorama. The Kasbah Oudaias cafe terrace is the most atmospheric single outdoor cafe in the Moroccan capital and the most frequently painted single landscape subject in the Rabat artist community tradition.
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Sale Corniche: The Northern Coastal Walk
The Sale Corniche coastal walk north of the Sale medina along the Atlantic cliff, the most undervisited single coastal walk in the Rabat-Sale metropolitan area, provides the most directly Atlantic-facing single walking route in the capital region with the cliff-top views of the Atlantic swell, the Rabat kasbah visible across the Bou Regreg mouth, and the Sale residential neighborhoods above the cliff. The Sale corniche fishermen at the cliff edge with the handline fishing for the Atlantic bass and the sea bream are the most characteristically local single outdoor activity in the Sale coastal area.
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Forest de la Mamora: The Urban Green Belt
The Forest de la Mamora north of Sale, the largest single cork oak forest in the world (134,000 hectares of Quercus suber cork oak extending north from Sale to the Kenitra plain), provides the most expansive single natural green belt adjacent to any African capital city. The Mamora cork harvest (the most extensive single cork production operation in Africa) and the forest walking tracks provide the most accessible single nature escape from the Rabat urban environment. The Mamora forest is under severe degradation pressure from the illegal charcoal production and the agricultural encroachment and represents the most ecologically threatened single urban green belt in Morocco.
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Temara Beach: The Southern Rabat Resort
Temara, 14 kilometers south of Rabat on the Atlantic coast, is the most popular single Atlantic beach resort for the Rabat resident population with the summer beach club culture, the Atlantic surf break, and the most accessible single day-trip sea swimming destination from the Moroccan capital. The Temara Parc Zoologique (Morocco's national zoo) adjacent to the beach area and the Skhirat beach resort further south (the most exclusive single Atlantic Morocco beach club for the Moroccan elite) complete the most diverse single coastal day-trip range from the Rabat base.