DESTINATIONS MOROCCO | SHORT BREAKS


Rabat ramps up


A new British Airways flight to Morocco’s capital is putting this underrated city back in the spotlight, writes Yolanda Zappaterra


i travelweekly.co.uk


t’s a dreary early morning and half of us are dozing when the cabin manager makes her first inflight announcement. “Ladies and gentlemen,


we’d like to welcome you on board this inaugural British Airways flight from London Gatwick to Rabat,” she says. “We’ll soon be passing through the cabin with champagne and chocolate for everyone.” A palpable air of excitement ripples through the cabin, which only builds as our three-hour flight to Morocco’s capital city continues. There’s talk of news crews, British Embassy staff, Moroccan dignitaries and even minor royalty waiting for us at Rabat-Salé Airport.


FRESH FACES The new BA route is clearly a big deal, and it’s a strong indicator of how tourism in Morocco is going from strength to strength – from January to October this year, tourist arrivals rose by almost 14% year on year to 16.6 million. The flight has the potential to bring a significant number of British tourists to


Rabat, a coastal capital with enough activities and attractions to deliver a great winter-sun city break. Ours begins with a visit to Rabat’s 12th-century Kasbah des Oudayas, an oceanfront citadel entered via a broad sandstone staircase (pictured, opposite), which Tom Cruise drove down in the 2015 film Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. After admiring the impressive ramparts, intricate gateways and Andalusian gardens of the fortress, we descend into tiny white alleyways punctuated by bright bursts of bougainvillea and hand-painted doors. The aroma of bread being baked in communal ovens is everywhere. So too are kittens playing on the cobbled streets and hole-in-the-wall shops selling tempting pastries, along with less inviting bowls of babbouche – snails in broth. Next, we head to the Hassan Tower, an elegant,


12th-century structure that dominates the city’s skyline. The old minaret is part of an unfinished mosque, as is the expansive pillar-filled courtyard fronting it; the building blocks of what was intended to be one


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