Asilah

About 40 minutes from Tangiers, along the Atlantic coast, is Asilah. It’s typical of many of Morocco’s Atlantic towns, with picturesque battlements buffeted by frothy rollers, and framing beautiful white-washed houses. The medina is home to artisans and shopkeepers attracted by the middle-class Moroccans and foreigners who’ve bought houses here (it’s so popular that in the summer the population increases 5-fold, a good time to avoid!). For the Classically inclined, Lixus is a little further on down the road, a partially excavated Roman/Carthaginian site on a bluff overlooking the ocean.