Rabat and Salé in one day by tram, without your bags: the full route

Rabat has something few capitals offer: everything worth seeing sits within a three-kilometre radius, and a modern tramway links that radius to the city across the water. Salé, on the far bank of the Bouregreg, is a few stops away. You can do both in a day — as long as you do not start it holding a suitcase. Short answer Drop your bags at opening time (8am) at the BoxSpot point in the Océan district, then walk twelve minutes to the Bab El Had tram stop. Run medina — Hassan Tower — Salé — Kasbah of the Udayas — Chellah, and collect up to 10pm. Budget 9 MAD an hour per bag, 59 MAD a day maximum. 8:30am — Put the bags down before the first ticket The drop-off point is a travel agency on avenue Madagascar, in the Océan district, four minutes from Place de Russie. It is five minutes by petit taxi from Rabat-Ville station (1.2 km), or ten from Rabat-Agdal if you have just stepped off Al Boraq. Drop-off takes five minutes: QR code scanned, timestamped photo, and you leave with a daypack. From there, Bab El Had and its tram are a twelve-minute walk — your gateway to the day. 9am — The medina, before the heat Rabat''s medina has none of the scale of Fes: it is small, straight, easy. Enter at Bab El Had, walk down Rue Souika to the fabric market, and drift on to Rue des Consuls, the old merchants'' street and still the best address for rugs and leather. Allow a good hour, two if you haggle. 10:30am — Hassan Tower and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V The unfinished 12th-century minaret and its field of columns, facing the mausoleum where Mohammed V and Hassan II rest. Free to enter, guarded by the royal cavalry, done in an hour. It is the most photographed corner of the capital — and part of the UNESCO listing the city earned in 2012. Midday — Crossing the river to Salé This is where the tram wins: it crosses the Bouregreg and drops you on the other bank in minutes for a few dirhams. Salé is Rabat''s quieter sister — a far less touristy medina, the monumental Bab Lamrissa gate, a 14th-century Marinid madrasa and pottery workshops. Get off at the stop nearest the medina, walk for half an hour, and have lunch there: it is noticeably cheaper than the Rabat side. 3pm — The Kasbah of the Udayas Back on the Rabat side for the showpiece: the Kasbah of the Udayas, its blue-and-white lanes, its Andalusian garden and the platform overlooking the mouth of the Bouregreg. Entry to the kasbah is free. Leave time: this is where you sit down and stay. Just below, the beaches of Rabat and Salé face each other across the estuary, with local surfers in the break between them. 5pm — Chellah, if you still have the legs Ten minutes south by petit taxi, the Marinid necropolis of Chellah stands on the Roman ruins of Sala Colonia: walls, a minaret colonised by storks, overgrown gardens. It is the calm counterpoint to a city day, and the best light in Rabat late in the afternoon. 7pm — Collect, eat, leave The point closes at 10pm, seven days a week, so you can have dinner before collecting, then head to Rabat-Ville station (five minutes by taxi) for an evening train to Casablanca, or Rabat-Agdal for Al Boraq to Tangier. A full day of storage: 59 MAD per bag. The price of two tram tickets and a tea. Start the day at Bab El Had, not at the left-luggage desk Drop off from 8am, collect until 10pm, seven days a week. See storage points in Rabat Read next: a four-hour Al Boraq stopover in Rabat.