Asilah

Asilah (also Assilah, Arzila) is a city in northern Morocco.

Asilah lies on the rail line linking Tangier to Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, Meknes, and Fez. The train station is a 2 km walk along the beach northeast of town; alternatively, minibuses sometimes meet the train in hopes of collecting passengers. It should also be easy to flag down a grand taxi along the road.

From Tangier, you can hire a grand taxi for the ~1 hour drive to Asilah. It should cost around 30 Euros each way.

The bus station for locations such as Fes, Meknes, Marrakesh is on main road opposite Shell gas station due east up street from northern end of the medina (walk past cemetary and turn left on main road one block to Shell station). To Meknes MD50; to Marrakesh MD130 (as of June 2011)

Cars are not allowed in the Medina, making walking the easiest form of transportation in Asilah proper. It's a small enough town that walking should not be a problem.

Like most Moroccan towns, Asilah consists of a medina and a ville nouvelle. The medina is small, clean, and features wall paintings by African artists. North and east of the medina, the ville nouvelle is also pleasant.

Asilah hosts an art festival every August where they cover their walls in fantastic murals. You can spend a full day walking around the medina looking at these beautiful paintings.

There are beautiful beaches both north and south of the town.

• The Assilah Festival www.adachatassilah.com is on in July 2010.

Due to its proximity to Spain and the large number of Spanish tourists it sees, Asilah's restaurants offer Spanish classics such as paella and tortilla in addition to the ubiquitous tagine and couscous.

Enjoy mint tea in one of the cafes.

Christina's Place - Beautiful Hostel/Guesthouse just a 3 minute walk from the Medina.

• horrible place! not really somewhere i would tell anyone to go! • Rob S.
• A little beach side town that we stayed at on our travels up north to Tangiers. Not much happening in Asilah, but its a nice side trip on the way. Don't stay at Zillis' which is the big, intimidating hotel a few streets back from the beach. The sheets were soiled with blood stains and the place … • Jessica C.
• Asilas, a oasis of culture, is a small fortified town on the Atlantic coast of Morocco and about 50 km from Tangier. There's is a subtle vibe going on in the city: wall paintings catch the eye, and you can easily spen a day walking and appreciating the works of African artists. The city clean, it's … • Nathalie W.