editorial

Emerging from the shadow of Marrakech, Morocco’s third-largest city looks set to become the buzziest destination in the country.
<figure id="attachment_135671" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135671" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135671 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Kasbah-Collective-and-Musee-Dar-Niaba.jpg" alt="Locally crafted ceramics for sale at Kasbah Collective; exploring local history at Musée Dar Niaba." width="1200" height="745" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Kasbah-Collective-and-Musee-Dar-Niaba.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Kasbah-Collective-and-Musee-Dar-Niaba-300x186.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Kasbah-Collective-and-Musee-Dar-Niaba-1024x636.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Kasbah-Collective-and-Musee-Dar-Niaba-768x477.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135671" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Locally crafted ceramics for sale at Kasbah Collective; exploring local history at Musée Dar Niaba. (Courtesy of Kasbah Collective; courtesy of Fondation Nationale des Musées)</figcaption></figure>
Dusk in Tangier. People drifted in waves through the downtown streets. Blue and yellow taxis whizzed by, crammed with passengers sharing rides home. At a table outside the venerable Gran Café de Paris on the Place de France, a bow-tied waiter served my drink on a silver tray and I quickly fell into the local pastime of watching the world go by over glasses of mint tea or nus nus (half espresso, half milk). Inside, the time-worn decor looks unchanged from the days when writers such as Tennessee Williams and Jean Genet drifted through. If someone told me café culture was invented in Tangier, I’d believe them. It’s rare to see an empty table at the city’s network of coffee houses, where literary figures invariably stare back at you from old photos adorning the walls
Though I’ve spent years traveling in Morocco, Tangier somehow eluded my radar. It’s an omission that I recently corrected. Perched on cliffs above the Strait of Gibraltar, where the sun rises and sets in hazy tangerine and reds, the port city is in North Africa, but only just. The Spanish town of Tarifa is an hour’s ferry ride away, and on clear days, you can spot Gibraltar standing boldly in the distance. I knew nothing, really, of the city’s checkered history when I arrived for the first time earlier this year. And like the many writers who have washed up here, I was absolutely hooked.
One sunny morning, I strolled through the Ville Nouvelle (New Town) district, astonished by its broad boulevards and elegant apartment blocks. Though it all looks somewhat faded now after decades of neglect, it nods to the city’s mid-20th-century heyday as an international zone administered by a consortium of European powers. Prior to Moroccan independence in 1956, Tangier was a natural haven for hedonists, with Hollywood starlets hiding out among spies, artists, writers, and aristocrats. Seminal novels like Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky and William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch were penned here, while Henri Matisse found artistic inspiration in the architecture of the city’s 17th-century kasbah.
The creative energy that flows through Tangier’s history is propelling its rebirth too. At the months-old <a href="https://almatanger.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alma Kitchen &amp; Coffee</a>, I pass time alongside the creative types who congregate here, eating soulful dishes like beetroot hummus and roasted cauliflower with cashew cream from an ever-evolving menu. The restaurant’s founders, photographer Seif Kousmate and jewelry maker Lamiae Skalli, designed the light, contemporary interior themselves, and now they’re curating an events program that ranges from wellness workshops to photography classes.
<figure id="attachment_135672" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135672" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135672 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Alma-Kitchen-Coffee.jpg" alt="Beetroot hummus and other dips at Alma Kitchen; Seif Kousmate and Lamiae Skalli of the same restaurant." width="1200" height="894" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Alma-Kitchen-Coffee.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Alma-Kitchen-Coffee-300x224.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Alma-Kitchen-Coffee-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Alma-Kitchen-Coffee-768x572.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135672" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Beetroot hummus and other dips at Alma Kitchen; Seif Kousmate and Lamiae Skalli of the same restaurant. (Photos: Seif Kousmate, Lisa Follmar)</figcaption></figure>
In Tangier’s ancient medina, it’s impossible not to notice the hum of renovation work or the well-scrubbed cobblestones and fresh coats of whitewash. Regeneration is happening fast, but rather than demolition, the emphasis is on restoration. “It’s beautiful to give second chances to old buildings,” Yasmine Taferssiti told me over an espresso.
Taferssiti is a founding architect at KYYO, the fledgling firm leading the transformation of Cinéma Mauritania in Ville Nouvelle. In its glory days, the venue hosted jazz greats like Randy Weston, the American pianist who lived in Tangier in the late-’60s and early ’70s. When it reopens next year, the building will be home to a glamorous five-screen cinema, gastronomic restaurant, and music club. Strolling along the seafront, I marveled at all the waterfront apartments that have sprung up beside <a href="https://www.tanjamarinabay.ma/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="broken_link">Tanja Marina Bay</a>, where cafés and restaurants look out to docks lined with yachts. At night, the lights of the kasbah glimmered in the distance, as though to remind me that in Tangier, change must always be cemented in the past.
And these changes are due, in part, to a wave of investment initiated by King Mohammed VI, who is committed to making Tangier a great city again. It’s certainly hard not to be impressed by the galleries and museums that have recently opened. Set in a former prison, the <a href="https://fnm.ma/musees-ouverts/musee-la-kasbah-espace-dart-contemporain-tanger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Musée la Kasbah, Espace d’art contemporain</a> showcases works by contemporary Moroccan artists, while over in the medina, <a href="https://fnm.ma/musees-ouverts/musee-dar-niaba-tanger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Musée Dar Niaba</a> tells Tangier’s story through a fine collection of art and artifacts.
There are fabulous new places to stay, too. High on the hills above the medina, where wealthy Tanjawis live in fresher air away from the city noise, is the <a href="https://www.fairmonttazipalace.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fairmont Tazi Palace Tangier</a> (doubles from US$460). Originally built as the private residence of a royal advisor in the 1920s, the restored and expanded property debuted last November with towering decorative ceilings, arched hallways, lavish guest rooms, and unbeatable views. Not far from the kasbah, British interior designer Jasper Conran has recently transformed Yves Saint Laurent’s former 1940s villa into the 12-suite <a href="https://villamabrouka.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Villa Mabrouka</a> (doubles from US$490), while a Waldorf Astoria is slated to open in 2025.
<figure id="attachment_135673" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135673" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135673 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Villa-Mabrouka-Rabat-Suite-and-Exterior-Credit-Andrew-Montgomery.jpg" alt="A Rabat suite at Villa Mabrouka; on the same hotel’s grounds." width="1200" height="745" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Villa-Mabrouka-Rabat-Suite-and-Exterior-Credit-Andrew-Montgomery.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Villa-Mabrouka-Rabat-Suite-and-Exterior-Credit-Andrew-Montgomery-300x186.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Villa-Mabrouka-Rabat-Suite-and-Exterior-Credit-Andrew-Montgomery-1024x636.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-Villa-Mabrouka-Rabat-Suite-and-Exterior-Credit-Andrew-Montgomery-768x477.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135673" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: A Rabat suite at Villa Mabrouka; on the same hotel’s grounds. (Photos: Andrew Montgomery)</figcaption></figure>
A tranquil hideout in the residential Marshan neighborhood, <a href="https://lamaisondetanger.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">La Maison de Tanger</a> (doubles from US$100) is another standout. Done up in a neo-Moroccan style, the guesthouse is owned by musicians Jeff Beaulieu and Alex Henry Foster of the Canadian alt-rock band Your Favorite Enemies, who purchased the property in 2021 after making Tangier their part-time home. Beaulieu, dressed head to toe in black, explained that they want to bring more music and cultural events to the city and give something back. “Tangier has been so generous to us, so inspiring, it’s changed our lives in so many ways,” he said.
Creative types are enlivening Tangier’s shopping scene as well. On the second floor of a townhouse on Rue de la Kasbah, <a href="https://rockdakasbah.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rock da Kasbah</a> stocks playful printed sweatshirts, tees, and bags designed by French couple Virginie Hutin and Alban Trehet. Nearby, Hana Temli and Yassine Rais el Fenni’s <a href="https://www.kasbahcollective.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kasbah Collective</a> champions locally designed products, from artwork to clothing.
But for all that its urban fabric is changing, Tangier has always been a collision of old and new, luck and adversity, culture and commerce. I do not doubt that the qualities that have attracted artists and adventurers for more than a century will continue to exert their pull for generations to come.
<figure id="attachment_135670" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135670" style="width: 1380px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-135670 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-La-Maison-de-Tanger-Rooftop.jpg" alt="La Maison de Tanger’s rooftop terrace. (Courtesy of La Maison de Tanger)" width="1380" height="920" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-La-Maison-de-Tanger-Rooftop.jpg 1380w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-La-Maison-de-Tanger-Rooftop-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-La-Maison-de-Tanger-Rooftop-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Tangier-La-Maison-de-Tanger-Rooftop-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1380px) 100vw, 1380px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135670" class="wp-caption-text">La Maison de Tanger’s rooftop terrace. (Courtesy of La Maison de Tanger)</figcaption></figure>
This article originally appeared in the <a href="http://www.destinasian.com/magazine" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="broken_link">August/September 2023</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Tangier’s Turning Tide”).

La Maison de Tanger’s rooftop terrace. (Courtesy of La Maison de Tanger)

High Time for Tangier

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