Morocco · Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima
Where to Stay in Larache, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima
Larache is an Atlantic port of northern Morocco at the mouth of the Loukkos, an old Spanish-Moroccan town beside the ancient ruins of Lixus.
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Where to stay in Larache
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Larache turns on the old town or the shore. The streets around the plaza keep the white houses, the market, and the fortress within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the old town. The white town looks over the sea.
Lanes wind down to the port. Out toward Lixus and the beach, the town gives way to the ruins, the river marshes, and the Atlantic sands. A room by the shore trades the streets for the Roman ruins, the wide beach, and the mouth of the Loukkos.
The ocean rolls onto the sand. Stay downtown for the plaza, or by the shore for the beach. The old town lies a short way in.
About Larache
Larache is the white port of the Loukkos.
What is Larache known for?
Where the Loukkos river runs into the Atlantic in the north of Morocco, it grew as a fishing and trading port, and it keeps the blue-and-white old town of its Spanish and Moroccan past, an old sea fortress on the shore, the great Roman ruins of Lixus on the hill across the river, and a long Atlantic beach nearby. The river joins the grey ocean. Green hills roll behind.
What are the main landmarks in Larache?
The ruins of Lixus crown the hill above Larache. The old Roman and Phoenician city on the height across the river, with its temples, its theatre, and the vats where fish was salted, looks down over the water, the mark of the coast, above the marshes. A sea fortress guards the mouth.
The old fort of stone stands over the river mouth by the town, while the white old town, the Atlantic beach, and the fishing port mark the coast around Larache.
What is the history of Larache?
Larache stands beside one of the oldest cities of Morocco. On the hill across the river the Phoenicians founded Lixus in the depths of antiquity, and the Greeks set here the garden of the Hesperides, where Hercules was said to pick the golden apples. Rome held the hill.
The Romans built a fine town at Lixus with temples, baths, and a theatre, whose ruins still crown the hill above the river, and salted fish for the empire on the shore below. Spain and Morocco shaped the port. In later centuries Larache grew at the river mouth as a port fought over by Morocco, Spain, and the corsairs, and it took a Spanish look of white houses and a plaza in the years of the Spanish protectorate.
The sea fed the town. Fishing boats worked the Atlantic and the river, and Larache grew as a quiet white port of the north, its old fortress guarding the mouth and the ruins of Lixus watching from the hill. The old town still whitens the bluff.
Larache keeps its port and its ruins at the mouth of the Loukkos.
Where is Larache?
Larache lies on the Atlantic coast of northern Morocco, at the mouth of the Loukkos river. The town sits on a bluff above the river where it winds through marshes into the sea, with the hill of ancient Lixus rising across the water, and green farmland and low hills spreading inland. Grey ocean opens to the west.
The river winds through the marsh.
What is the climate of Larache?
Larache has a mild Mediterranean climate on the Atlantic. Warm dry summers and cool wet winters cross the coast, softened by the ocean, with sea mist and rain in winter and warm sunny summers. The sea keeps the air mild.
Winter brings grey rain.
How do you get to Larache?
Larache lies on the Atlantic coast, on the road between Tangier and Rabat. Buses and the coast road run to it down the shore from Tangier and up from Kenitra, and lanes lead out to the ruins of Lixus. Boats work the river mouth.
Tangier lies north up the coast.
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Updated August 2026