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Golf guide • Morocco • Rabat-Salé-Kénitra

Golf in Rabat: Royal Dar Es Salam in the cork oak forest

Rabat, Morocco's capital on the Atlantic coast, has one of Africa's great golf complexes: Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, 45 holes designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Cabell Robinson in a cork oak forest, a quarter of an hour from the centre. Its Red Course hosts the Trophée Hassan II, and Bahia Golf Beach, by the ocean at Bouznika, completes the trip. The best golf is in spring and autumn.

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Rabat has neither Agadir's beach-resort reputation nor Marrakech's folklore, and that is precisely its charm: a quiet, administrative, green capital where you come first for the golf. Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, commissioned by King Hassan II and opened in 1971, spreads across 440 hectares of cork oak forest along the Zaërs road, about fifteen minutes from the centre. Three courses, 45 holes in all, and a tournament history few clubs on the continent can claim.

The Red Course hosted the Trophée Hassan II from its first edition in 1971, then several times when the event was on the European Tour schedule; today it stages the PGA Tour Champions edition and the Ladies European Tour's Lalla Meryem Cup. The Blue, shorter and more forgiving, is played on the same estate, and a nine-hole course, the Green, serves as a warm-up. Between the holes, the gnarled trunks of the cork oaks frame every fairway.

The city itself deserves your free afternoons: the Kasbah of the Udayas above the mouth of the Bou Regreg, the Hassan Tower, the Chellah necropolis and the medina. Three to five nights are enough to play the Red, the Blue and Bahia Golf Beach at Bouznika, forty minutes to the south, with time for a city that has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2012.

The courses

Island green in the middle of a pond, flowering oleanders in the foreground, eucalyptus and oaks behind

Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, parcours Rouge

  • Architect: Robert Trent Jones Sr., Cabell Robinson; James Duncan (2018)
  • Opened 1971
  • 18 holes
  • Par 73

The Red is Morocco's benchmark course: a par 73 of 6,980 metres from the back tees, laid out by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and his associate Cabell Robinson in the late 1960s and opened in 1971. Between 2016 and 2018, the architect James Duncan cleared corridors that had grown too narrow, rebuilt the bunkers and reconstructed all eighteen greens using Jones's original plans, found in the archives of Cornell University. Long, wooded and demanding from tee to green, it is for good players: the club asks for a handicap below 18.

Signature hole. The 9th, a par 3 of about 180 metres, is played over a pond covered in water lilies to a shallow island green ringed with flowers.

Official website

Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, parcours Bleu

  • Architect: Robert Trent Jones Sr., Cabell Robinson
  • 18 holes
  • Par 72

Across the road that runs through the estate, the Blue shares the same cork oak setting and the same Trent Jones and Robinson signature, over 6,467 metres for a par 72. More forgiving than the Red, it was reworked at the end of the 2010s: tees and greens reshaped, bunkers touched up, many trees felled to reopen the fairways. Its par 3s and waterside holes make it far more than a consolation course. The club asks for a handicap below 28 here, which makes it the natural choice for a group of mixed abilities.

Official website

Bahia Golf Beach

  • Architect: Cabell B. Robinson
  • 18 holes

At Bouznika, on the coast road between Rabat and Casablanca, Bahia Golf Beach changes register completely: an 18-hole oceanside course designed by Cabell B. Robinson, the same man who had worked with Trent Jones at Dar Es Salam. The Atlantic wind counts as much as the layout here, and the course asks for precision as much as length. Allow about forty minutes on the motorway from central Rabat: a fine day of contrast after two rounds in the forest.

Official website

Where to stay

The Ritz-Carlton, Rabat Dar Es Salam

Opened in 2023 on the edge of Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, the Ritz-Carlton has 117 rooms and suites set among the estate's gardens and forest. It is the obvious address for a golf-centred stay: the first tee is a few minutes away, and in the evening there is a spa with an indoor pool and five restaurants and bars, among them Lumen for regionally inspired Mediterranean cooking.

Hôtel La Tour Hassan Palace

On Avenue Chellah, in the centre, this Moorish-style palace hotel built in 1912 is Rabat's great historic address. Lunch at Le Laurier, which looks onto the Andalusian gardens and the pool, and keep La Maison Arabe for a Moroccan dinner. Hammam and spa: you sleep in the heart of the city, visit the Udayas in the morning and reach Dar Es Salam in a quarter of an hour by car for an afternoon tee time.

Moorish-style courtyard with finely carved stucco arches and zellige, an octagonal fountain, potted palms and bougainvillea at dusk

Where to dine

Dinarjat

Founded in 1990 in a notable's house built in 1908, on the edge of the medina towards the Udayas, Dinarjat serves Moroccan home cooking as families pass it down: pastilla, tagines and couscous, to recipes handed from mother to daughter. Booking recommended; a dinner for the first evening.

Le Dhow

A 47-metre dhow, built by hand from tropical wood in an Indian boatyard and now moored on the Bou Regreg quay, facing Salé: a restaurant, a deck for drinks and a bar in the hold. For a group, book the captain's table, an iroko oval seating fourteen. From 6 pm the deck becomes a lounge with a DJ for the sunset. In the kitchen, chef Abdelghaffar Bougrine.

Beyond golf

The Kasbah of the Udayas

Perched above the mouth of the Bou Regreg, facing Salé, the kasbah is the city's original fortification and part of the UNESCO-listed site. Its whitewashed, blue-trimmed lanes can be walked in an hour, ideally in the morning, before heading down to the medina for lunch at Dinarjat, close by.

The Hassan Tower and the Chellah

The Hassan Tower is the unfinished minaret of a vast Almohad mosque begun at the end of the 12th century; it faces the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, where King Hassan II also rests. Further south, the Chellah necropolis, dating from the 14th century, occupies the site of an ancient Phoenician, Carthaginian and then Roman city, whose ruins still emerge between the tombs.

The Jardin d'Essais Botaniques

Created in 1914 to plans by Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier, the Jardin d'Essais covers 17 hectares in the Agdal quarter. Reopened in 2013 after seven years of restoration, it brings together fruit and ornamental trees from all over the world: a shady walk for the end of a day without golf, a few minutes from the centre.

Whitewashed lane trimmed in blue, a carved wooden door, crenellated ochre ramparts and the ocean at the end

When to go

Rabat enjoys a temperate Atlantic climate. Spring, from March to June, and autumn, from September to November, offer the best conditions: mild days and courses in good shape. Summer remains playable, with highs around 28°C tempered by the ocean. Winter is mild, about 17°C in the afternoon, but the rain falls mostly from October to April. In May, the tournaments close the Red for a few days.

Getting there

Rabat-Salé airport (RBA), about 8 km from the centre, has direct flights from several cities in France and Europe; allow twenty-five minutes to Dar Es Salam. Casablanca's Mohammed V airport offers more flights, about an hour and a half away by road. The Al Boraq high-speed train links Tangier and Casablanca with Rabat-Agdal station.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best golf course in Rabat?

The Red Course at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Cabell Robinson and opened in 1971. It hosts the Trophée Hassan II and the Lalla Meryem Cup, and tops Moroccan rankings.

Can visitors play Royal Golf Dar Es Salam?

Yes, by reservation. The club asks for a handicap below 18 for the Red and below 28 for the Blue, and a caddie is compulsory.

How many golf courses are there around Rabat?

Royal Golf Dar Es Salam has two 18-hole courses and a nine-hole course a quarter of an hour from the centre. Bahia Golf Beach, at Bouznika, adds an 18-hole oceanside course about forty minutes to the south.

When is the best time to play golf in Rabat?

In spring (March to June) and autumn (September to November). Summer stays tempered by the ocean; winter is mild but wetter.

Which airport is best for a golf trip to Rabat?

Rabat-Salé (RBA), twenty-five minutes from Dar Es Salam. Casablanca airport, about an hour and a half by road, has more routes.

Tailor-made

Your golf trip: Rabat

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