Luxury holidays in Larache

Just south of Tangier on Morocco’s wild Atlantic coast, Larache is yet to be discovered by the hordes – which means you’ll have its rugged stretches of shoreline all to yourself. Head north to see Asilah’s mediaeval medina, built by the Portuguese, or join the summer-holidaying Moroccans on the beach at Ras R’Mel, a half-hour drive south. Larache spent much of the 17th century (and half of the 20th century) being occupied by the Spanish, who also left behind a fort (La Cigogne). It was the main trading port of the protectorate by 1911, and once a ship-building centre for pirates down the coast. More antiquity awaits at the ruins of Lixus on the banks of the Loukkos River, which has over the centuries been a settlement under Phoenician, Carthaginian and Roman rule.