Alexandria vs Casablanca

A long, dense city strung out along the seafront, packed and busy without quite matching Cairo's relentless intensity, and carrying a brisk everyday pace. Getting around leans heavily on cars and crowded transport, and walkability is patchy.

A dense, fast-moving metropolis, the largest in Morocco by a wide margin. The pace is brisk, mixed-use streets are common, and daily life mingles homes with shops and cafes.

Violent crime is low and street-level danger limited, broadly in line with Cairo and far safer than its raw size might suggest. Petty theft and a sense of caution after dark are the everyday concerns.

Serious violent crime is rare and the homicide rate is very low, which anchors a steady sense of safety by day. Petty crime and street hassle are more of an issue, with pickpocketing common in crowded areas, and the streets feel less settled after dark.

Local prospects are narrow, with limited industry breadth and few roles suited to people working in English. The weak spot.

Casablanca has some professional breadth, but the market is not especially deep. Casablanca holds the country's better hospitals and specialists, a step up from smaller Moroccan cities, but the baseline is modest across the board.

Where Alexandria comes alive. Alexandria trades on faded grandeur, its long Mediterranean corniche and the modern library giving it genuine public sweep even as litter and neglect creep along the edges.

Strong on everyday culture. Casablanca is a busy, dusty business city, upkeep mixed and shared space mostly the Atlantic corniche and the vast Hassan II mosque plaza in an otherwise car-bound grid.