Most travelers treat Fes like a warm-up act. They fly into Casablanca, spend a night in Marrakech, and tell themselves they will get to Fes next time. This is a mistake. Fes is not a smaller or harder version of Marrakech. It is an entirely different species of city — older, denser, more intellectually serious, and significantly more difficult to navigate. It is also more rewarding.
Fes was founded in 789 AD by Idris I, a great-grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who arrived in Morocco as a political refugee and built a city that would become the spiritual and intellectual capital of the Maghreb. Twelve centuries later, it is still the place where Moroccan religious scholars train, where artisans produce leather and ceramics using methods unchanged since the Marinid dynasty, and where the world's oldest continuously operating university — Al-Qarawiyyin, founded in 859 AD by Fatima al-Fihri, a refugee from Tunisia — opens its doors every morning. The university predates Oxford by nearly two centuries. It is not a museum piece. Classes still happen.
The medina of Fes el-Bali is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest car-free urban area on Earth. Over 9,000 alleyways run through it, none of them wide enough for a car. Donkeys and mules are the only vehicles. A shout of "balak!" means one is coming and you should flatten yourself against the nearest wall. The streets have no grid, no signs, and no logic that a first-time visitor can detect. GPS fails inside the deep medina. The only reliable navigation method is to hire a licensed guide for your first day, which costs 150 to 300 MAD for a half-day tour. A good guide opens doors — literal and figurative — to workshops, courtyards, and viewpoints you would never find alone, and they keep the touts away.
Start at Bab Boujloud, the Blue Gate, which marks the western entrance to Fes el-Bali. Built in the 12th century and restored with its famous blue zellij tilework in 1913, it is the most recognizable landmark in the city. From there, the two main arteries run downhill toward the heart of the medina: Talaa Kebira (the upper route) and Talaa Seghira (the lower route). Follow either one and you will eventually reach the area around Al-Qarawiyyin.
Bou Inania Madrasa, built between 1350 and 1355 under the Marinid sultan Abu Inan Faris, is the only madrasa in Fes that includes an active mosque and a functioning fountain. The zellij tilework, carved stucco, and cedar wood ceilings are among the finest in Morocco. Entry is 20 MAD. Al-Attarine Madrasa, built between 1323 and 1325 near the spice market, is slightly older and similarly ornate. It is quieter because it does not have an active mosque. Entry is also 20 MAD. Visit both before 10 AM, when the light is better and the tour groups have not arrived.
Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and University sits at the spiritual center of the medina. Non-Muslims cannot enter the prayer hall or the library, which houses a 9th-century Quran written on camel skin, but the exterior is worth the walk. The university has been operating continuously since 859 AD. Students still study Islamic law, theology, and Arabic grammar in the same courtyard where their predecessors studied twelve centuries ago.
The Chouara Tannery has been operating since at least the 11th century, and the process has not changed: hides are soaked in limestone vats filled with cow urine and pigeon droppings to loosen the hair, then transferred to dye pits filled with natural pigments — poppy for red, indigo for blue, henna for orange, cedar bark for brown. The smell is intense. Shopkeepers hand out sprigs of mint. The leather is genuine and high-quality, but the shops around the tannery are tourist-priced. Visit for the spectacle, then buy leather goods from the leatherworkers' quarter near Place Seffarine, where prices are lower. Unstuffed leather poufs start at 120 MAD. A good babouche pair costs 200 to 400 MAD.
Place Seffarine is the coppersmiths' square near the northern end of the medina. The sound of hammers on brass has echoed through this square for over a thousand years. The metalworkers produce everything from wedding cauldrons to tea trays by hand. A hand-hammered brass tray starts at 80 MAD. An ornate tea service runs 500 to 2,000 MAD. There are no ticket booths, no guides, no signs. Stand against a wall and watch. The workers do not perform. They simply work.
The Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts and Crafts occupies an 18th-century funduq — a caravanserai that served as an inn and warehouse for traveling merchants. The building was restored in the 1990s and now houses a museum of traditional woodworking tools and decorated doors, with a rooftop terrace that offers one of the best views over the medina. Entry is 20 MAD. You will spend thirty to forty minutes inside, but the funduq itself, with its central courtyard and cedar balconies, is the real attraction.
The Mellah, Fes's Jewish quarter, is located south of the Royal Palace in Fes el-Jdid, the newer part of the old city built by the Marinids in the 13th century. It is one of the oldest Jewish quarters in the Arab world. Today most of the Jewish population has left, but the quarter still contains a restored synagogue, a cemetery with tombstones dating to the 16th century, and houses with balconies facing the street — a design rare in Islamic urban architecture. The Royal Palace gates are nearby. You cannot enter the palace, but the brass doors and zellij walls are among the most photographed architectural details in Morocco.
Fes is not an easy city. The touts are persistent. The heat in summer — July and August especially — is brutal, with temperatures exceeding 38°C and the dense alleyways trapping heat like a furnace. If you visit in summer, explore before 10 AM and after 5 PM only. The ideal months are March through May and September through November, when temperatures range from 18°C to 30°C. Winter is cooler and cheaper, with daytime temperatures around 10°C to 15°C, but riads with thick walls can be cold at night and most buildings do not have heating.
Petit taxis — small red Mercedes that hold up to three passengers — run between the medina gates, the Ville Nouvelle, and the train station. Insist on the meter. A ride from Bab Boujloud to the Ville Nouvelle should cost 12 to 18 MAD. Taxis cannot enter the medina. The train station connects Fes to Meknes (40 minutes, from 25 MAD), Rabat (2.5 hours, from 95 MAD), Casablanca (3.5 hours, from 125 MAD), and Marrakech (7 hours, from 195 MAD). City buses cost 3.5 MAD per ride but are crowded and slow.
A mid-range riad double room in the medina costs 400 to 800 MAD per night. The location puts you inside the action, but you will carry your luggage through cobblestone streets — taxis stop at the gates. The Ville Nouvelle has air-conditioned hotels and easier taxi access, but you lose the immersive experience of waking up inside the medina.
Food in Fes is less internationally famous than Marrakech's cuisine, but it is equally sophisticated. The city is known for bisteeya — a savory-sweet pie of pigeon or chicken layered with eggs, almonds, and cinnamon inside warqa pastry — and for harira, the tomato-based soup traditionally eaten to break the Ramadan fast. A mid-range restaurant meal costs 80 to 200 MAD. Street food in the medina is cheaper: a bowl of harira costs 15 to 25 MAD, and a khobz sandwich with grilled meat runs 20 to 40 MAD. The Ville Nouvelle has a wider range of restaurants, including some that serve alcohol, which is difficult to find in the medina.
Day trips from Fes are excellent. Meknes, the third imperial city, is 40 minutes by train and contains the monumental Bab el-Mansour gate and the royal granaries of Heri es-Souani. Volubilis, the best-preserved Roman site in Morocco, is another 30 minutes by taxi from Meknes and costs about 60 MAD to enter. The ruins include remarkably intact mosaics of Bacchus and Orpheus. Chefchaouen, the blue city in the Rif Mountains, is 3.5 to 4 hours by bus and is worth an overnight stay rather than a day trip.
What to skip: The American Fondouk is underwhelming unless you have a specific interest in diplomatic history. The Borj Nord Arms Museum, housed in a 16th-century Portuguese fortress, has a decent collection of Moroccan weaponry but is not essential. Entry is about 20 MAD and the view over the medina from the terrace is the best reason to visit. The Jnan Sbil Gardens between Fes el-Bali and Fes el-Jdid are pleasant but ordinary — a green space more useful to residents than to visitors with limited time.
If you only remember one thing about Fes, let it be this: the city does not reveal itself quickly. Marrakech hits you immediately. Fes requires three days minimum, and even then you will leave feeling like you have scratched the surface. The real discoveries happen in the unplanned moments: a craftsman hammering brass in a workshop that has been operating for a thousand years, a courtyard garden hidden behind a wooden door, a shaft of cedar-scented light falling through a screen in Bou Inania Madrasa at 8 AM before anyone else arrives. The medina is not a museum. It is a living city. Treat it with patience, wear sturdy shoes, carry small bills, and hire a guide on day one. The rest will unfold on its own.
By Elena Vasquez
Cultural anthropologist and culinary storyteller. Elena spent a decade documenting traditional cooking methods across Latin America and the Mediterranean. She holds a PhD in Ethnography from Barcelona University and believes the best way to understand a place is through its kitchens and ancient streets.