Fes travel guide covering the medina, Chouara tanneries, medersas, where to stay, day trips and what to skip. Honest, research-backed, updated June 2026.
Last updated: June 2026
Fes is the most demanding city in Morocco. It is also the most rewarding - if you go in with the right expectations and a rough plan.
The medina of Fes el-Bali is the world’s largest car-free urban area. That sounds romantic until you are forty minutes deep into a dead-end alley with your GPS dot floating over an unmarked courtyard. I have been to Fes three times across six trips to Morocco since 2017. First visit I was lost within an hour. Second visit I hired a licensed guide and covered three times as much ground. Third visit I knew it well enough to navigate alone. Here is what I would tell you before you go.
How Many Days Do You Need in Fes?
Two days minimum. Three days is the right amount if you want to do a day trip. Four suits anyone with serious interest in craft or Islamic architecture.
Do not make Fes a half-day stop. The medina alone takes a full day to cover meaningfully. If you arrive tired and leave tomorrow afternoon, you will endure it rather than see it.
The city is quieter and more conservative than Marrakech. Locals largely leave you alone - which means the people who do approach you tend to have a commercial reason for doing so, and that becomes obvious quickly.
For a side-by-side comparison, see Marrakech vs Fes: Which Should You Visit?. If you are planning to visit both, the Marrakech travel guide covers the southern city in the same depth.
Fes el-Bali: The Medina Without the Panic
Fes el-Bali is a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering roughly 300 hectares with over 9,000 alleys, no cars, and almost no street signs in Latin script. It is completely navigable if you follow a few basic rules.
Learn the spine first. The medina has a rough central axis from Bab Boujloud (the Blue Gate) in the west toward the Quaraouiyine Mosque. Talaa Kebira and Talaa Seghira are the two main arteries heading east from the gate - wider, signposted in Arabic, trackable. Stay on these for your first hour and you will understand the structure before you start exploring the side streets.
Navigation. Google Maps works reasonably well, though accuracy varies in the deeper alleys. Download an offline map before you arrive. What Maps will not tell you is whether a street has a laden donkey and three crates blocking it - which is normal. Your route will change constantly. Accept this.
Useful anchors. The Blue Gate is always findable. The tanneries are in the northeast of Fes el-Bali. Seffarine Square (the brass-workers’ square) is a reliable central landmark - the sound of hammering is often the best navigation tool in the medina.
When you do get lost. Stay calm, do not accept unsolicited help from strangers (see scams section), and head toward noise or uphill. The medina is surrounded; you will eventually reach a wall, gate, or main street.
The Blue Gate and What to Do Near It
Bab Boujloud - the Blue Gate - is the most photographed entrance in Fes. It is decorated in blue tilework on the city side and green on the mosque side, and it dates from 1913. It is not ancient by Moroccan standards, but it is genuinely striking, and the cafes on either side have perfectly aimed terraces for photographing it while drinking mint tea.
The area around the gate has the highest concentration of tourist restaurants in the medina. Some are good, many are not - and a few operate on the commission-from-guides model. Walk one street back from the obvious options and the quality improves and prices drop.
The Chouara Tanneries: What Actually Happens
The Chouara Tanneries date from the 11th century and still use traditional methods - pigeon dung, quicklime, and natural dyes in a honeycomb of stone vats. The colours when the sun hits them mid-morning are genuinely striking.
The mint-sprig reality. Every leather shop beside the tanneries hands you a mint sprig when you go to the terrace. This is not a charming custom - the smell of fermenting hides, pigeon droppings, and chemical dyes is severe. Hold the mint under your nose throughout.
The viewing terraces are inside leather shops. There is no independent viewing platform. You access the views through one of the shops on Derb Chaouwara - free to look, but you are in a shop, and you will be shown leather goods at the end. The pressure to buy is real in some shops. Go around 10am when the dyers are most active. “Shukran, la” (thank you, no) said firmly while moving toward the exit ends most interactions. If you do want leather, it is negotiable - expect to pay 40-60% of the opening price.
The smaller tanneries (Sidi Moussa, Ain Azliten) have less crowd and more atmosphere, but Chouara’s scale is unmatched. Go there first.
The Medersas: Bou Inania and Al-Attarine
These are the two best buildings you can actually enter in the medina.
Bou Inania Medersa sits on Talaa Kebira - easy to find. Built in the 14th century under the Marinid dynasty, it is the only religious building in Fes open to non-Muslims. Entry 20 MAD (around €2). The carved cedar wood, zellij tilework, and stucco upper floors around the courtyard are as detailed as anything in Morocco. Give it 45 minutes minimum.
Al-Attarine Medersa sits adjacent to the Qarawiyyin Mosque - harder to find but worth it. Same Marinid period, also 20 MAD. Where Bou Inania is grand and vertical, Al-Attarine is intimate. The floor mosaics and carved gallery screens are particularly fine. Go in the morning before tour groups arrive.
Skip. The Dar Batha Museum (60 MAD) has decent Fassi ceramics and woodwork but the presentation does not match the collection. Visit only if it is raining.
Al-Qarawiyyin: The World’s Oldest University
Founded in 859 AD, Al-Qarawiyyin is recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest continuously operating university. The attached mosque holds 22,000 worshippers.
Non-Muslims cannot enter the mosque or main university buildings. You can stand in the doorway and look into the tiled courtyard, which is striking even from the threshold. The library - restored and reopened in 2016 - is accessible from Seffarine Square, though hours are limited.
Do not let the access restriction put you off visiting the area. Seffarine Square is one of the most atmospheric corners of Fes - brass workers hammer copper in workshops that have changed little in 500 years. Sit at the small cafe on the corner and give it twenty minutes.
The Mellah: Fes’s Jewish Quarter
The Mellah was established in 1438 - the first Jewish quarter in Morocco - and sits adjacent to the Royal Palace in Fes el-Jdid, about fifteen minutes’ walk from the Blue Gate. Most visitors skip it entirely.
The balconied houses, wider streets, and different architectural register make it feel distinct from Fes el-Bali. The Ibn Danan Synagogue (free entry) is a restored 17th-century building worth ten minutes of your time. The Jewish cemetery on the quarter’s edge contains more saints’ tombs than any other in Morocco.
The community emigrated to Israel and France after 1948, but the material culture remains. It gives you a more complete picture of Fes’s history than the medina alone.
Pottery and Zellij Workshops
Fes is Morocco’s primary centre for blue-and-white pottery and zellij tilework. The large co-operative pottery complex on the road to Meknes is the tourist version - a fixed-price shop with a roof terrace overlooking active kilns. Worth a look, but prices are high and the atmosphere is transactional.
The pottery quarter near Place Seffarine has small independent workshops where you can watch artisans without the tour-group atmosphere. Several workshops near the Andalusian quarter take walk-ins for short supervised sessions - making a tile or throwing a small pot - for around 80-150 MAD. It gives you a direct sense of how technically demanding the craft actually is.
Should You Hire a Guide? An Honest Take
Yes, on your first day. Not necessarily on your second.
A licensed guide costs around 300-400 MAD for a half-day (roughly €28-38) and 500-700 MAD for a full day. A good one knows which shops are worth stopping in versus which are commission traps, knows when the tanneries are best lit, and can have conversations with craftspeople that you simply cannot have alone.
The licensed part matters. Licensed guides carry an official badge from the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism. Ask to see it before you agree to anything. Book through your riad or the tourist office. Do not hire someone who approaches you on the street.
Day two solo. Once you have a mental map from day one, the medina is navigable on your own. The second day is when you find things: the neighbourhood hammam, the family cafe down a side alley, the craftsman who shows you something because you came in curious rather than on a script. That day can be better than the guided one.
For a full breakdown of the fake-guide scam, read our Morocco Scams Guide and the fake guide scam explained.
Fake Guides and Other Scams in Fes
Fes has its own variant of the fake-guide scam.
The “street is closed” gambit. A friendly local tells you the street ahead is closed for a festival or construction and offers to show you a different route. The route ends at his cousin’s carpet shop. This is the most common approach in the Fes medina.
The tannery walk-along. Someone casually falls into step beside you, mentions the tanneries, and starts giving information you did not ask for. He leads you to a leather shop with a “free” viewing terrace and earns commission on whatever you buy.
How to cut it off. Eye contact and “la, shukran” (no, thank you) as soon as someone starts a conversation you did not initiate. Do not explain yourself, do not walk and talk. Stop, say it once, wait. Being polite and semi-engaged extends the encounter by minutes and does not end it.
Fes is genuinely safe for tourists. These scams are about money, not safety.
Where to Stay in Fes
Stay in a riad in the medina, at least for the first night. Arriving in Fes el-Bali at dusk, finding an unmarked door in an alley, and emerging into a tiled courtyard with a fountain is an experience the Ville Nouvelle cannot replicate. Even a mid-range riad (600-1,200 MAD per night) gives you that arrival.
The limitation is luggage - no cars enter the medina. Your riad will typically meet you at the nearest accessible gate. Book one that is explicit about which gate to arrive at; the good ones will talk you in.
Ville Nouvelle (the French colonial city south of the medina) has conventional hotels with parking and reliable wifi. A taxi to the Blue Gate costs 20-30 MAD and takes ten minutes. It suits anyone with mobility issues or a lot of luggage.
For specific picks, see Where to Stay in Fes. For a cost comparison with Marrakech, the Fes vs Marrakech budget guide runs the numbers.
Getting to Fes: Trains and Buses
From Casablanca. The ONCF train takes around 4.5 hours on the Al Atlas service. Second-class fares run 79-120 MAD (€7-11); first class 130-200 MAD (€12-19). Multiple departures daily. Casablanca Voyageurs connects directly to the airport line, so you can travel airport-to-Fes without entering the city - the most straightforward rail connection in Morocco.
From Marrakech. Train to Fes takes approximately 6.5 hours with a change at Casa Voyageurs. Second-class 115-170 MAD (€11-16); first class 180-250 MAD (€17-23). Four trains daily. This is a long day but first class is comfortable and the Middle Atlas scenery is worthwhile. The alternative bus takes 9-10 hours.
Book online at oncf.ma or via Bookaway. Tickets are cheaper in advance and sell out on peak weekends and during Ramadan.
Day Trips From Fes
Meknes (60km, 45 minutes by train). Morocco’s most underrated imperial city. Bab Mansour gate is genuinely one of the finest pieces of Moroccan architectural decoration anywhere. The medina is smaller, navigable, and has almost no hustlers. Combine with Volubilis for a full day; see day trip options here.
Volubilis (33km from Meknes). The best-preserved Roman ruins in North Africa, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Entry 70 MAD (€7). The in-situ mosaics - the Orpheus mosaic and the Labours of Hercules series - are extraordinary and open to the elements. Go in the morning. Grand taxi from Meknes to Volubilis is around 100-150 MAD return; allow 2 hours on site.
Chefchaouen (190km, 4 hours by bus). Beautiful, but 4-4.5 hours each way makes it a poor day trip. Most people who try feel they had too little time. Make it an overnight stop en route to Tangier. Our Chefchaouen travel guide covers what to do when you get there.
Food in Fes
Fes food is distinct from Marrakech or coastal Moroccan cooking. Rfissa - chicken, lentils, and fenugreek over msemen flatbread - is the signature dish; ask your riad where to find it. Pastilla (pigeon, almond, and cinnamon pie dusted with icing sugar) is considered better here than anywhere else in Morocco at around 80-100 MAD per portion. Mechoui stalls near the medina’s abattoir sell slow-roasted lamb by weight at 80-100 MAD per 250g - some of the best food in the city.
Avoid the tourist restaurants immediately inside the Blue Gate. They charge Marrakech prices for ordinary food and rely on guide referrals. Walk three minutes further in and the quality improves sharply.
What to Skip in Fes
The Merenid Tombs. The views from the hillside above the medina are pleasant. The tombs are not impressive, and the walk up attracts persistent souvenir sellers. The restaurant terraces near the Blue Gate give you a comparable panorama without the hassle.
The Royal Palace. The gilded gate (Dar el-Makhzen) is photographable from the outside. You cannot enter, and it requires a taxi ride away from the medina. See it if you are already in Fes el-Jdid for the Mellah; do not make a separate trip.
Horse-drawn carriage tours. They circle the outside of the medina walls for 150-200 MAD per carriage. You came to be inside the city, not to circle it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many days do I need in Fes?
Three days: one guided day in the medina, one solo, one for a day trip to Meknes or Volubilis. Two days is workable if Fes is one stop in a longer itinerary. For a full framework, see the Morocco itineraries guide.
Is Fes safe for tourists?
Yes. The risk in Fes is economic (fake guides, commission shops, inflated tourist-restaurant prices), not physical. The medina at night is disorienting and it is worth returning to your riad before late evening on your first visit. See our Fes safety guide for more detail.
Can non-Muslims visit the medersas and mosques?
Bou Inania Medersa (20 MAD) and Al-Attarine Medersa (20 MAD) are both open to non-Muslims - they are religious schools, not active mosques. The Qarawiyyin Mosque is closed to non-Muslims, though you can peer into the courtyard from the doorway and visit the library entrance at Seffarine Square.
How much does a licensed guide cost in Fes?
Around 300-400 MAD for a half-day and 500-700 MAD for a full day. Licensed guides carry a Ministry of Tourism badge - ask to see it. Never hire someone who approaches you on the street; book through your riad or the tourist office.
Is the train better than the bus from Marrakech?
Yes. Train takes around 6.5 hours with a change at Casablanca, second-class fares from 115-170 MAD (€11-16), four trains daily. Bus takes 9-10 hours for a similar price. The train wins on time. From Casablanca the train takes 4.5 hours and is the most convenient rail connection in Morocco.
What is the best time of year to visit Fes?
March to May and September to November: daytime 18-24°C, comfortable medina walking. June to August is very hot (35-40°C regularly) and the tanneries are significantly worse in the heat. Ramadan affects restaurant hours and medina atmosphere - worth checking dates before you book.
How do I get from Fes to Chefchaouen?
By bus - CTM and Supratours run services taking around 4-4.5 hours, fares approximately 60-80 MAD each way. No direct train. A private transfer takes 2.5-3 hours by car. Chefchaouen works better as an overnight stop than a day trip; see our Chefchaouen travel guide.
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