Things to do in Fes

Fes el-Bali is not a metaphor for labyrinthine complexity — it has thousands of alleys, many of them unnamed and unmapped on any digital service. Google Maps and similar tools are demonstrably wrong in significant portions of the medina. A licensed guide — and Fes has a well-established licensed guide association — is not a luxury here; it is the difference between a frustrating and a revelatory experience. A good guide navigates not just the lanes but the layers: the hidden foundouks (artisans' inns), the workshops behind unmarked doors, the neighbourhoods where residents rather than tourists live.

Licensed guides carry a government-issued badge and are regulated through the ONMT (Office National Marocain du Tourisme). Rates vary by group and length; we quote per group. Guides arranged through your riad or a reputable agency are vetted; guides who approach you on the street near Bab Bou Jeloud are almost invariably unlicensed.

Fes is Morocco's artisan capital in a meaningful way — several crafts have been produced here in an unbroken tradition since the medieval period, with workshops located in the same quarter of the medina they have occupied for centuries. The coppersmiths are concentrated near the Place Seffarine; you can watch intricate hammering of brass and copper trays in tiny workshops open to the lane. The carpenters' quarter (near the woodworkers' souk) still uses traditional lathe-turning techniques for cedarwood furniture and boxes.

The potters' quarter, Ain Nokbi, is across the medina to the south-east — largely overlooked by tourist itineraries, and the place to watch the making of Fassi blue-and-white ware from raw clay to finished glaze. The dyers' souk (Souk Sabbaghin) is a vivid spectacle of hanging skeins of freshly dyed wool in the narrow lanes near the tanneries.

• Place Seffarine — coppersmiths and brass workers; active from mid-morning.
• Ain Nokbi pottery quarter — Fassi ceramics production; rarely visited.
• Souk Sabbaghin — dyers' souk; vivid hanging skeins of silk and wool.
• Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts — fountain square and foundouk museum.
• Chez Rachid (leather tannery adjacent) — reputable leather shop with honest tannery-terrace access.

Meknes, Morocco's less-visited imperial city, is 60 km from Fes and easily combined as a full-day excursion. The Bab Mansour gate is arguably the finest gate in Morocco; the royal granaries and stables are vast and atmospheric; the medina is relaxed and unhurried. The Roman ruins of Volubilis — one of the best-preserved in Africa, with floor mosaics, a triumphal arch and a colonnaded street — are 35 km north of Meknes and logically combined on the same day.

Chefchaouen, the famous blue city, is 3.5–4 hours' drive from Fes through the Rif Mountains — best as an overnight or two-night stay rather than a rushed day trip. Azrou cedar forest (2 hours south) is a half-day option, with Barbary macaque monkeys in the cedar trees and a refreshing contrast to the medina heat.