Fes for couples: slow days, quiet courtyards, dinner on the roof

The single most important choice is where you stay. A restored courtyard riad inside Fes el-Bali is the most romantic option — a traditional house turned small boutique hotel, with an interior courtyard that shuts out the medina's noise, carved detail, a roof terrace and, often, a plunge pool. Look for a place with only a handful of rooms so it feels genuinely intimate, ideally in a calmer pocket of the medina away from the busiest souk arteries but still walkable to the medersas and the Kairaouine. Our neighbourhood guide to staying in Fes sets out the trade-offs.

One practical note: medina riads are reached on foot down lanes no car can enter, so a porter usually meets you to carry bags to the door. It's part of the charm, but worth knowing if you're travelling with heavy luggage.

• A shared hammam: the traditional steam-bath ritual — warmth, black soap, a scrub and a massage — is one of the most relaxing things you can do as a couple. Many riads and spas can arrange a private session for two.
• A rooftop dinner: dining on a terrace as the light fades and the call to prayer drifts across the medina is the city at its most romantic. Several riads will lay on a private dinner above the old town if you ask in advance.
• A craft workshop for two: Fes is Morocco's artisan capital. A private pottery or zellige session, or a hands-on cooking class ending in the meal you've made together, is a memorable way to spend a slow afternoon.
• Sunset from the hills: the open viewpoints at the Borj Nord and the Merenid Tombs give the whole medina spread out below, and are at their best as the light turns gold in the late afternoon.
• Getting lost on purpose: wandering the lanes with no fixed plan — mint tea here, a coppersmith's workshop there, a tray of Fassi pastries — is half the pleasure. A licensed guide for a first orientation makes the free wandering afterwards far less stressful.

The medina is intense — narrow, crowded, full of sensory detail and the occasional laden mule — so the trick is not to over-program. A relaxed shape for two to three nights is: one full day in the medina with a guide to get your bearings and see the headline sights (the Chouara tanneries from a terrace, the Bou Inania and Al-Attarine medersas, Place Seffarine); a second, slower day built around a hammam, a long lunch, a craft session and a rooftop dinner; and time simply to do very little in the courtyard. Build in those quiet afternoons — the decompression between bursts of the medina is part of what makes it feel like a romantic escape rather than a sightseeing march.

Want to add a day trip? Meknes and Volubilis make an easy, unhurried day out from Fes — the Roman ruins, the hilltop town of Moulay Idriss and the great Bab Mansour gate, with plenty of open space and far fewer crowds than the medina.

Spring and autumn are the kindest seasons for a couples' trip — mild days for wandering and pleasant evenings on a terrace. High summer is hot and the midday medina can feel airless; winter is quiet and atmospheric but cool and sometimes wet, and the older riads can be chilly. Our month-by-month guide to the best time to visit Fes goes deeper, with the usual caveat that these are seasonal norms rather than a forecast.

On a longer trip, Fes pairs beautifully with a couple of onward nights elsewhere — the blue lanes of Chefchaouen in the Rif, or a private camp under the stars in the Sahara, both of which raise the romance further. Tell us how long you have and what you're celebrating, and we'll build the route around you.