Fes in spring: mild days, green gardens, long light

Fes is a city you experience almost entirely by walking — the medina of Fes el-Bali is a maze of thousands of lanes closed to cars, and the joy of it is getting lost on foot for a whole day. That makes weather matter more here than in many cities, and spring delivers the best conditions for it: warm enough to wear light clothes and linger on a rooftop, cool enough that climbing through the souks and up to the Merinid tombs for the panorama never becomes a slog. The hard, reflective sun of July is still weeks away, and the stone lanes stay comfortable through the day rather than baking. Add long daylight and clear, photogenic light, and spring is simply the easiest season to see Fes well.

Spring shifts noticeably across its three months, so the right one depends on what you want:

• March — cool, green and quieter: still the tail of the wet season, with daytime highs broadly in the late teens to low 20s °C, a real chance of showers and chilly evenings. The countryside is at its greenest, crowds are thinner and prices lower than later in spring. The value pick — pack a warm layer and a light rain shell.
• April — the sweet spot: warm but rarely hot, mostly dry, long daylight and the country at its most vivid. Highs typically sit in the low-to-mid 20s °C, evenings are mild, and conditions are close to ideal for all-day sightseeing. It is also the most popular spring month, so book ahead.
• May — warm, dry and bright: reliably sunny with highs often in the mid-to-high 20s °C, occasionally nudging the low 30s by month's end as summer approaches. Beautiful and dependable, but the warmest and busiest of the three — start your walking early on the hotter days.

For the full annual picture, our month-by-month best-time-to-visit guide sets spring against the rest of the year, and the summer and winter guides cover the seasons either side.

Spring is when the green spaces around Fes look their best, and that is part of why the season feels so rewarding. The Jnan Sbil gardens beside the medina walls — Fes's great historic garden — are lush, shaded and full of birdsong in spring, a cool, restorative break a few minutes from the noise of the souks. Beyond the city, the rolling country toward Meknes and the Roman ruins of Volubilis turns vivid green and dotted with wildflowers, and the cedar forests and hills around Ifrane in the Middle Atlas are at their most beautiful before summer dries everything to gold. If you are going to take a day trip out of Fes, spring is the season to do it.

The reward for the comfortable weather is crowds and demand. Spring — especially April, May and the Easter period — is one of the busiest and priciest windows in Fes. The medina is lively, the best riads fill up early, and good private guides get booked well ahead. If you want a particular riad or a specific guided experience, reserve it weeks in advance rather than hoping to arrange it on arrival. Early March is the exception: it still carries shoulder-season prices and noticeably thinner crowds, making it the quiet, better-value corner of the season for travellers who don't mind cooler, more changeable days.

Ramadan moves about eleven days earlier each year, and through the mid-2020s it falls in late winter and early spring — so a March or early-April trip may overlap with the fasting month. During Ramadan many cafés and some restaurants close or run reduced daytime hours, the city is slower and quieter by day, then comes alive after the sunset iftar. It can be a wonderful, atmospheric time to visit, but it changes the rhythm of a trip and needs planning around. Check the exact Ramadan dates for your travel year before booking, and confirm current opening hours, which shift during the month.

Pack for warm days and cool evenings. Breathable layers you can build up after dark, a light jumper or jacket for the evenings (especially in March), and comfortable closed walking shoes for the medina's uneven, sometimes slick lanes are the essentials. Add a light rain layer if you travel in March or early April, and don't underestimate the spring sun — bring a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen. As everywhere in Morocco, modest, covering clothing is both respectful and practical. Our seasonal packing guide goes deeper.

For most travellers, yes — spring is the season to see Fes at its best. Come for mild, comfortable days that let you walk the medina from morning to night, for gardens and countryside at their greenest, and for cool evenings on a rooftop with the city glowing in the soft light. Accept that you are travelling in high season, book your riad and guiding well ahead, and check whether your dates overlap with Ramadan. Get those right and a spring visit is about as good as Fes gets.