How many days do you need in Fes?

One day is enough to taste Fes, not to do it justice. With an early start and a sense of direction (or a guide, which we'd strongly suggest for a single day), you can realistically string together Bab Boujloud, the great blue gate into the old city; the Chouara tanneries, seen from a leather-shop terrace above the dye vats; one madrasa, usually the Bou Inania, for its carved cedar and zellige; and a wander through the souks before you run out of daylight and stamina. It's the greatest-hits cut, and you'll leave with a vivid impression and a long list of what you didn't reach. If Fes is a stopover on a bigger Morocco loop, one well-planned day earns its place. If Fes is the reason you came, give it two.

For the hour-by-hour shape of a single day, our one-day Fes itinerary lays it out.

This is the length we recommend most often for the city itself, and the one that lets Fes be Fes. Two days is enough to walk Fes el-Bali properly rather than sprint through it: the Chouara tannery without rushing on; both the Bou Inania and Al-Attarine madrasas; the Mellah and the old Jewish quarter; a viewpoint over the medina rooftops at the right time of day; and, crucially, unstructured hours to get pleasantly lost, which is where the city does its real work on you. Two days is also the natural length for a deeper look at the crafts: the brassworkers, the weavers, the potters out at the kilns.

There's a second way to spend two days, if the medina in a single day is enough city for you: keep day one for Fes el-Bali, and give day two to a Meknes and Volubilis day trip: Roman ruins and an imperial capital, both an easy run from the city. Our two-day Fes itinerary walks through the medina-focused version.

Three days is for travellers who'd rather not be on a schedule, or who are drawn to the Roman and imperial heartland that surrounds Fes. The shape we like: day one in the medina; day two on a Meknes and Volubilis day trip (the best-preserved Roman ruins in Morocco, the imperial city of Meknes, and often the hillside shrine-town of Moulay Idriss); and day three for the things one and two days squeeze out: a cooking class, an artisan workshop, a long lunch, more rooftop and souk time, or simply a second, calmer pass through the lanes now that you can read them. If your interest is purely the city, two days covers it; the third turns a good trip into an unhurried one. The three-day Fes itinerary sets it out day by day.