Where to stay in Fes: choosing your corner of the old city

Fes is really three cities layered together: Fes el-Bali, the great medieval medina; Fes el-Jdid, the "new" thirteenth-century quarter; and the Ville Nouvelle, the modern town the French laid out beyond the walls. Above them all sit the hills with their panoramic view hotels. Each makes a very different base, and the right choice has less to do with budget than with how you want your days to begin and end. Below is an honest neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood reading, including the parts the brochures tend to skip.

Fes el-Bali — the great old medina

This is the Fes most people come for: the UNESCO-listed medieval medina, a living maze of thousands of lanes where the trades still work and the calls to prayer still order the day. Here you stay in a riad or a dar — a traditional house turned inward around a tiled courtyard, often with a roof terrace looking over the minarets. The swing from the cramped, noisy lane outside to the cool, light-filled courtyard within is the defining sensation of staying in Fes, and nowhere else gives you that. You wake inside the old city and step straight into it.

The honest trade-offs are real and worth knowing in advance. Fes el-Bali is car-free, so no vehicle reaches your door. You arrive at the nearest gate — Bab Boujloud, Bab Rcif or Bab Guissa, depending on which quarter your riad sits in — and walk in, with a porter carrying or wheeling your bags through the lanes. The medina is genuinely disorienting: unsigned, repetitive, and a fair walk from where taxis can reach you. For travellers who want the deepest character and don't mind the walk and the maze, nothing compares. For those who value lifts, parking and a car to the door, it can feel like hard work. Tell your riad your arrival time and they will send someone to meet you — and read our Fes medina guide before you go.

Fes el-Jdid — the "new" medina

Built in the thirteenth century — "new" only by Fassi standards — Fes el-Jdid sits between the old medina and the modern town. This is where you find the Royal Palace with its famous brass gates, and the Mellah, the historic Jewish quarter, with its distinctive balconied houses and the old cemetery. It is noticeably calmer than Fes el-Bali: wider lanes, less of the relentless commerce, fewer crowds. Staying here, or just on its edge, gives you a quieter, more residential feel while keeping you within reach of the great medina. It suits travellers who want medina character without the full intensity and disorientation of Fes el-Bali.

The Ville Nouvelle — the modern town

Laid out by the French in the colonial era, the Ville Nouvelle is the city of broad avenues, cafés, conventional hotels and a wider spread of restaurants. Crucially, it sits near the train station and along the road out to the airport, and — unlike the old medina — taxis and cars reach your hotel door. This is the comfort-and-access choice: lifts, parking, a familiar hotel format, and the easiest logistics if you are arriving late, leaving early, carrying a lot of luggage, or simply prefer a standard hotel to a courtyard house.

The trade is atmosphere. The Ville Nouvelle is pleasant and practical but feels like a modern Moroccan city rather than a medieval one — you drive in to the old town each time you want to be in it, a short petit-taxi hop to the nearest gate. For many visitors that is a fair exchange; for those chasing the romance of Fes, it can feel a step removed from the thing they came to see.

The hilltop and Borj view hotels

On the slopes above the medina — around the old Borj fortresses that guard the city — sit hotels with sweeping panoramic views over the whole of Fes el-Bali, the sea of rooftops and minarets best at dawn and dusk. The view is the reason to be here, and it is a genuinely memorable one. The catch is that you are up and out of the city: there is nothing within walking distance, so you depend on a taxi for every trip down into the old town and back. These hotels suit travellers who prize the view and a calmer, set-back base over being in the thick of things, and who don't mind organising transport for each outing.

Riad in the medina vs hotel in the Ville Nouvelle

This is the decision most Fes trips come down to, so here it is plainly. A riad inside Fes el-Bali gives you atmosphere, courtyard calm, roof-terrace views and instant access to the medina on foot — at the cost of the car-free walk in, the bag-portering, and a layout that can be disorienting and short on lifts. A hotel in the Ville Nouvelle gives you comfort, parking, a car to the door and proximity to the station and airport road — at the cost of atmosphere and a short drive every time you want to be in the old city.

Neither is "better." If this is your first visit and the medina is the point, we lean toward a well-restored riad and a porter meeting you at the gate. If you are arriving tired, leaving at dawn, travelling with heavy bags or simply prefer the ease of a conventional hotel, the Ville Nouvelle earns its place. Plenty of travellers split the difference: a riad for the heart of the stay, a Ville Nouvelle hotel for the night before an early train or flight.

Getting around, and the luggage reality

Inside Fes el-Bali you walk — there is no alternative, and it is part of the experience. Between the medina, the Ville Nouvelle, the train station and the hilltop viewpoints you take a petit taxi: the small red metered cabs that are cheap and plentiful. They cannot enter the old medina, so they drop you at the nearest gate and you continue on foot. If you base yourself on the hills for the views, expect to taxi down and back for every visit to the old town.

On luggage: because no vehicle reaches a medina riad, your bags travel the last stretch on foot, carried or wheeled by a porter from the gate over uneven cobbles and the odd step. So pack light, favour a backpack or a soft, sturdy wheelie you can lift, and save your riad's contact details and a photo of its door before you arrive. A small tip for the porter is customary. None of this is a reason to avoid a medina stay — it is simply how the old city works, and worth knowing so the arrival feels like part of the adventure rather than a surprise.

Frequently asked