Fes el-Bali medina
Thousands of lanes, workshops and food stalls behind the Bab Bou Jeloud gate. A local guide is genuinely worth it for a first visit.
Northern Morocco · Imperial city
Fes
The oldest imperial city, and the northern gateway to the desert.
Why travellers come
Visiting Fes
Fes is Morocco's spiritual and craft capital, and the second departure point for our Sahara circuits. Its medina, Fes el-Bali, is one of the largest car-free urban areas in the world, and easy to get lost in without a guide.
Travelling between Fes and Marrakech through the desert is the most complete way to see the country: Middle Atlas cedar forest, the Ziz palm valley, the dunes, the kasbah valleys and the High Atlas, all in one continuous route.
Fes gives you the deepest historic city in Morocco, and pairs naturally with a one-way Sahara crossing so you never drive the same road twice.
Travel information
- Airport
- Fes–Saïss (FEZ), 20 minutes from the medina
- To Merzouga
- Around 8 hours with stops, done as day one of a circuit
- To Marrakech via the desert
- 3 or 4 days, one-way, no backtracking
- Best months
- March to May and September to November
Main attractions
What to see in Fes
The places worth your time, and roughly how they fit into a day on the road.
Chouara tannery
The famous dye pits, best seen from the leather shop terraces above them in the morning light.
Al-Qarawiyyin and Bou Inania
One of the oldest universities in the world, and a 14th-century madrasa with some of the finest carved cedar and zellige tilework in Morocco.
Middle Atlas on the way south
Ifrane, the cedar forest of Azrou with its Barbary macaques, and the long descent through Midelt and the Ziz gorges.
Best experiences
- A half-day guided walk through the medina
- Breakfast in a riad courtyard before an early desert departure
- The cedar forest and Barbary macaques near Azrou
- The Ziz Valley palm groves on the road to Merzouga
Tours that go there
Private tours including Fes
Each route below is private, flexible and led by our own driver-guides.
