The Chouara tanneries
A vast honeycomb of stone dye pits glowing yellow and red — best viewed from a leather shop terrace with a sprig of mint.
Fes
A thousand-year-old medina of alleys and dye
Best time
March – May & October – November
Gentle pace
3–4 slow days
Ideal for
Culture seekers · Food lovers · Adventurous families
Fes is the oldest of Morocco’s imperial cities and the most transporting — a medina of nine thousand alleys where donkeys carry the goods, dye pits glow saffron and indigo, and craftsmen hammer brass exactly as they have for a thousand years. It is intense, yes, but also one of the most alive places on earth.
With children, hire a local guide for the first morning to find your bearings, then explore on your own. Stay in a riad inside the medina walls, eat tagine on a rooftop, and climb to the Merenid tombs at dusk for the whole city laid out below.
Worth lingering over
Al-Qarawiyyin & the medina
The world’s oldest university, hidden among the alleys — let a guide lead you through the maze of madrasas and souks.
The Merenid tombs at sunset
Climb the hill above the city for the whole medina glowing gold under the hills — the finest view in Fes.
Hidden gem
The Borj Nord and the Merenid tombs
Most visitors see the medina from a rooftop café, but the hill above Fes holds a quiet secret: a string of ruined Merenid tombs and an old fort, reached by a steep lane, where you can sit alone above the entire city as the swallows wheel and the call to prayer rises from a hundred minarets at once. Bring a thermos of tea and arrive an hour before sunset.