- Fes
- (22)
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Morocco
horse and quad biking in marrakech www.marrakech-loisirs.com family run company for tradional service best in morocco, marrakech.
Medina in Fes is absolutely stunning not only because it's the biggest old town in the Arabic world. In there you can find an incredibly big market where you could get everything, numerous tanneries and an awful lot of impressions. Here's how I saw Medina in Fes: www.fm1721.com/experience/africa/morocco/
Plan at least one whole day for discovering Medina! Also choose your tannery viewing carefully as there are lots of crooks in Medina.
Medina, Fes, Morocco
I have travelled a lot in Morocco, but one of my favorite experiences was the tour of the Fes medina set up by Morocco tours. My sister and I had a half day tour in great English, very detailed information about the history of the city and best of all- no pressure to buy things in the medina. Highly recommended.
In Morocco, we booked our daytrips and tours in Fes with Yomikha Morocco. They are an incredibly cool company based in Fes and operated by an Australian and Moroccan joint venture. These guys are full of integrity - no carpet selling - and true destination experts, as they understand the culture, people, and the language. We enjoyed Western standards with Moroccan understanding. It was totally rad. Our trip to Meknes and Volubilis was hassle-free and then we did a sahara trek starting out in Fes, so we avoided what a lot of travellers told us were aggressive rip-offs and touts in Merzouga. In our group were a number of solo women travellers and they told us about the horrors of going it alone in Morocco. We were glad to be on such a stress-free trip.
Right in the heart of the Fes (Fez) Medina, Dar El Menia is a cool place. Very luxurious, convenient, and for the price, I couldn't believe the amount of luxury that we felt there. Graham also helped us to find some rocking activites while we were there. Cheers Mate!
www.medinafes.com
Dar El Menia Land Line 00121 (0) 535 63 31 64
From an alleyway in the Medina, through a plain wooden door into the most surprisingly beautiful building - what an introduction to Riad Fes. Carefully restored, the riad is a paradise of elegance and comfort in the heart of all the bustling activity of the Medina. We had a spacious comfortable room with adjoining sitting room. We were greeted with mint tea on the roof terrace with its magnificent views. There we could also take breakfast or in one of the areas around the internal courtyard - birds singing, fountain splashing. However probably the greatest asset of the riad is the staff who were without exception friendly, efficient and helpful. Absolutely fascinating city and a fascinating riad.
Nestled high in the Moroccan hillside is Volubilis, the most far-flung post of the Roman Empire. Play at Roman warriors, cobblers and vestal virgins in this small-scale Pompei; wide carriageways, intricate mosaics, olive trees and awe-inspiring, if rather time-rugged, arches make for marvellous photos and a great place to listen to the call to prayer and donkey brays from neighbouring valley villages.
Take the train to Meknes and then get a grand taxi.
A funky 'hostel' (more like a boutique hotel) bang smack in the middle of Fes Old Town. Rooms are spacious and elegantly-furnished, and the shower room is so fabulous you don't mind sharing it.
There's a roof terrace full of sofas (and even an outdoor shower) and also a very useful kitchen and washing machine. Great breakfast, Wi-Fi, cheap rates.
This sweet little shop is just past the tanneries and run by a laid back individual who applies no sales pressure at all. Fixed prices, and not bad ones, and some nice work in cotton and agave fabrics. If you are hustled and hassled out of recognition, drop by here instead.
1 Bis Hay Lablida, Derb el Alami, Fes medina
Fes Youth Hostel is in the Ville Nouvelle, on a leafy back street. Its green courtyard is quiet, occupied by a cuddly black and white cat and some cynical tortoises. Book a twin room here and chill out - we found that though it's half an hour's walk from the medina, the change of atmosphere and the chance to relax were well worth it. And at 135 dirhams a night for the two of us, this is real budget accommodation, and very much better than any hotel we could find for the price. You don't need to be a YHA member either.
18 Rue Abdessalam Sergini, Fes - the back street near the Ville Nouvelle MacDonald's.
A great oasis in the busy and fascinating medina, roof terrace with views over Bou Inania, great selection of snacks, meals, teas and coffees, cakes, and excellent lamb patties etc. Cheerful young local staff and an enthusiastic English patron. Restored courtyard house up a tiny alley by the waterclock, close to Bab Bou Jeloud Gate. Given the lack of eating places to occupy the gap between very cheap traditional cafes, and upmarket gourmet restaurants, this is a very welcome place any time of day. But the best thing is that the owner is determined to run a rare local cultural programme of arts and music with something on several evenings a week. And then there are the camel burgers, fresh from the camel butcher over the street...
off Tala Kebira under the water clock opposite the Bou Inania Medersa(a must visit)
www.cafeclock.com/home.html
At the end of a tiny dead end lane in the very heart of the Medina, and looking distinctly unpromising with its collapsing and propped up buildings, is this painstakingly restored small and fabulous riad. With just three rooms available, the owners have lovingly brought every historic piece of timber, plaster and zelij tiling back to its original best. The house is intimate and beautifully furnished with an eclectic and stylish mix of period and contemporary pieces, bird cages, and fabrics including objects from Vietnam, Europe and elsewhere. the terrace looks out over the Medina and hills and is ideal to relax. The home made breakfast preserves, pancakes, juices and range of teas are the passion of the owners, as is the cooking if you have dinner in. The staff and Stephen and Bruno are helpful in the extreme, and will give you lots of honest advice on surviving and enjoying Fes. Rooms E100 to E200 with taxis to airport and that fantastic breakfast.
9 Djerb Lamsside, Souiket Ben Safi, Fes Medina
www.riad9.com/
This is a website that lists a lot of riads in Fes and you can search them by amenity. They also give you detailed information on the rooms so you can know what you are getting into and they have customer reviews as well.
UK travelers should make a point of visiting one of the many local hammam baths in the Medina. It is easier if you get one of your hotel staff to take you to the baths and help you pay and make arrangements at the door. Even better if you can go with a same-sex friend. The communal, noisy and sociable atmosphere is unlike anything spa at home where the bather is passive. If you are just going for a short break buy your supplies beforehand, and find out how the traditional products are used - savon noir, the sensual exfoliating mitt, rhassoul clay, and argan oil. The Moroccan hammam system is one of the most ancient and intact washing systems in the world. Don't miss out on this amazing cultural experience.
This is a rather stylish, calm riad in the best part of the medina owned by two Scottish brothers who have cornered the market in Moroccan hospitality (they also have a property in Marrakech). The house has been painstakingly restored and tastefully decorated to include 21st century five-star comforts without compromising on local craftsmanship and details.
Riad Tizwa Fes is a personal and intimate Moroccan townhouse with charming and welcoming English-speaking staff containing nine double bedrooms and wi-fi in all the rooms. This place is an oasis we will definitely return to again and again!
holidayfes.com/home.html?lang=en
email: riadtizwaf@gmail.com
Telephone UK :
+447973 238 444
or +447973 115 471
Telephone Morocco :
+212 68 19 08 72
An amazing house (dar) in the medina. It's been beautifully restored by the very friendly owner Maria. During our stay in the house we were looked after by an amazing and friendly housekeeper Attaib. This place really has that wow factor and was a real 'home' to return to after a day in the bustle of the medina.
Meals can be prepared for you by a neighbour and it really is worth taking up this offer as her food was some of the best we had at some of the best prices!
www.discoverfez.com/
Near Bab Rcif
Derb al aqiba 1 bis- zqaq lbghal, qettanine, Medina Fez. Morocco
The Sacred Music Festival is excellent and well worth the trip, but is difficult to get to due to the limited, expensive and indirect flights to Fes from the UK. A UK company called Naturally Morocco arranges tailored trips throughout Morocco, including the Sacred Music Festival. They suggest flying to Marrakesh (with train to Fes) because flights are cheaper and nonstop. They will arrange all of that and they have a great selection of riads to stay at. Whilst in the north, it is well worth having time to see some of the mountains, coast or another city.
You can buy tickets at www.fesfestival.com/2008/index.php
Founded in the 9th century and home to the oldest university in the world, Fes reached its height in the 14th centruries under Marinids, when it replaced Marrakesh as the capital of the kingdom of Morocco.
The urban fabric and the principal monuments in the medina where I was born - madrassas, foundouks - date from this period. The medina of Fes is indeed big! It's the largest and the oldest medieval in the world. The medina is huge like a maze and one should be accompanied by a guide, or so said my friends from Birmingham who are artists and like to do some painting work about Fes, its design, its people, its colours and its activities. My friends are totally right, even I was born here in the medina, I got lost many times when I used to go to the school because I tried to change the way that my father taught me...we were very hungry and I remember a small restaurant in a house in the heart of the medina in Al Asshabine At Haj Benkiran.
We had very nice fessi food: Vegetarian, chicken, kefta tajine, kebab magdour - it was delicious and the taste took me 40 years back...it's a magic place, nothing has been changed really. Narrow streets, toothless, grinning old men - a real adventure. I can see many English people who bought their beautiful houses and amazing riads and prefer to live here without stress with the local warm and friendly people in a real tolerance and multicultural atmosphere.
From the train station in the city centre of Fes, you take a red petit taxi and ask the driver to drop you in Jamii Palace Hotel that you have to visit also for its beauty and colourful design and you can ask there for a professional guide.
For any question or help please feel free to drop me an email from the website www.myasilah.com or call me on my mobile 00447951478813. I will be only too happy to help.
The medina is still split into sectors of interdependent activity. One street is nothing but knife-grinders who sharpen knives for the next street, which is full of babouche (slipper) makers.
A hammering will lead you to a courtyard where gigantic tureens are made for weddings. In some streets you will see braid being made. Men also perform kaftan embroidery.
Unlike Marrakech, the Fes medina has no mopeds or vehicles, just mules carrying anything from gas bottles to wet sheepskins, and with a cry of Balek! (Arabic for 'get out of the way', the mules wear rubber soles for grip so you don't hear them).
In the tannery you are right back in the middle ages, where you can see, and more importantly smell, the entire process of flensing to washing to dyeing. The skins are cured with dog and pigeon poo amongst many other revolting things.
Having been well warned by everyone not to use unofficial guides, we were supplied with Raschid to show us the historic sites, with no shops. He took us to a museum, and left us; then into 3 ancient buildings, all of which were shops! That was it for £20!
Is this your business?Search Been there
