48 Hours in Fes

Start at Bab Bou Jeloud, the ornate blue gate, before 8 am when the lanes are quiet and the light is soft. Walk east on Talaa Kebira — the main artery of Fes el-Bali — stopping at the Bou Inania Madrasa (entry around 70 MAD, indicative). The carved cedar and zellij tilework here set the visual standard for everything else you will see. Continue to the Medersa Cherratine and the Al-Attarine Madrasa near the Qarawiyyin Mosque. You cannot enter the mosque itself, but you can peer in from the doorway.

The Chouara Tannery is best seen from the rooftop terraces of the surrounding leather shops — any shopkeeper will wave you up in exchange for a polite browse. The circular stone vats filled with saffron, indigo and poppy-red dye are most active before noon; by afternoon the workers slow down. A sprig of mint is sometimes offered at the door, which helps with the smell. Genuine leather slippers (babouches) start from around 80–120 MAD a pair in the tannery quarter; expect to haggle.

Head back towards Rcif Square and look for a hole-in-the-wall harira soup stand or a snail broth cart (around 5–10 MAD a bowl). For a proper sit-down lunch, the side streets off Talaa Seghira have local rotisserie chicken spots where a half-chicken, bread and olives comes to 40–60 MAD. Tourist-facing restaurants on the main drag charge three or four times as much for the same tagine.

Fes el-Bali has more than 9,000 lanes; navigation apps work only intermittently once you are inside. The souk structure loosely organises around trades: the henna souk near the Qarawiyyin, the brass-workers' quarter near Seffarine Square (you hear it before you see it — the hammering never really stops), and the carpet and textile shops in the Seffarine and Ain Allou areas. Budget two hours to wander without a fixed destination. Getting mildly lost is not a problem; the medina wall always brings you back eventually.

A neighbourhood hammam costs 15–25 MAD for a public scrub session (bring flip-flops, a towel and a small bar of black beldi soap). Ask your riad to recommend the nearest one — the tourist hammams charge 200–400 MAD for a similar experience. For dinner, cross into the Ville Nouvelle and eat on Boulevard Mohammed V, where restaurants cater to locals: decent Fassi pastilla (savoury pigeon pie) runs 60–90 MAD in a proper neighbourhood joint.

Borj Nord fortress sits on the ridge above Fes el-Bali and gives the best overview of the medina — a sea of rooftop terraces, satellite dishes, minarets and the occasional green-tiled dome. Entry is free or minimal (around 10 MAD, indicative). Descend into Fes el-Andalous, the less-visited quarter on the south bank of the Oued Fes river, where the lanes are wider, the crowds thinner and the Andalusian Mosque has a particularly fine facade. Locals here are less used to tourists, which makes it a more genuinely human walk.

Dar Batha is a 19th-century palace housing the city's Museum of Moroccan Arts and Crafts — zellige panels, carved plaster, embroidered textiles and blue-painted Fassi pottery. Entry around 70 MAD (indicative). From here it's a short walk or petit taxi ride to the pottery quarter outside Bab Ftouh, where the hill is dotted with open kilns. You can watch potters wheel and fire pieces and buy direct; a hand-painted Fassi bowl from a workshop starts at 40–60 MAD and is the most practical souvenir to carry.

Several riads near Bab Bou Jeloud offer short lunchtime cooking demonstrations where you watch and eat a three-course Fassi spread — bastilla, tagine, chebakia — for around 250–350 MAD including food. It sounds touristy but the recipes you pick up (the warm spice ratios, the pigeon-and-almond method) are genuinely from the local tradition. After lunch, you have enough time for a half-day to Meknes and Volubilis (about 1 hour each way by grand taxi), or simply walk the ramparts before a late train to Marrakech or Casablanca.