Fes Things to Do

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The Medina (the old city) is definitely a must visit in Fes. When you visit the medina, no kidding it’s like you are stuck on a time warp. The Medina of Fes is the biggest and the oldest in Africa. The old city is surrounded by tall ancient wall.

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Inside the Fez Souk you’ll see mule loaded with goods in the busy narrow streets (I felt sorry for the mule, it look sad and overworked), the mule have the right way. The smell of different spices will overwhelm your senses, merchants selling carpets, some selling dates, sweets, breads. In the hustle and bustle of the market stand many stalls offering you to buy leather goods, ceramics, pottery, copper pots and pan, shirts, kaftans and stalls selling old guns. The streets are also workshops, cafes and restaurants. Amongst the stalls in the busy narrow streets you’ll find an Islamic and Jewish school. Medina is complex you can easily get lost in the labyrinth; if you don’t speak Arabic it’s better to get a professional guide, we had guide from Trafalgar tourist. If you want to explore alone get a map from the tourist office, but apparently you can also followed a tourist circuits. While you are visiting the old city be alert for pickpockets.

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We visited the Royal Palace in Fes. It was built in the 17th century. You can’t go in into the palace but the outside is interesting for the tourist. The king of Morocco stays at the palace when he visited Fes. The palace is one of the major attractions and is of great historical value. When tourists visit the palace they can take photos with the royal guard, we did.

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Borj Nord is one of those attractions that you can see from anywhere in the town but nobody seems to visit! Borj's North and South were built, not to protect the town from invaders, but to control the unruly inhabitants of Fes. To extract taxes and duties form the free spirited Fassi.
Borj Nord houses a museum of arms and militaria. Fascinating and deadly. The grounds are beautifully kept with many large and small cannon in the grounds.
Borj Nord is sadly missed off the usual Tourist trail. The last time I went there I had the whole museum to myself. Trip Advisor doesn't list it.
The grounds are extensively used by the locals - I suspect it is a local trysting place. A place for people of opposite sexes to see one another and to be seen.
Walk along the road from the main entrance in the afternoon and you will find the local men playing cards. Not gambling I think but playing whist/bridge, and boy, do they get excited about their games.

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In Fez I felt, for the first time, out of scale (it happened again, in opposite direction, 10 years later in Florida.

The Medina may be so small as some medieval places we know in Europe, but plenty of life, in a seemingly impossible way. Only seen and felt. The fire consumed, some years ago, the central area of the Medina, which has been rebuilt respecting the proportions but not the look.

It's a pity. However, everything around looks the same, and the visit (always with a local guide) will justify your day. The modern part of town is also interesting, but the Medina is unique.

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I've been in Fes twice, with almost 20 years separating the trips.

The visits to the medina were accompanied by different guides, obviously, but, curiously, when entering the leather tinting area, they both used the same joke: Channel n.5 perfume.

It's not a beautiful show, and it is a really awful smell, but it is real, and should be seen. There is progress: in our second visit the guide distributed each one a mint branchlet, that, placed under our noses, disguised a little the strong Channel.

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The Mellah was the Jewish Quarter. The well-to-do Jews (craftsmen, etc.) lived just outside the palace walls in nice apartments with cedar balconies. Some of them even had a view of the palace gardens. The families lived upstairs and had workshops on the ground level. When the Jews were forced out of Spain in the 14th Century, they were welcomed in Morocco. Many were employed at the palace. Centuries later, their descendants moved to Israel, but they kept the apartments which are now very valuable.

(The poor Jews lived in a section of the Medina that wasn’t beautiful then or now.)

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Go up a winding road to the North Borj (16th Century fort) for a great view of the Medina. From the hilltop we could look down on the sprawling old city with its surrounding walls and pick out some of the landmarks.