Fes Transportation

Taxi rides are quite cheap. Within cities there are petite taxis that I definitely recommend. they are cheap and quick and you don't get pick-pocketed like on the within-city buses.
Between cities you can take grand taxis or longer distance buses. I'd go with the buses in this case. The grand taxis are dangerous, no seat belts and the drivers drive like crazy. Also, you always have to wait until five or so other passengers are sharing the taxi with you, or you need to pay their share if you want to go without them. They pack the cars full to the maximum, like three people in front and four in the back. Just take the grand taxis to places where regular buses don't go to.

Don't be afraid to use the red Petit Taxis in Fes. I rarely use taxis when I'm abroad, having heard too many horror stories, but frankly trying to get around town fast to see the sights meant that we opted for taxis most of the time rather than trying to negotiate the packed buses in a strange city. Be aware that the red taxis can't take you to the airport, only one of the white grand taxis can take you that far outside town.

Make sure that at least one of you sits in the front of the car so that if the meter doesn't get switched on, you can bring the driver's attention to it. In fairness, every taxi ride we took in Fes, the meter went on with no questions asked. No journey came to more than 15 dh, most were less than 10 dh though I tended to round up to 10 dh anyway. Moroccan driving is basically insane, so maybe close your eyes until the end of the ride. Seatbelt optional...

Only twice were we 'ripped off' by taxis, in Rabat and Tangier, but that was for a maybe 10 dhirams each time, so you've got to keep it in perspective. Did make me appreciate the honesty of the Fes taxidrivers though.

On our first visit to Fes, we took the train from Tangier, a journey which took 5 hours and cost 141 Dh for a first-class ticket. In Fes, the station is in the Ville Nouvelle. Most of the hotels are in this area and are within walking distance of the station though if you want to get to the medina a petit taxi is the best choice.

CTM have 7 buses departing for Casablanca.

Journey time 5 hours.

Tickets are around 90 dirhams plus 5 dirhams for luggage.

All buses depart from the CTM Bus Station near Place Hussein de Jordanie next to the mosque.

Please use prices as a rough guide only.

There are two types of taxis in Fez - the "petits taxis", small and red transporting up to 3 people, and the larger ones, supposedly to 4, but... well... we can always squeeze a dozen more. They tend to be metered and are not too expensive. Both types of taxis are usually shared and drivers often wait until the taxi is full before departing.

Verify carefully if the meter is turned on, otherwise you may find yourself bargaining the price of the trip at the end of it. Being with a local guide, as we were, there is no problem: he just asked us for some coins, delivered them to the driver, and, with a couple of strangers we were taken to our hotel.
However, sharing places and fares with strangers, speaking only Arab, in a desolated area of the city, is not very comfortable.

I took the bus from Fes to Marrakesh via Azrou and Beni Mellal. The whole journey was 10 hours and bus fare was Dh130. As I stayed in Medina, I took the bus from the main bus station which is near Fes el-Bali. It departs at 8am.

It is a long journey and the bus stops in several cities along the way and passengers come and go. During March 2006, it was cold in the bus when travelling in the highlands of Atlas mountains. So be sure to carry a blanket or jacket in your day bag. The scenry is superb. A good experience, but just long distance.

Alternatively you can take the train for 7.5 hours.

Car hire rates vary widely in Fes and even the lowest rates can be quite expensive. We were looking to hire a car - the cheapest car possible - for 9 days and to return it to Marrakech. We were quoted over 6000Dh by Hertz and 5800Dh by Avis before getting a much better, but still expensive offer of 4050Dh from Europcar. The only catch was that we had to pay a 12,000Dh deposit upfront. This was far too much for us as neither of us had this much in our current accounts and the guy refused to take our credit card number instead as a deposit.

We tried another lender, Budget, and they had a better price on a Fiat Uno but none was available for two days. So we went back to Europcar and tried plan B: paying a higher initial price and hence less of a deposit. We negotiated 10% off the final initial price which meant we paid 4293Dh for the car with a deposit of 3600Dh.

After all that negotiation we were hoping for a nice, reliable Fiat Uno. Well, it did get us around the country in 9 days but there were a few issues along the way, mostly with starting the car. On some occasions we’d have to try 5 or 6 times to get the thing going. This made us a little wary of stopping the car in the middle of nowhere though after a few days we stopped worrying about it. Of course it started fine in Fes - it was only when we had reached Meknes that the problems arose.

Transportation in Morocco is very good, I think. You can almost anywhere by train or bus, or - my less preferred method - by grand taxi.
I really liked to travel by train in Morocco. The train ride from Fez to Casablanca is about 4-5 hours, and much much cheaper than flying. It is a pleasant ride. The train system seems to work well, the trains are modern, clean and pretty.
The best thing is do buy a first class (premiere classe) ticket. They are not very much more expensive than the regular ones but will almost certainly guarantee you a seat on a crowded train - and you wouldn't want to stand the whole time during a long ride.