Fes Warnings Or Dangers

I recently met a man at the train station in Fes. I thought he worked with the taxi company. He spoke great English and during taxi ride told me his cousin is in town from my country of Canada. His “cousin” explained that he comes to Morocco to purchase carpet and sell them in Canada at a profit. I, very naively went with him to the carpet store and ended up purchasing a lot of rugs. Later I realized that the guy from Canada worked for the carpet store, and I paid several times the value of the rugs. The carpet store which scammed me is called Dar Essaad (Grand choix de tapis). P.S. They also tried to sell me a crazy desert trip package.

I recently met a man at the train station in Fes. I thought he worked with the taxi company. He spoke great English and during taxi ride told me his cousin is in town from my country of Canada. His “cousin” explained that he comes to Morocco to purchase carpet and sell them in Canada at a profit. I, very naively went with him to the carpet store and ended up purchasing a lot of rugs. Later I realized that the guy from Canada worked for the carpet store, and I paid several times the value of the rugs. The carpet store which scammed me is called Dar Essaad (Grand choix de tapis). P.S. They also tried to sell me a crazy desert trip package.

Be careful walking through the medina and keep an eye on where you are placing your foot. Some of the cobbled stones are broken and definitely uneven but also the little gifts left by the donkeys being led through the narrow lanes.

If you are in a group you might find yourself being photographed at one of the tourist attractions. This fella was at the Bou Inania Medrassa, snapping individuals of groups. The photos later appeared at the hotel prior to leaving to be purchased. You might not mind having photos taken or having them available to purchase but I certainly didn't want someone randomly taking my photo like that and I managed to beat him at his own game.

Be wary of tour guides (even ones recommended by your hotel or riad) especially when they take you a shop or the tanneries as the tour guides are in on the scam to get more money from you. They will take the good/bad cop approach and act as if they are looking out for you when indeed they are not.

I strongly recommend not going with a tour guide named Idriss, short portly man in his 40s. Not only was he a terrible guide, he tried to over charge for 1/2 day tour when he only spent less than 2 hours (not) showing me around. On top of that, he was in on the scam that I mentioned above...he was recommended by the riad (Dar Seffarine). I did let the riad know about this...hopefully they do not use him anymore.

The tanneries are known to get scam you...do not pay anything less than 50% from the original price they offered. Just walk away until they come down to a reasonable price. The are very persistent and persuasive. There will be 3 or 4 of them including your guide...have your wits about you.

Don't be surprised to hear 'leave Morocco' or 'we don't need you here' when you visit Fes. You will most likely hear this more than once they are not given the response they desired (i.e. if they were ignored). In fact, this is the only place I've visited where I've heard this.

It's also the only place where I've been where the locals make you feel like crap when you are negotiating/haggling a price (which is highly over inflated). Normally, I enjoy the haggling ritual but here, they way spoke and the tactics they used left me feeling horrible. They will tell you how poor they are (even if they are not) and how we should not have a problem paying so much since we are rich, etc.

Fes is one of Morocco's biggest cities and can be a difficult city to drive around, especially if you‘re not used to driving in Morocco. We hired a car on the day we were leaving Fes from Europcar on Avenue Mohammed V. After driving off we ended up going the wrong way down a one-way street, which had no signposts at all indicating it was one-way. None in French anyway.

If you are squeamish by nature, then there are a few sights in the medina you will want to avoid. As we were walking down the main street, Talaa Kebira, a severed camel's head hanging over a butcher's shop caught our eye. And there was definitely something dripping....I wasn't brave enough to stop and take a photo.

On our second visit to Fes we walked past the same shop and once again there was a camel's head hanging up near the entrance. Presumably not the same camel…