A Weekend in Fes, Off the Beaten Path
Two days in Fes is enough for the medina’s core: Bab Boujloud, a fountain nobody photographs, the tanneries, the madrasas, and a square where coppersmiths still work by hand. It is not enough for the Mellah, Borj Sud, or a pottery cooperative across town; that needs the 3-day version or longer. Carry cash. MAD is a closed currency, so you get it inside Morocco, not before.
Book these before you go: a licensed medina guided tour for day one, and a riad in Fes el-Bali , since the medina has few rooms and spring/autumn dates sell out.
| Day | Focus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Arrival, Bab Boujloud, Nejjarine Square and fountain, first medina wander |
| 2 | Chouara Tannery, the madrasas, Al-Qarawiyyin, Seffarine Square, a working fondouk |
Day 1: Bab Boujloud and the Nejjarine quarter
Land at Fes-Saiss Airport (FEZ), take the posted fixed grand-taxi fare (roughly 150 MAD for a sedan) or insist on the meter for less, and check into your riad. Walk in through Bab Boujloud, the Blue Gate everyone photographs, though it is worth knowing it only dates to 1913, a French colonial build, not the medieval structure it looks like against the medina behind it.
From the gate, head toward Nejjarine Square. The 17th-century public fountain out front, tiled in zellige, gets a fraction of the attention paid to the gate itself, and it is free to admire. If you want to go inside the Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts and Crafts , the housed fondouk, entry runs roughly 20-30 MAD, and the rooftop cafe is a legitimate spot to get your bearings over mint tea before diving into the alleys proper. Expect to get lost; with an estimated 9,400-plus lanes in Fes el-Bali, that is the normal state of things, not a mistake.
Ignore anyone near the gate who tells you a street “is closed today.” It is a redirect toward a commission shop, not a fact. Dinner in the medina: pastilla, the sweet-savory pigeon or chicken pie under warqa pastry, is the dish worth ordering at a sit-down restaurant rather than a street stall.
Is 2 days enough to see Fes?
Enough to hit Bab Boujloud, the tanneries, the madrasas, and one or two quirky stops like Nejjarine or Seffarine Square, but not enough for the Mellah, Borj Sud, or the Art Naji pottery cooperative across town. Treat this as the highlight reel; a 4 or 5-day version fits in the rest without doubling back.
Day 2: Tanneries, madrasas, and the coppersmiths
Start at the Chouara Tannery between roughly 10:30am and 3pm, when the dye pits are actively worked. There is no official ticket, since it is not a government site: you view the vats from a leather shop terrace, take the mint sprig offered at the entrance, and expect to tip 10-20 MAD if you do not buy anything. A firm, polite decline works fine too.
From there, the Bou Inania and Al-Attarine Madrasas (20 MAD each) are a short walk apart, built in the 1350s and 1320s respectively, and hold the finest zellige tilework and carved cedar in the city. Al-Qarawiyyin, founded in 859 CE and recognized as the world’s oldest continuously operating educational institution, bars non-Muslims from the prayer hall entirely; you get courtyard glimpses from the gates, and the attached library has allowed occasional tourist access since reopening in 2016, worth trying rather than counting on.
Finish at Seffarine Square, a small plaza named for the coppersmiths who still hammer brass and copper here by hand, then duck into Funduq al-Tetwaniyyin next door, a 14th-century Marinid caravanserai restored in 2019 into a working artisan center. No ticket, no tour groups, just carved cedar galleries around a courtyard.
Do you need a guide for a 2-day Fes trip?
For day one, yes: a licensed guide (roughly 600 MAD full day or 300 MAD half day at official rates, sometimes less through a riad) gets you oriented fast in a medina with no reliable map. By day two, most visitors are comfortable retracing familiar alleys alone, guide or not.
Dress modestly (shoulders and knees) for the madrasas and mosque exteriors, and keep small MAD bills on hand; a two-day trip runs cash-only more often than not.