Fez

Morocco·Africa

Currency

MAD

Language

Arabic, French

Timezone

Casablanca

Continent

Africa

Our guide

Discover Fez

Fez holds the largest car-free medina in the world, a maze of nine thousand lanes where getting lost is inevitable and goods still move by donkey. The Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque, founded in 859, houses what UNESCO recognises as the oldest continuously operating university on the planet. The Bou Inania Madrasa and the Al-Attarine Madrasa show zellige tilework, stucco and cedar carried to their peak. The Funduq al-Najjarin, a former carpenters' caravanserai, is now a museum of wood. The Ibn Danan Synagogue recalls the long Jewish presence of the mellah.

When to go

March to May and September to November: mild temperatures, clean light. Summer is very hot — Fez is far from the sea and regularly passes 38 °C — and the covered lanes become stifling. Winter is cool and wet, with cold nights and little heating. Ramadan strongly changes the hours and the atmosphere, and its dates move each year.

Getting around

The medina is walked and only walked: no car enters, and getting lost is part of it. Fix the main gates in your mind, Bab Bou Jeloud the blue gate among them, as a point of return. Red taxis run in the modern city and go by the meter. An official guide earns its place on the first day — not for the history, which you can read, but to grasp the logic of the plan.

Where to eat

Pastilla, a pigeon or chicken pie with almonds dusted in sugar and cinnamon, is Fez's dish above all. Tagine and Friday couscous carry the rest. Mint tea is served very sweet and is hard to refuse. Only two halal addresses are listed, which means nothing: in a Moroccan city the label has no purpose.

Good to know

The dirham is the currency and cash dominates in the medina. Haggling is the rule in the souks. Clothing covering shoulders and knees avoids friction, and mosques are closed to non-Muslims in Morocco with few exceptions. The selling is constant and sometimes insistent: a firm, smiling no is enough, and improvised guides are better declined.

Smart Planning