# Fes Fes is one of Morocco's imperial cities, its medieval medina unchanged for centuries, where traditional crafts and age-old rhythms persist behind ancient walls. Approaching Fes from the surrounding hills, the city's walls emerge first — a long sweep of ochre stone that has defined the city's edge for a thousand years. Within those walls lies something rarer: a living medieval city, its medina of Fes el-Bali continuously inhabited since the ninth century and today preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. ## The Labyrinth of the Medina The medina is entered through any number of arched gateways, and within minutes the city's scale announces itself. Streets narrow to the width of a single loaded mule. Houses rise five and six stories, their blank outer walls giving nothing away, their carved wooden balconies visible only from within. The sound is particular to Fes — the rhythm of craft being practiced in rooms open to the sky, the calls of craftsmen to one another across covered souks. Leather workers, dyers, weavers, and coppersmiths still occupy the same neighbourhoods they have worked for centuries, each quarter taking its name from the trade that defines it. ## The Tanneries and Crafts The Chouara Tannery occupies a low building beside the river, its rooftop vats visible from the terraces of the surrounding leather shops. Wool, silk, and cotton are washed, stretched, and beaten clean in the river that runs through the medina's lower reaches. Traditional ceramic tiles — zellige — are cut and assembled in geometric patterns in workshops that supply the city's restoration projects and its mosques. Carved plaster and turned wood remain the signature materials of Fes, applied to public buildings and private houses alike, often in rooms that have seen generations of the same family. ## Madrasas and the Old University The Marinid madrasas built between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries are among the finest expressions of Moroccan architecture. Their courtyard pools reflect geometric plasterwork and carved cedar, the Arabic inscriptions above doorways praising learning and the patron who funded each building. Near the Andalusian quarter, the library attached to the University of Al-Qarawiyyin holds manuscripts in a building that traces its foundation to the ninth century. The neighbourhood around it has long hosted scholars and students; the bookshops and paper sellers that line the approach are part of that continuity. ## Tours that visit Fes No tours visit this place just yet. ## Before you book you should know ### Is this trip right for you? Our groups are capped at eight travellers, which is about a third of what the industry calls a small group. Eight people share one vehicle, one table at dinner and one guide's attention, and the day can change on the road without anybody being left behind. If you are looking for a coach, a fixed script and a microphone, this is not that. Most days involve real walking, often on ground that was laid two thousand years before walking shoes: marble worn smooth, cobbles, uneven steps and long site paths with little shade. Bring shoes you can spend a morning in. Some days move between regions and are largely a drive, with stops along the way. Summers are hot — well over 35°C inland — and winters are colder than most people expect, so layers, a hat and sunscreen earn their place in the bag whatever the month. How demanding a particular trip is, is written on the trip itself: the physical rating in the header, and the day-by-day itinerary above. ### Rooms, and travelling on your own Trip prices are per person, sharing a twin room. Each traveller picks their own room while booking, so a party can mix the three: - **Twin share** — two single beds, shared with someone you are travelling with or with a traveller of the same gender. - **Travelling as a couple** — one double room. - **Individual room** — a room of your own, for a single supplement on top of the trip price. Availability is limited, and the supplement for a given date is shown next to the option when you book. Solo travellers are welcome on every departure, and most of our groups have one or two aboard. ### Accommodation The hotels named in an itinerary are a guideline rather than a guarantee. Where one is full, or has dropped below the standard we booked it for, we substitute a property of a similar standard in the same area — we would rather change the hotel than the trip. Check-in is usually mid-afternoon. If you arrive early we will ask for the room, but no hotel can promise one before its own check-in time; luggage can normally be left at reception in the meantime. If you want the room from the night before, ask us and we will add the extra night to your booking. ### Passports, visas and insurance Entry requirements depend on your nationality and change without much notice, so the only reliable source is the official one: the government of the country you are travelling to, and your own foreign ministry's travel advice. Check both before you book a flight. Many countries ask for a passport valid for at least six months beyond your travel dates, and for blank pages. It is worth looking at yours now rather than at the airport. We ask every traveller to carry travel insurance covering medical treatment and repatriation, and we would strongly encourage cover for cancellation and for your luggage as well. ### Your departure is guaranteed — the day can change Once a departure is on the calendar it runs. We do not cancel a trip for want of a minimum number of bookings, so a booked date is one you can plan flights and leave around. What can move is the shape of a day. Museums and archaeological sites change their hours, roads close, weather turns, a local holiday lands in the middle of the week. Where that happens your guide reorders the day, or swaps a stop for one of the same weight, and tells you why. Changes to a booked itinerary are covered by our Booking Terms & Conditions. --- Full page: https://www.smallvoyage.com/destination/fes/