Fez el Bali, the old city, is generally described as the largest car-free urban area in the world. It has around 9,000 lanes, some of them under a metre wide, and the delivery vehicle is still a donkey. The medina was founded in the ninth century and the University of al-Qarawiyyin inside it, established in 859, is often cited as the oldest continuously operating degree-granting institution anywhere.
Marrakech gets roughly four times the visitors. Fez is older, larger, less restored and considerably less used to tourism, which is the argument for it and also the warning.
What a riad actually is
A riad is a house built around an internal courtyard, usually with a fountain, open to the sky, with the rooms facing inward and blank walls to the lane. Like the Seville patio, it is a climate response: the courtyard cools the air and the building turns its back on the street.
Converting one into a hotel means a small property, usually eight to fifteen rooms, reached on foot down lanes that a car cannot enter. Luggage arrives by handcart or porter and the hotel sends someone to meet you at the nearest vehicle point, because finding an address in Fez el Bali unaided is genuinely difficult.
That is not a hardship, it is the arrangement, and it is worth confirming when you book.
The three cities
Fez el Bali is the ninth-century medina: the tanneries, the medersas, the souks and almost all the riads.
Fez el Jdid, the "new" fourteenth-century city, has the royal palace gates and the mellah, the old Jewish quarter.
The Ville Nouvelle, built under the French protectorate, has the wide streets, the modern hotels and almost nothing to see.
The eight below are grouped by that.
Fez el Bali
Inside the medina, in converted houses.
Riad Fes - Relais & Châteaux occupies a nineteenth-century palace at the edge of the medina with two courtyards, a spa, a rooftop restaurant and a level of service that is the best in the city.
Riad Fes - Relais & Châteaux
Fez el Bali edge · 5★ · $$$$
A nineteenth-century palace with two courtyards and a spa
Search hotels in FezPalais Faraj Suites & Spa sits in a restored Andalusian palace on the medina's northern slope with terraces stepping up the hillside and a view across the whole old city. The rooftop is the best in Fez.
Palais Faraj Suites & Spa
Northern medina slope · 5★ · $$$
Terraces stepping up with the best rooftop in Fez
Check availabilityKarawan Riad occupies a set of adjoining riads deep in the medina with courtyards, a spa and a small pool, restored with traditional craft throughout.
Karawan Riad
Deep in the medina · 5★ · $$$
Adjoining riads restored with traditional craft
Search hotels in FezPalais Amani sits in a restored merchant's house with a courtyard, a hammam and a rooftop, and a kitchen that runs cookery classes.
Palais Amani
Fez el Bali · 4★ · $$$
A merchant's house with a hammam and cookery classes
Search hotels in FezRiad Laaroussa occupies a riad near the Bab Boujloud gate with painted ceilings, a plunge pool in the courtyard and a personal operation.
Riad Laaroussa
Near Bab Boujloud · 4★ · $$$
Painted ceilings and a courtyard plunge pool
Search hotels in FezDar Roumana sits in a converted house in the medina with a handful of rooms, a courtyard and a good table d'hôte dinner.
Riad Fes Maya Suite & Spa occupies a smaller riad with a rooftop terrace, simple rooms and the best value inside the walls.
Riad Fes Maya Suite & Spa
Medina · 4★ · $$
Rooftop terrace and the best value inside the walls
Search hotels in FezThe Ville Nouvelle
Outside the medina, with cars and space.
Hotel Sahrai occupies a contemporary building on the hillside above the city with a pool, a spa and rooms looking across at the medina. It is the only hotel at this standard outside the walls and it is a ten-minute drive from the gates.
Hotel Sahrai
Above the city · 5★ · $$$
A contemporary hillside build with a pool facing the medina
Check availabilityWhat we have left off
The dar and smaller guest houses across the medina are excluded, and Fez has a great many of them at very low prices in buildings that are just as interesting. They are guest houses rather than hotels.
What to do
Take a guide for the first day, an official one. The medina is genuinely disorienting, the unofficial guides at the gates are persistent, and a good guide turns a stressful morning into the reason you came.
See the tanneries at Chouara from a leather shop terrace above them, which is how access works. You will be handed mint to hold under your nose and it does help.
Visit the medersas: Bou Inania and Al-Attarine are the two, and the carved cedar, plaster and zellij tilework in them is the finest in Morocco.
Go to the potters' quarter outside the walls to watch zellij tiles being cut by hand, which is a craft that survives here and almost nowhere else.
Eat pastilla, which is pigeon or chicken in filo with cinnamon and sugar, and is a Fassi dish rather than a generic Moroccan one.
Practical notes
Fez has an international airport 15 minutes from the city. Casablanca is three and a half hours by train, Marrakech about seven.
March to May and September to November are ideal. Summer regularly exceeds 38 degrees in a city with no sea breeze. Winter is cold and the riads can be genuinely chilly; check for heating.
Ramadan changes hours and the atmosphere substantially. Dress modestly; Fez is more conservative than Marrakech.
Explore 4 & 5 Star Fez Hotels
Questions people actually ask
Is Fez harder than Marrakech?
Less geared to visitors, more disorienting and less restored. That is the appeal for some people and the objection for others.
Do you need a guide?
For the first day, strongly recommended, and an official one. The medina has around 9,000 lanes.
How do you get to a riad?
On foot, with a porter or handcart from the nearest vehicle access point. The hotel arranges it and you should confirm it when booking.
How many nights?
Three. Two for the medina and a third for Volubilis and Meknes.