Overview to Fes: Travel Guide and Tourist Information
Fes is a truly remarkable travel destination. Ancient and somber, its ruinous Old Town, Fes el Bali, is the closest place to where something like a genuinely medieval way of life still exists.
The heart of the city is marked by the gateway of Bab Boujeloud (which opens up onto the main square), a riot of colorful tiles. A little to the north, across the vast Place Baghdadi, the Kasbah can be entered through the impressive Bab Ech Chorfa.
Leading away into the bustling, market stall-lined lanes of Talaa Seghira and Talaa Kebira, Fes el Bali twists, turns and doubles back on itself; amidst the souks and (sometimes totally baffling) narrow alleyways, chance is the only way of finding anything.
In some ways, though, this only makes stumbling on the likes of the Medersa Bou Inania, the city’s stunning former Islamic college (off Talaa Kebira), or the enormous Kairaouine Mosque (to the south of the city) that little bit more rewarding.
But there are a host of other low-level ‘sights’ dotted around the city. In addition to the endlessly fascinating visual spectacle of the souks and tanneries, once lavish ‘fondouks’ (former travelers’ inns) now echo to the tradesmen noisily hammering out their wares.
Outside Fes el Bali, the adjoining Andalous Quarter (across the river to the southeast) is squalid but similarly fascinating; a short petit taxi journey away, and held in by vast, crumbling walls, Fes el Djedid is also full of evocative corners.
And if this unceasing activity all gets a bit exhausting, the warren-like streets and lanes that stretch away forever off Boujeloud are lined with food stalls and scruffy cafés where some bread and a couple of portions of fried fish, say, will cost next to nothing.
Nightlife-wise, the Old Town is quiet and, although there are a few more options in the Ville Nouvelle, partying isn’t really the point of Fes. Sitting and watching the swallows swoop upon the city walls, with such a wonderfully exotic allure, there’s little need for more artificial excitement.
