Prior to reaching Fes, we had been warned by many locals that Fes is “different” and were told to be careful.  We were also told not to walk around alone and to keep an eye on our belongings. We didn’t really think too much about this since we were not going to be in Fes for very long, but we did decide to make dinner reservations with the girls from our camel tour and found it useful to have been forewarned about a few things. Therefore, we wanted to use this post to give a little advice about getting around in Fes for anyone that is planning to add this city to their Morocco adventure.

Up to this point, we had been using GPS on Elise’s phone to navigate ourselves around Morocco without difficulty, so we had no reason to think this would be any different. We were wrong. We left our airbnb and started out in the direction that our GPS told us to go. We ended up in a few creepy alleys that were dark and quiet. There were few people down them telling us that we were going the wrong way and trying to get us to follow them. We felt extremely uncomfortable and headed back to our airbnb. We called Abdu, our Fes Guide, and asked him to escort us to the restaurant and was happy to do so. Once we arrived, he set us up with a porter to take us home. We recommend doing this if you are staying anywhere in Fes. It can be quite uncomfortable walking around dark alleys without a good sense of direction.

The next morning, Abdu met us again and walked us through the medina to find a taxi. The original spot we were supposed to find taxis was completely dead so we were happy to have Abdu lead us through the gates to an area guaranteed to have taxis.

There are plenty of reasons why you should visit Fes, including touring the tanneries, the merenid tombs, and the royal palace of Fes to name a few. Our intention with this post was not to talk you out of going here, but to prepare you for what you may encounter while “getting lost” in the medina.  We hope that you take advantage of porters and enjoy your time in Fes!