Fez

Suggested excursions for Rediscover the World clients staying in Fez

Please contact us for more details on any of these excursions from Fez.

Guided Historical Visit of Fez Souks and Sights

ref. - ITCTFES09p - HALF DAY

 (Subject to which hotel you are staying, the itinerary may change in order of visit shown, but all mentioned will be seen)  

Leaving our hotel at 09:00, we drive via the Mechouer to the impressive Dar el Makhzen for a 15 minute stop at the Royal Palace with its magnificent seven bronze gates. From here we walk to and through the Mellah with its intense atmosphere and fine examples of Mauro-Hispanic architecture. At around10:00 we drive to the Borj Sud to take in the panoramic view of the Medina.

Off now down to start our Walking Tour of the labyrinth of the ancient Fes Medina (a UNESCO World Heritage Site); of the colourful es-Sebbaghine with its Street of the Dyers; of the brass workers at es-Seffarine, of the aromas of the Souq el-Atterine area of spices and groceries; of the impressive al-Quarawiyyin Mosque and University, the el-Atterine Medersa; the Kissaria and the Draz quarters, where you’ll see materials being woven the traditional way on really old-fashioned looms; the renowned Tanneries on the bank of the Oued Fes and the delightful el-Nejjarine Square with its fountain and caravanserai and on to the potteries, perfumes and beauty products at the Souq el-Henna.

Leaving the Medina from the Bab Boujloud around 1 o’clock, we should be back at our hotel in time for lunch, should you decide not to have a light snack surrounded by 1,200 years of history. 

PRICE PER PERSON IN £ from 23

PRICE INCLUDE: experienced English-speaking Licensed guide throughout. Private round trip transportation. Entrance to National Monuments and Museum.

Guided Historical Visit of Fez Souks and Sights

ref. - ITCTFES08p - FULL DAY

 (Subject to in which hotel you are staying, the itinerary may change in order of visit shown, but all mentioned will be seen)  

Leaving our hotel at 09:00 for a tour of the Mellah, the Medina and Souqs, the famous Tanneries, the exquisite Mosques and Medersas, the famous Fes Pottery Kilns, a tour around the ramparts with its many Babs and a visit to the renowned Museum of Moroccan Art. We start with our drive via the Mechouer to the impressive Dar el Makhzen to stop for some 15 minutes at the Royal Palace with its magnificent seven bronze gates, to continue on to the Borj Sud for a panoramic view of the Medina.

Off now down to start our Walking Tour of the labyrinth of the ancient Fes Medina ( a UNESCO World Heritage Site); of the colourful es-Sebbaghine with its Street of the Dyers; of the brass and copperware workers at es-Seffarine ; on through the winding alleyways to the impressive el-Quarawiyyin Mosque and University , a stroll into the past to the wonderful Mosque and adjacent aromatic Souq of el-Atterine of spices and vegetables; the beautiful el-Atterine Medersa; the Kissaria and Draz Quarters and the renowned Tanneries on the bank of the Oued Fes.

On now to the delightful el-Nejjarine Square with its Plaza, fountain, caravanserai and artists in woodwork. Nearby we’ll stop for a very welcome light lunch (drinks not included) at the delightful Restaurant Palais Mnebhi. On now to the Dar Batha and a visit of the Museum of Moroccan Art before rejoining our vehicle at the Bab Boujloud. That’s the walking done for the day, for now we drive to the 16th century Potters' Quarter (Fakhkharin), not far from the present-day Bab Ftouh in an area called Guerouaoua, to watch the artists working at their kilns and, perchance, to buy some of their unique clayware. Back into our vehicle and on now for a tour around the magnificent ramparts with its beautiful Babs and up to the sixteenth century Saadien watchtower at the North Borj for yet another, but so different, panoramic view of this city of 1001 Nights. So much history, so much variety, so many memories to be captured on film before returning finally by car to our hotel at the end of an exceptional day.

PRICE PER PERSON IN £ from £ 36

PRICES INCLUDE: experienced English-speaking private Licensed guide throughout. Private round trip transportation. Light lunch. Entrance to National Monuments and Museum.

Of Cave Homes and Pre-Islamic Culture - Half Day

ref. - ITCTFES12p

Leaving our hotel at around 9 in the morning for a short, exciting drive towards the south-east across the Saïss Plateau through pleasant rolling countryside, with the Middle Atlas Mountains (or ‘Fazaz’) beckoning us from the distance, we turn into the lower foothills towards Bhalil, a hamlet built in a narrow mountain valley.

Bhalil – meaning “Beauty of the Night” - claims ancient Christian origins, predating Islam, from those Christian soldiers of the Roman Second Legion fleeing persecution of their latest Emperor. The cobble-stoned alleyways and streets are a mixture of some ancient but still-occupied troglodyte homes, where we’ll stop for a traditional welcoming glass of mint tea with one of the families, and some 1500 pisé and stone block homes of 2 or 3 simple rooms in pastel hues of pink, blue and yellow with more modern blue and white wash houses. You’ll see small, elegant stone bridges and women washing clothes and carpets in the communal basin, or at the seasonal river. All provide for a picturesque scene of local Berber village life, far from the hustle and bustle of Fes or Meknes.

From here we shall set off in our vehicle once more down the road to one of the more attractive towns in Morocco – Sefrou (souq on Thursday). From the combined Arab words ‘as’ and ‘frou’ meaning ‘shelter’-, this 1 st century town is calm and relatively unspoiled, with ochre pisé walls and turrets and nine ‘Babs’, or gateways. We make a short stop to visit the 8 th. Century Ksar el Kelaa , once the barracks of the Berber army of Moulay Idriss I, with its old, thick-walled pisé homes and cobble-stoned lanes dominating the ‘newer’ town, passing by the small medina and maze-like Mellah , or old Jewish Quarter, for here there had been, since pre-Islamic times, a large Berber population converted to Judaism by roving missionaries living alongside the unrepentant Berber peoples. The town, known for its olive and cherry production, holds a large Fêtes Des Cerises in June, and other smaller festivities throughout the year. We finish our walk by strolling through the bustling souq for some friendly bartering perhaps, before boarding our awaiting vehicle for our 1hour drive back along the triq es soltan, or old caravan trail, but now a main road, to our hotel in the Imperial City of Fes, arriving around 1 o’clock in the afternoon.

PRICE PER PERSON IN £

OUR PRICES INCLUDE: experienced English-speaking private Licensed guide throughout. Private round trip transportation. Tea with a Berber family.

The Glories of Idrissid Meknes and Roman Volubilis - FULL DAY

ref. - ITCTFES10p

Our day’s excursion to 2,000 years in the past starts at 9 o’clock from your hotel when we drive across the Saiss Plain to the wonderful Roman ruins at Volubilis , the Volubilis of really ancient olive presses, mansions, incredible mosaics, monumental arches and Corinthian columns where you’ll have a real sense of Roman lifestyle and of that of a subsequent medieval Berber town. The site contains the Mansion containing the mosaic of the Labours of Hercules, the Baths of Gallienus and Baths of Forum with their fragmentary mosaics; the House of Orpheus and its Dolphin mosaic and Orpheus Myth; the Cortege of Venus many of whose mosaics we may only see from the outside yet will get to se the medallions of Bacchus, Diana and the Abduction of Hylas; the Gordian Palace with its bath house and pooled courtyards; the House of the Wild Beast, the House of Nymphs, the House of the Seasons, the House of Flavius Germanus, the Knight’s House with an incomplete mosaic of Dionysus Discovering Ariadne Asleep, the Triumphal Arch , the Capitol and the House of Ephebus with its pictorial mosaics, especially that of Bacchus Being drawn in a Chariot by Panthers. 

We leave Volubilis behind to drive alongside the dark, outlaying ridges of the Zerhoun Hills to stop for a visit of the town of Moulay Idriss , the holiest Islamic town in the kingdom of Morocco, where thousands of Moroccan faithful come on pilgrimage (moussem) every August to pray at the tomb of this descendant of the Prophet Mohammed. Arriving at the elongated square we see above us the green-tiled pyramids of the Zaouia with its two conical quarters on either side and stroll amidst the labyrinth of alleyways before leaving for the Imperial City rebuilt by Moulay Ismail.

On, now, to the Imperial City of Meknes (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Here we shall visit the easily most beautiful Bab, or gateway, in all of the Maghreb – the Bab Mansour. From here to the El Heri es-Souani – the granary of huge vaulted structures and stables built by Moulay Ismail’s soldiers next to a pool fed by underground channels that brought fresh water all the way from the distant Middle Atlas Mountains; the Moulay Ismail Mausoleum and the Place el-Hedim to see the famous State-owned stallion stables of Haras where these Arabo-Berber horses are bred. Time for lunch (optional, not included) before leaving Meknes around 4:40 in the afternoon, arriving back in our hotel at around a quarter to six, the drama, scope and beauty of our visit forever indelibly imprinted in our memory.

PRICE PER PERSON IN £

 OUR NETT PRICES INCLUDE: experienced English-speaking Licensed Guides in Volubilis and Meknes. Private round trip transportation with English-speaking driver. Entrance to National Treasures.

Fresh Mountain Air and our Middle Atlas Lake District - FULL DAY 

ref. - ITCTFES11p

Departing from our hotel in this our Imperial city of Fesat around 8.30 in the morning for an exciting 2 hours’ drive towards the south and the foothills of the Middle Atlas Mountain Ranges, after some 30 minutes we pass by the Kandar Massif (1768m) to arrive at the small 1920s French-built hill station of Immouzzer du Kandar (1220m), perched on the limestone edge of the Saïss Plateau. Here we’ll pause for a while by the ruined kasbah of the Ait Seghrouchen for a look at the little Medina and a visit of the still-inhabited troglodyte homes, before continuing on for some 500 yards up along a little road through evergreen holm oak and juniper to the volcanic freshwater lake of the Dayet Aaoua. Depending on the season of course, for this area is one of porous limestone, we should see around this lake a large variety of dragonfly and damselfly, as with resident and migratory birds, such as heron, stork, sandpiper, avocet, grebe and egret; duck and coot; wagtail, sand martin and swallow; jay, bluetit, lark, warbler; buzzard and kite. We’ll stop for a quiet stroll around the area, accompanied by the knock-knock of the green woodpecker and firecrest in the lakeshore forest.

We now continue on to Ifrane (1650m), where we shall stop for a light lunch (not included) and short visit of this squeaky-clean Moroccan pseudo-Swiss town, with its slanted, russet-tiled roofs hidden amidst a forest of cedar, which cannot grow below 1600m. We shall then drive up alongside the trailing edge of the Cedar Forest via the Mischliffen ski resort located in an extinct volcano’s crater to the first real town in the Middle Atlas - Azrou - which in the local Tamazight Berber dialect means “rock,” for, next to the mosque, is the massive outcrop from which this town takes its name.

On Tuesdays there is a souq to where the Beni M’Guild tribes, renowned for their intricately-designed carpets, come to trade. In this traditional Amazigh Berber green-tiled roofed arcaded Kelaa or Caserne we might stop for lunch (optional) in the village market square, or just continue with a short stroll through this charming area before rejoining our vehicle at around 3 o’clock to take us back to the hustle and bustle that is Fes.

PRICE PER PERSON IN £

OUR NETT PRICES INCLUDE: experienced English-speaking private Licensed guide throughout. Private round trip transportation.

* Sports – There is an excellent golf course in Fez, we will advise on green fees and any handicap requirements. Also between December and March it is possible to ski or snowboard at Ifrane in the Mid Atlas (one hour drive). 

Back