Fabulous Fez!

October 3-6, 2024

For as much as Chefchaouen's "Blue City" was a tourist city, Fez is decidedly not so.  Fez is the cultural capital of Morocco (and used to be the actual capital, which is now Rabat).  While there are, of course, numerous tourists wandering the medina and other attractions, it is clear that Fez is an actual city, with actual people who live and work there, not just a city set up to cater to tourists.  We're just popping in to catch a glipse of their world as they go about their business of buying, selling, praying, relaxing, etc. In that sense, it feels like a much more authentic experience. 

Francesca got a tip for a local guy, Hamada Bouaz, who does transportation so we reached out to him for our transfer from Chefchauen to Fez.  Because of that good experience, we took him up on his offer to connect us with a private tour guide for Fez (he also ended up driving us from Fez to Rabat - great guy!).  Given we didn't have a car and the kids can only walk so much in a day without the wheels coming off, we signed up with Rachid Dyane who provided a superb day tour of Fez.  

Honestly, as previously mentioned, we don't typically like tours because they are often overly long with too much information which is can get tedious, especially if you are with young children.  But Rachid's tour was the perfect mix of information and fun.  And he also was very flexible with what we wanted to do and see - something you are able to do with a private tour.

It was also a very efficient tour with Rachid's driver dropping us off at one location and picking us up at the other side.  We never had to wait for transporation.  Rachid also gave us time to be on our own in the medina which was nice.  We had a decent, but overpriced, lunch at Restaurant Dar Alamia in the Medina while Rachid went to a nearby mosque to pray. 

Rachid did take us to various craftspeople's businesses (leather, pottery, carpets, etc.) - for which he, no doubt, receives a commission if we buy, but we never felt pressured and we were upfront with our limited abilty to purchase anything given our yearlong travels and luggage space restrictions. That said, we still felt badly for the vendors who showed us their wares to no avail.  

Our lodging, a Riad called Moun'Na, was located just outside of the famous Chouara Tannery - and therefore smelled of tanning dye.  But it was decidedly NOT in a touristy area and therefore we took advantage of night walks to the local markets and restaurants to, again, get a glimpse into the average Moroccan's life.  

You could probably keep yourself busy for 3 or 4 days in Fez, but it's doable in 2 if you are happy just hitting the highlights, like us.  In fact, we saw so much on our tour the first day that we paid the somewhat steep day fee to use the pool facilities at the Fez Marriott.

 Next we were on to a small town near the capital of Rabat for a week long work/stay on an organic farm.  There promises to be lots of animals which the kids are excited about.