Street Food and Hidden Bars: 36 Hours in Fes, Morocco
We all know there are different ways to travel for different people: all-inclusive resorts, seeing historically significant buildings and museums, and then there are the people eating at every dodgy, hole-in-the-wall restaurant and drinking local beers by the dozen. Well, if you are the last type, you’ve come to the right place! I will tell you how we spent 36 hours in Fes, getting straight into the heart of the Old Medina, Fes El Bali.
First, you need to get to Fes. Chances are you are taking Morocco’s excellent train system to Fes, in which case you will pass through the town of Meknes. I recommend getting off the train here, and spending your first afternoon wine tasting at Domaine de la Zouina, producers of Volubilia and Epicuria wines. I wrote an entirely separate blog post on our experience there.
If you follow in our footsteps, you will arrive to Fes in the evening, just in time to get settled in at your riad. A riad, for those of you that do not know, is a traditional Moroccan house with a central courtyard. The entire house is centered around the courtyard with all the windows pointing inward and very few windows facing out to the streets. We stayed at Riad Dar Borj and were very happy with our choice. (As an aside, we found the quality of riad/price ratio to be much better in Fes than in Marrakech). See below for an example of a riad interior courtyard.
After checking into your riad, it is time to explore a bit and find dinner. We arrived to Fes on a Friday, which is a holy day for Muslims (the medina was much more quiet on Friday night than it was on Saturday night). We wandered around for awhile and, finding most things closed, we allowed ourselves to be ushered to a restaurant by one of the many local boys trying to persuade us. The restaurant was Palais Des Merinides, which was actually really big and beautiful. The food was overpriced, but tasty. We noted that no alcohol was available (not that we really needed anymore at that point).
Given our big day of travel and wine tasting, after dinner we chose to retire. We relaxed in our big, spacious bedroom, I took a bath, and we slept like babies. We were up early the next morning to enjoy complimentary breakfast on the roof of our Riad, before heading out for some exercise.
To stretch out our legs, we chose to do the the thirty minute walk up to Marinid Tombs for a view of the city. For some reason tour books recommend this place at sunset, so it gets really crowded at that time. We arrived around 10am and enjoyed the whole place to ourselves with great views.
If you need to burn off a few more calories (like us), you can continue your walk down the hill to Jnan Sbil. These are former royal gardens that are now available to the public and are of extreme importance to the local people. The gardens are nice reprieve from the craziness of the city.
At this point your Fitbit says you’ve got your 10k steps, so you can head back to your riad to shower up before heading to the famed Chouara Tannery. I recommend going to the tannery mid-afternoon so you can get an Instagram-worthy shot without too many shadows. Oh, and I recommend going into shop #10 for your photos. It offers a good view and the guys didn’t try to turn any tricks (other than trying to get you to buy their products).
The leather tannery itself is divided into several sections: first the leather hides are put into cow urine to help remove any excess hair. Then they are put into pigeon droppings, which are very acidic and help soften the leather. Lastly, they are put into various organic dyes to create the desired color. It’s actually really fascinating to see. You’ll find post after post online about how awful the tannery smell is… honestly, we went in February and although it didn’t smell great, it was entirely tolerable.
It’s really incredible the vibrant colors they are able to achieve with this process. We ended up buying two “leather poufs” which are essentially the outer shell for an ottoman, one in a light blue and the other in an emerald green. They leather is very soft, particularly the goat leather poufs (which is what we bought). I will write a separate post on shopping in the medinas in Morocco, but essentially whatever price they quote you, offer about half of that and then only come up a little bit, ideally meeting around 60% of the original price.
Now that you’ve accomplished your chores for the day, it is time for the fun part- wandering aimlessly and seeing what you come across! We happened to make our way down Rue Seffarine which is where all the metal workers are located. They’re all different types of shops: men chiseling delicate designs for lanterns, hammered copper for bowls and plates, knife sharpening, etc. If you make it to this square, there is a little restaurant with a rooftop patio perfect for a snack and a Moroccan tea where you can observe all of the action.
Now that you’re caffeinated and are probably tired of all the various pounding and clinging happening on Rue Seffarine, you can continue your wandering and window shopping. We happened to see an antique shop full of swords, knives, and scimitars. We admired the various products before the shop owner started handing them over for us to try out… one thing led to another and we decided we needed a scimitar to take home with us, possibly for “sabrage” or opening a bottle of champagne with a sword.
If the leather tannery and antique swords have not been exotic enough for you, head towards one of the produce markets, specifically the meat section to scope out the various offerings…
At this point you (we) need a drink. Unfortunately, Fes is a very dry city. I am not actually sure I have ever been anywhere else that alcohol was so hard to come by. I believe there are just two places that serve alcohol in or around the old medina, (a place home to more than 150,000 people)- but this blog isn’t titled “street food and hidden bars” for nothing!
You want to google map “Riad Fes – Relais & Châteaux” which can be a little hard to find, but as long as you follow the map you will end up at the right place. Once inside they may show you to the (beautiful) poolside wine bar on the first floor, but ask to be shown to the roof deck! They have an open air bar with 360 views of the city. They also have an extensive wine and cocktail list. Put down your bags of leather poufs and scimitars and relax!
After a cocktail or three, head back to your Riad to freshen up before dinner. And by dinner, I mean a street food extravaganza.
If you are staying at the Riad Dar Borj, the busy street food area will be very close to you. With your new found liquid courage, I recommend bouncing from one street vendor to the next, trying anything and everything. The vendors are extremely affordable (1 dirham or 10 cents for a pastry, 10 dirham or $1 for a pita sandwich), so you will only be limited by the amount of food you can stomach.
Once you are full, it is time to end your night at a Moroccan dive bar. To find the bar, you want to head to the Hotel Batha just outside the Blue Gates. Once inside, make your way to the second floor towards the hotel bar/restaurant. When you ask for the bar, they may gesture towards the lame bar in the hotel, but ask for the “British Saloon,” at which point they will take you around to another door and you’ll exit into a large courtyard. From the courtyard you will see a tavern looking building to your left, and THAT is the British Saloon! Pony up to the bar for some 8oz Moroccan Flag beers (made in Fes!) and some weird bar food, like nacho flavored nuts. The patrons are a mix rough looking ex-pats, and local guys playing cards.
I’m not sure what time the bar actually closes but we left around midnight and it was still going strong. The next morning you should sleep in, enjoy more complimentary breakfast, and slowly make your way to the train station, onward to your next location! (For us that just meant back to Casablanca because Garan had work on Monday morning).
On my map I included a few locations of places we didn’t go but I would add on next time
Your latest posting about Fes was really interesting and informative Brittany! Good Job!
Thanks, John!
A fantastic review, I am supposed to be going later this year (fingers crossed). Many thanks for the superb insights?