Marrakech Gets the Riads; Fez Still Has the Medina Working

Morocco’s travel boom of the past decade has been, overwhelmingly, a Marrakech story: riad conversions, rooftop bars, a flight network into Menara Airport that keeps expanding. Fez, a few hours northeast by road or by Morocco’s modern rail line, has not had the same moment, and the case for that being Fez’s advantage rather than its problem keeps getting stronger the more Marrakech’s medina reorients itself around the tourist trade.

A medina that still works as a city

Fes el Bali is often cited as one of the largest car-free urban areas anywhere, a tangle of narrow lanes too tight for vehicles, where donkeys and handcarts still move goods the way they have for centuries. Unlike Marrakech’s old town, where much of the historic fabric has been converted into riads and shops aimed squarely at visitors, large parts of the Fez medina still function primarily as a working neighbourhood: tanneries, metalworkers, spice sellers and bakeries operating for residents first.

Where to start

Most visits begin at Bab Boujloud, the blue-and-green tiled gate completed in 1913 under the French protectorate. From there, the lanes lead past the Chouara Tannery, whose stone dye pits are among the oldest working tanneries in the world and best viewed, by long tradition, from the terraces of the leather shops that ring it. Nearby, the University of Al Qarawiyyin, founded in 859, is widely credited by UNESCO and the Guinness World Records as the oldest existing, continually operating degree-granting institution anywhere.

Why it still lags Marrakech

Some of the gap is straightforwardly logistical: Fez’s airport carries a fraction of the international traffic that lands in Marrakech, and the city has fewer of the high-design riad conversions that made Marrakech an easy sell to a style-conscious travel market. That is shifting gradually as restoration projects and a handful of design-led guesthouses open in the medina, but Fez remains, for now, a city Morocco’s tourism growth has mostly passed around rather than through.

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Traveller tips

• The medina’s lanes are not signposted in any way that suits first-time navigation; hiring an official guide for the first few hours is the standard, sensible approach.
• Bab Boujloud and the Chouara Tannery get busy with tour groups by mid-morning; an early start is worth it for both.
• Fez is connected to Casablanca and Rabat by Morocco’s ONCF rail network, a comfortable alternative to the road journey from Marrakech.
• Confirm opening hours for the university exterior and tannery viewpoints locally, as access and hours can vary by season.