Fes With Kids
A walled city founded in the 800s where nothing on wheels fits in the streets, so the deliveries come by donkey and the kids walk through a thousand years without a car. Fes is the Morocco city I send families to after Marrakech has worn them out, because it is older, calmer and more real, and the medina is a game they do not want to stop playing.
Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with FG Luxury Travel
Is Fes good for kids?
Yes, for kids about 6 and up who can walk a few miles of alleys. The donkeys, the tanneries, the pottery, the coppersmiths and the riad pool make it a living history lesson, and with a licensed guide on the first morning the medina is safe and fun. Toddlers and strollers struggle on the cobbles and the steps.
How many days do you need in Fes?
Three nights. One day for the guided medina and the tanneries, one for the crafts, the palace gates, the gardens and sunset at the Marinid tombs, and one for the day trip to Volubilis and Meknes. Four if you add a cooking class.
Do you need a guide in Fes?
With kids, yes, for the first morning. A licensed guide for four hours teaches you the map, keeps the kids clear of the donkeys and deals with the unlicensed helpers. After that the family can explore alone and ask shopkeepers for directions.
Is Fes or Marrakech better for families?
Fes is older, calmer and more authentic, with fewer touts and real craft workshops, and the one I would pick first for kids who like history. Marrakech has the big square, the gardens and the Atlas day trips and is busier. Most families do both, 7 hours apart by train or two days by road through the Middle Atlas and the desert.
When is the best time to visit Fes?
March to May and late September to November, with days in the 70s. Summer is over 100 and the medina traps the heat. Winter is clear, quiet and cool, with cold nights in the riads.
The Oldest Of The Imperial Cities
Fes el Bali, the old medina, is a UNESCO site of about 9,000 alleys inside the walls, founded in 789, with the Al Qarawiyyin mosque and university at its heart, the oldest continuously operating university in the world, founded by a woman, Fatima al Fihri, in 859. It is often called the largest car free urban area in the world, which means donkeys, mules and handcarts do the deliveries and the kids learn to flatten against a wall when they hear balak. Fes el Jdid, the newer medina from the 1200s, has the royal palace gates and the old Jewish quarter, and the Ville Nouvelle is the French built modern city with the cafes and the train station. The whole thing sits in a bowl of hills, with the Marinid tombs on the ridge above for the view.
Three nights covers a guided day in the medina, the tanneries and the craft workshops, a riad afternoon, the Marinid tombs at sunset and one day trip to Volubilis and Meknes or Chefchaouen.
Getting Around
On foot inside the medina, because nothing else fits. Petit taxis, the small red ones, run between the medina gates, Fes el Jdid and the Ville Nouvelle for a few dirham, three passengers maximum, so a family of five takes two. The riad arranges a porter with a cart for the bags from the gate. Guides are not optional for the first day with kids. A licensed guide for the morning teaches you the map and the medina stops being frightening and starts being fun.
Neighborhoods worth basing in
Fes el Bali, the old medina
Inside the walls, in a riad with a courtyard, which is the whole point of Fes. The alleys around Bab Bou Jeloud and Talaa Kebira are the busiest and the most connected, with the gate and the taxis close. The deeper you go, the quieter and the longer the walk with the bags, so for a first trip with kids stay near a gate.
Fes el Jdid and the Jewish quarter
The 13th century second medina with the royal palace gates, the Mellah’s wooden balconies and the gardens of Jnan Sbil between it and the old medina. Quieter, with a few riads, wider lanes and a 15 minute walk to Bab Bou Jeloud. A good base for a family who wants the medina without sleeping in the thick of it.
The Ville Nouvelle
The French built modern city with wide avenues, cafes, the train station and the chain hotels with pools. No atmosphere, but a pool, a parking space and a 10 minute taxi to the medina gates. The base for a family in August, or one who has done the riad thing and wants a swim.
Riad Fes, Relais and Chateaux
A palace of courtyards near Batha with Andalusian tiles, a pool, a rooftop bar with the medina below and family suites. The splurge in Fes, and the one where the kids float in the courtyard pool while the call to prayer goes over the roof.
Palais Amani
A restored 17th century family home near the Rcif gate with a garden courtyard of orange trees, a hammam, a cooking school the kids can join and a roof terrace for breakfast. Warm, personal, and the one I book for a family who wants the riad experience with a staff who help with children.
Riad Laaroussa
A quiet riad in the heart of the medina with a big courtyard, a small pool, family rooms and a kitchen that cooks what the kids will eat. Good value for a riad of this quality, and the staff walk you to the gate the first time so nobody is lost.
The Three I Build Every Fes Trip Around
The medina with a guide
The first morning is a licensed guide, four hours, from Bab Bou Jeloud down Talaa Kebira past the Bou Inania madrasa with its carved cedar and tiles, the water clock, the spice and nut souks, the Nejjarine fountain and the woodwork museum, the Qarawiyyin doors, the Seffarine square where the coppersmiths hammer pots, and out to the tanneries. The guide keeps the kids safe from the donkeys, explains the bread ovens and the hammams, and turns the maze into a map. After that the family can wander alone and get lost on purpose.
The tanneries and the craft workshops
The Chouara tanneries are a honeycomb of stone vats of dye and lime where leather has been worked the same way since the 1000s, seen from the terraces of the leather shops above with a sprig of mint under your nose for the smell. The kids find it gross and fascinating in equal measure. Around the medina the crafts still happen by hand, zellige tile cutters, weavers on wooden looms, brass hammerers, and the Fes pottery quarter at Ain Nokbi where the blue and white Fes bowls are thrown and painted, and the kids can watch and buy a small one.
The gates, the gardens and the tombs at sunset
Bab Bou Jeloud, the blue gate, is the medina’s front door, blue tiles facing out and green facing in, and the cafes on the square inside are where the kids drink orange juice while the donkeys pass. The gates of the royal palace in Fes el Jdid are seven doors of brass and tile the kids pose in front of. Jnan Sbil gardens between the two medinas have a lake and shade for an hour of not walking. At sunset a taxi to the Marinid tombs on the hill above puts the whole medina below you with the storks on the walls and the call to prayer rising from 300 mosques at once.
Family Time, Built In: Fes With Kids
Fes with kids is flattening against a wall for a donkey, mint under the nose at the tanneries, a bowl painted at the pottery, bread from a neighborhood oven and the whole medina lit below at sunset.
Mint at the tanneries
A bowl from the pottery quarter
The seven brass gates of the royal palace
Sunset at the Marinid tombs
PARK & DOWNTIME PICK
The riad courtyard is the park, because the medina has no open space and the kids need somewhere to be loud. Jnan Sbil gardens by Bab Bou Jeloud have paths, a lake, fountains and shade and are free. A cooking class at the riad or Cafe Clock, where the kids make msemen flatbread and a tagine, fills a hot afternoon and feeds the whole family. The Borj Nord fort above the medina has an arms museum and the view, and in the Ville Nouvelle there is a park with a small train for a break from the Middle Ages.
Five Things To Eat In Fes
Tagine, lamb with prunes or chicken with lemon
Friday couscous
Almond pastries and chebakia
Olives from the souk
Mint tea poured from a heightNicole’s Perspective
The Morocco city I would do first
Marrakech is the Morocco most families book, and it is fun and loud and exhausting. Fes is the one I would do first with kids, because the medina is bigger, older and gentler, the touts are fewer, and the crafts are still real work rather than a show. It is also the city that comes closest to the world I taught, the medieval Islamic world, with a university older than Oxford and a tannery older than the Crusades still running.
The guide is the trick. I book a licensed one for the first morning and the family is on its own after that, with the riad as home base and the courtyard pool as the reward. Jake would be timing the donkeys, Gavin would be in the Bou Inania madrasa reading the carvings, and Avilene would come home with a painted bowl from Ain Nokbi she chose herself.
The Day Trip: Volubilis And Meknes, Or Chefchaouen
An hour and a quarter west, Volubilis is the most complete Roman city in Morocco, a hilltop of columns, a triumphal arch and mosaic floors still in place that the kids walk across, with storks nesting on the ruins and almost nobody there. Pair it with Meknes, 30 minutes away, for the giant Bab Mansour gate, the royal stables built for 12,000 horses and a lunch in the square. The other day trip is Chefchaouen, the blue town in the Rif mountains, three and a half hours each way, so it works as an overnight rather than a day, with its blue painted stairs, the waterfall at Ras el Maa and the easy hike to the Spanish mosque for sunset.
Things I Would Tell A Friend Before They Booked
How Many Days
Three nights covers the medina, the crafts and one day trip. Four adds a cooking class and a slow day.
The guided medina morning and the tanneries on day one, the pottery, the palace gates and the gardens on day two with sunset at the tombs, and Volubilis and Meknes on day three.
Add a cooking class at the riad, a hammam for the parents while the kids swim, and an afternoon getting lost on purpose in the quiet northern alleys with a stop at a neighborhood bread oven.
Three nights in Fes, one in Chefchaouen, then the two day drive south over the Middle Atlas to Merzouga for a night in a desert camp on the dunes, and on to Marrakech. Ten days, and the Morocco trip for a family that wants the old city, the blue town and the sand.
Fes With Kids, Answered
Is Fes good for kids?
Yes, for kids about 6 and up who can walk a few miles of alleys. The donkeys, the tanneries, the pottery, the coppersmiths and the riad pool make it a living history lesson, and with a licensed guide on the first morning the medina is safe and fun. Toddlers and strollers struggle on the cobbles and the steps.
How many days do you need in Fes?
Three nights. One day for the guided medina and the tanneries, one for the crafts, the palace gates, the gardens and sunset at the Marinid tombs, and one for the day trip to Volubilis and Meknes. Four if you add a cooking class.
Do you need a guide in Fes?
With kids, yes, for the first morning. A licensed guide for four hours teaches you the map, keeps the kids clear of the donkeys and deals with the unlicensed helpers. After that the family can explore alone and ask shopkeepers for directions.
Is Fes or Marrakech better for families?
Fes is older, calmer and more authentic, with fewer touts and real craft workshops, and the one I would pick first for kids who like history. Marrakech has the big square, the gardens and the Atlas day trips and is busier. Most families do both, 7 hours apart by train or two days by road through the Middle Atlas and the desert.
When is the best time to visit Fes?
March to May and late September to November, with days in the 70s. Summer is over 100 and the medina traps the heat. Winter is clear, quiet and cool, with cold nights in the riads.
Ready To Put Fes On The Calendar
Send me your dates and your kids’ ages and I will plan Fes, the riad near the gate, the licensed guide for the first morning and the day trips to Volubilis or Chefchaouen.
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