Fez

Introduction

medina

© teethetrav

Fes or Fez (Arabic: فاس‎ [Fās], French: Fès) is home to Morocco's oldest university and is its leading cultural and religious centre. Fez was founded in 789. History has provided the city with long periods of hardship, but Fez has never died. It now boasts of being the oldest and largest medieval city in the world, remaining almost unchanged through the modern ages.

Neighbourhoods

• Fez el-Bali - the medina in the East
• Fez el-Jdid - the Mellah (Jewish Quarter) and the Royal Palace in the centre
• Ville Nouvelle - the administrative area built by the French in the southwest.

Sights and Activities

Tiles

© teethetrav

Fez is known for its crafts. Pottery, tiles, cloths, leather and silver products are all made and sold here in exactly the same way they were made a thousand years ago. If you wander through the medina, you could be fooled into thinking you have moved backwards in time. The narrow maze of streets have row after row of vendors selling everything and anything you can imagine. The traffic is pedestrian except for an occasional donkey cart. On the upper levels above the shops, wrought iron balconies remind you of the time when Morocco was occupied by France.

Events and Festivals

• Fes Festival of World Sacred Music - An event that takes place annually in June, the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music brings together the most well-known spiritual dances and songs. From whirling dervishes to chanters and mystics, it’s an intriguing look into culture and customs.

Weather

Located by the Atlas Mountains, Fez has a Mediterranean climate, shifting from cold and rain in the winter to dry and hot days in the summer months between June and September. The nights are always cool (or colder in winter). Rainfall averages around 640mm per year, snow can also fall in winter. The winter highs typically reach only 16 °C in December and January, with lows well above freezing. The highest and lowest temperatures ever recorded in the city are 46.7 °C and -9.2 °C, respectively, though average highs in summer are a more pleasant 30 °C to 35 °C on most days, with lows averaging between 15 °C and 20 °C.

Getting There

By Plane

Fez International Airport (international code: FEZ) serves a growing number of destinations. Royal Air Maroc flies to Casablanca and Paris, Atlas Blue (same website) flies to Marseille and Lyon, JetAirFly to Brussels and Charleroi, and Ryanair to Alicante, Sevilla, Brussels, Frankfurt, Girona), Marseille and Milan.

By Train

ONCF has trains to Tangier, Marrakech, Casablanca, Meknes, Rabat and Oujda, most of which go multiple times a day.

By Bus

CTM has regular buses to Casablanca, Meknes, Tangier, Tetouan, Oujda, Al Hoceima, Rabat and Marrakech, amongst other places. Eurolines has international services, mainly to Spain and France.

Eat

Like everywhere else in Morocco, the imperial city of Fez has plenty of small restaurants where you can get a delicious tajine for less than £3. A tajine is a clay pot filled with chicken, beef, goat’s meat and vegetables, stewed over a charcoal fire for about an hour. For dessert, order a pot of mint tea at one of the outdoor cafes. While sipping on your glass of hot tea, you can watch the locals on their evening stroll along the boulevard. Your cosy hotel is just a couple of minutes of walk away. Bear in mind that everything in Fes closes early. The restaurants and food stalls start packing up at 9:30pm, so if you want to enjoy a slow, relaxed dinner, go around 6pm.

Sleep

Upscale

Keep Connected

Internet

There are plenty of Cybercafes in cities and small towns and accessing the Internet won't be a problem. The price is around 4 to 10DH/ hour. If you have a laptop while traveling then you can buy a USB key for wireless connection from one of the 3 main telecommunication companies (Maroc Telecom, Meditel, and Inwi). Credits are available starting from 10DH/24 hours (starting from the time you use it, if you start at 2:00am then next day at 2:00am you will have to recharge it again). Wifi is getting more and more common in places like hotels, shopping malls and in restaurants and coffee places in larger cities. The wireless connection in some areas might be slow, that depends on the signal as not the whole of Morocco has 3G coverage.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

Morocco's country code is +212, International Call Prefix is 00. The telephone numbering scheme is changed starting March 2009. All fixed telephone numbers have a 5 inserted after the 0, and all mobile telephone numbers have a 6 inserted after the 0. All numbers are now ten-digit long, counting the initial 0. Useful numbers are Police: 19; Fire Service: 15; Highway Emergency Service: 177; Information: 160.

Public telephones can be found in city centres, but private telephone offices (also known as teleboutiques or telekiosques) are also commonly used.
The GSM mobile telephone network in Morocco can be accessed via one of two major operators: Meditel or Maroc Telecom. Prepaid cards are available. It is very easy and cheap to buy a local GSM prepaid card in one of the numberous phone shops showing a Maroc Telecom sign.

Post

Post Maroc is the national postal service of Morocco and has details on their website (French) regarding the sending of letters, postcards and parcels, both domestically and internationally. The postal service in Morocco is very efficient and the post offices are generally open Monday through Friday, from 8:30am to 12 noon and 2:30pm to 6:30pm. On Saturdays it is open from 8:30am to 2:00pm. Some might keep longer hours though, especially in larger tourist cities and central areas. You can post your mail at one of the post offices or otherwise in the yellow post boxes you'll find throughout the country. For packages, you can also use international courier companies like TNT, DHL or UPS. They offer quick, reliable services and competitive rates.

External Links