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Getting lost in the Fes medina

Fes

Nine thousand alleys, no cars and no reliable map. How to enjoy the world’s largest car-free city without a guide.

Fes el-Bali, the old medina, is a thousand years old and has more than 9,000 lanes. Your phone’s map will give up within minutes. That is part of the point: the best way to see it is to wander, get lost, and ask a shopkeeper the way out.

Follow your nose to the Chouara tannery, where leather is still dyed in stone vats (the shops around it will lend you mint to hold under your nose and try to sell you a jacket). Look into the Al-Qarawiyyin mosque, founded in 859, and eat bissara, a fava bean soup, for breakfast from a cart near Bab Boujloud.

Dealing with “guides”

Young men will offer to show you the way, and expect payment. A firm, friendly “no thank you” works. If you want a guide, book an official one through your riad for about 300 dirhams for half a day.