Day 2: Fes
Breakfast
Our stay included a decent breakfast buffet with a variety of options; fruit, pastries, meats, breads, and some Moroccan salads. We then headed to the train station to buy our tickets for Fes. We purchased them a few hours before departure and had no issues getting first class seats. You’ll definitely want to have first class tickets for a more comfortable trip, especially since the ride to Fes is a bit over 3 hours. If you have some extra time, the train to Fes stops at Rabat, another city worth checking out.
Finally we made it to Fes around 1pm and luckily our riad offered a transfer from the station. Since it’s located within the old medina, it would have taken us awhile to navigate the winding maze to get there.
The path to our riad
The entrance of Le Jardin des Biehn
Where to Stay
We booked 2 nights at Le Jardin des Biehn and it was simply incredible. It’s priced around $200 per night depending on the room. The grounds were like a dreamy magical garden, lit up so beautifully at night with Moroccan lanterns. I chose the African room, which had it’s own private garden area, a balcony, another indoor sitting room and the feeling of being it’s own little villa.
Guided Tour
After relaxing and sipping on some mint tea, our guide arrived to give us a 4.5 hour tour of the old Fes medina. I booked it ahead of time through the riad, cost was around $40 including tips. He took us through a significant part of the medina, as well as some shops we had requested to visit towards the end. To see more about this tour (and interesting carpet shop story) please see our list of reasons to visit Fes.
Shops in Fes medina
Beautiful door in Fes
Dinner:
Le Jardin des Biehn has an excellent restaurant called Fez Cafe. We chose a few dishes to split and they were delicious, a more modern twist on traditional Moroccan food. The wait was quite long since it was busy, but they allowed us to wait in our room since it was only a few steps away. Overall ambiance of the restaurant was divine, it felt like a quiet retreat amongst the busy chaos of the medina. It was beautifully lit and the scent of the fresh garden air was all around, a wonderful way to end our first night in Fes.
8 comments
This itinerary sounds perfect. I’ve saved it to use when we eventually go there. So many amazing experiences to look forward to.
Thanks Wendy! It was one of our most memorable trips yet. Such a gorgeous country and perfect for families 🙂
Hi! Great details – Thanks for sharing! Traveling to Morocco in February 2021. Our son will be a few weeks shy of 4 years old. How old was your daughter on this trip? How did she do on the camel? Did she keep her turban on? What did you do about protecting her during sand storms? Thanks for your help 🙂
Thanks for stopping by 🙂 Our daughter was only 3 when we went, and she had a blast. She was fine on the camel, she rode in front of one of us, although didn’t keep on the turban. We used the turban like a scarf mask to cover her face and mouth during the storm. But she handled it like a champ. It was so much more of a family-friendly country than we expected, you’ll love it! Hope you have an awesome time!
Wonderful! And thank you for the response. I have been in contact with Brahim from http://www.Marrakech-Camel-trips.com via email about our trip. Two questions – Did you wire/PayPal a deposit of 100 Euros to book? I have only seen one other review online that required the same deposit, so I’m just checking for my own safety 🙂 Also, which hotel did you stay at/leave your luggage in Merzouga? Brahim offered “Riad nezha or *riad Madou or similar”. We are going to stay an extra night before our departure to the desert and an extra night returning from the desert, so I wanted to check which accommodation you preferred.
Hi Stephanie! Yes we did pay a deposit of 100 Euros through Paypal, so that’s legit. Then we paid the rest in cash in person. We had a wonderful experience with Brahim and our tour through them. And this post isn’t sponsored or anything, just pure honesty 🙂 We didn’t stay overnight in Merzouga. We actually did the 3 day tour from Fez to Marrakech with a stop overnight in the desert. So I can’t say much about hotels there. But I will say we enjoyed all the hotels we stayed at through this tour, so I think you’d be fine with any of their recommendations. We are dying to go back to Morocco again soon, hope you have a wonderful time. And feel free to ask any additional questions 🙂
Morocco is a great place for a family trip.
Yes it definitely was! Can’t wait to go back 🙂