Destination
Nine thousand streets, no cars, and the oldest working university in the world. Fez is the northern gate to the desert road.
Routes
3 routes go through here.
Fez el-Bali is a UNESCO site and the largest car-free urban area anywhere, which sounds like a statistic until you are inside it and a man with a donkey shouts balak and you learn very quickly what it means. We use a licensed local guide here — not an upsell, a legal requirement in the medina, and honestly the difference between seeing the tanneries and finding them.
The day covers the Al Qaraouiyine university, founded in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri and still teaching, the Bou Inania madrasa, and the Chouara tanneries, where you are handed a sprig of mint at the door and will understand why within about four seconds.
From Fez the road south runs through Ifrane, the cedar forest at Azrou where the macaques are, Midelt and then the Ziz valley — a long driving day, the longest on most of our routes, and the one where the landscape changes completely.
