Fes is the spiritual and craft capital of Morocco, and the city where a car is for moving around the medina rather than through it. Fes el Bali is a UNESCO site of thousands of lanes narrower than a loaded donkey; you go in on foot or not at all. So the driver here is logistics: dropping you at Bab Boujloud in the morning, collecting you at Bab Guissa in the afternoon, and moving the luggage while you get lost between the tanneries and the Bou Inania madrasa.
British visitors usually reach Fes one of two ways - a direct budget flight into Fes-Saiss, or the train up from Casablanca after a longer-haul arrival. Either way the city works as a base. Volubilis, the best-preserved Roman site in Morocco, is an hour away; Meknes and the holy town of Moulay Idriss Zerhoun sit on the same route.
South of the city the Middle Atlas climbs through the cedar forests of Ifrane and Azrou, where Barbary macaques live wild by the roadside, then drops through Midelt to the desert. It is a long day at the wheel on mountain roads that carry snow in winter, and it is the single strongest argument for a driver rather than a hire car.
Why hire a driver here
- The medina is entirely pedestrian - cars work at the gates only
- There is a real height difference between Bab Boujloud and Bab Guissa
- Volubilis and Meknes have no convenient public transport from Fes
- The Middle Atlas route to Merzouga carries snow above Ifrane in winter
- Streets around the Ville Nouvelle clog badly at rush hour
Included in every booking
- Fuel, tolls and the driver's fee
- Name-board pick-up at Fes-Saiss or the railway station
- Waiting at the medina gates while you explore
- Help finding a riad deep inside the medina
- English-speaking drivers on request
