Fes is Morocco's cultural capital and usually the second stop for South Africans, after Marrakech or straight off the Johannesburg flight into Casablanca. It is also where the gap between a driver and a hire car opens widest. Fes el Bali is a walled medieval quarter of roughly 9,000 lanes, not one of which admits a vehicle. You never drive to your riad in Fes; you drive to a gate and walk.
That single fact rearranges the entire arrival. With a hire car you have to pick the right gate out of moving traffic, find somewhere to leave the vehicle for several days, and then walk into a maze you have never seen carrying your bags. With a driver you stop at the gate serving your riad, the luggage comes out, and the car vanishes until you want it.
Worth knowing before you land: your driver cannot legally guide you inside the medina. Moroccan law licenses tour guides as a separate profession and enforces it. Drivers own the road, the logistics and the country between cities; Fes el Bali itself needs a licensed guide for half a day, which we arrange on request.
Why hire a driver here
- Fes el Bali walks only - some 9,000 lanes and not a drivable one
- Landing on the correct gate saves fifteen minutes of walking with cases
- With a vehicle Volubilis, Meknes and Moulay Idriss are simple; without one, awkward
- Southwards the road climbs the Middle Atlas then drops down the Ziz Gorge
- Guides carry a separate licence - we arrange one alongside the car
Included in every booking
- Fuel, tolls and the driver's fee for the agreed route
- Airport, riad gate, hotel or railway station pickup
- English-speaking drivers as standard on the South African site
- Help with luggage as far as the entrance of the derb
- Bottled water and phone charging in the vehicle
