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ORIENTATION AND ARRIVAL |
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Even if you'd felt you were getting accustomed to Moroccan cities, Fes is likely to prove bewildering. The basic layout is simple enough, with a Moroccan
Medina
and French-built
Ville Nouvelle
, but here the Medina comprises two separate cities:
Fes El Bali
(Old Fes), down in the pear-shaped bowl of the Sebou valley, and
Fes El Djedid
(New Fes), established on the edge of the valley during the thirteenth century.
Fes El Djedid
, dominated by a vast enclosure of royal palaces and gardens, is relatively straightforward.
Fes El Bali
, however, where you'll want to spend most of your time, is an incredibly intricate web of lanes, blind alleys and souks. It takes two or three days before you even start to feel confident in where you're going, and on an initial visit you may well want to pay for a guide to show you the main sights and layout. The learning process is not helped, either, by the fact that most of the streetsigns are in Arabic only.
Fes's
tourist office
, the ONMT's
Délégation de Tourisme
, is in Immeuble Bennani at the corner of Avenue Moulay Youssef at Place de la Résistance aka La Fiat (tel 05/562 3460; Mon-Fri 8.30am-noon & 2.30-6.30pm). There is also a
Syndicat d'Initiative
on the east side of Place Mohammed V, which is open the same hours plus Saturday mornings 9am-noon.
By train
The train station (tel 05/562 5001) is in the Ville Nouvelle, ten minutes' walk from the concentration of hotels around Place Mohammed V. If you prefer to stay in Fes El Bali, either take a petit taxi, or bus #10 or #47 to Bab Boujeloud, where most of the...
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By bus
Coming in by bus can be confusing, since there are terminals in both the Ville Nouvelle and by the various gates to the Medina. However, coming from most destinations, you will probably arrive at the main
bus station
or
gare routière
...
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By grands taxis
Like buses, grands taxis mostly operate from the
gare routière
outside Bab Mahrouk. Exceptions are those from
Immouzer, Ifrane
and
Azrou
(and sometimes Marrakesh), which use a rank opposite the CTM office, 100m west of...
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Petits taxis and city buses
Petits taxis
in Fes generally use their meters, so they're very good value; after 9.30pm, there's a fifty-percent surcharge on top of the meter price.
Useful petit taxi ranks include:
Place Mohammed V (Ville Nouvelle).
Main PTT on Av....
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By air
Fes's tiny
airport
is 15km south of the city, at Saïs, off the P24 to Immouzer (tel 05/562 4800), and is most easily reached by chartering a grand taxi from the
gare routière
, though you can also get to it on bus #16 from the train...
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By car
Be prepared for "motorbike guides" - Morocco's most annoying hustlers - who haunt the approach roads to Fes, attach themselves to tourist cars and insist on escorting you to a hotel. They can be deeply unpleasant and are not best countered by...
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