Fes, Morocco — Travel Tips
Getting There By Air
Fes - Saiss International Airport (FEZ)
Tel: (212) 3562 4800 or 3562 4799 or 090 000 800 (call center).
Website: www.onda.org.ma
Fes Airport is located at Saiss, 15km (9 miles), south of the city center. It serves domestic and European destinations and is a hub for Royal Air Maroc and British Airways, as well as low cost carriers such as Ryanair and Atlas Blue. Fez can be reached in 45 minutes by plane from Casablanca, in 3 hours from London or Paris, and via overnight service from New York.
Airport facilities: The airport is small, with limited facilities. These include currency exchange, ATMs, shops, a restaurant and cafe, and car hire from major national and local operators including Avis, Europcar and Hertz.
Transport to the city: Taxis connect the airport to the city; taxi ranks are outside the terminal building to the left. There is a bus stop not far from the airport (2 to 3 minutes away) and a service into the city runs every hour.
Getting There By Road
Emergency breakdown services
There is no general breakdown service - hire cars should have emergency breakdown details on board. For highway emergency services tel: 15. If you are involved in a road accident, wait for the police to arrive.
Coach services
There are bus terminals in the Ville Nouvelle and by the various gates to the Medina, but arrivals from most destinations drop at the main bus station (gare routière), just north of Bab Mahrouk. CTM (tel: 0535 622041: www.ctm.ma) runs bus services between towns in Morocco and abroad and drops passengers at their office on the corner of rue Tetouan and avenue Mohammed V in the Ville Nouvelle.
Getting There By Rail
Rail Services
Fès’s striking new railway station, Ville Nouvelle, opened in 2009 and features a number of shops and modern facilities.
Rail Operators
You can travel to Fès by train. From London, take the Eurostar to Paris; catch the TGV to Algeciras, Spain, changing at Irun on the Spanish border. Although the train operator is SNCF, tickets may be purchased from European Rail Ltd (tel: (020) 7619 1083; www.europeanrail.com) and Rail Europe (tel: 0844 848 4064; www.raileurope.co.uk).
Office National des Chemins de Fer (ONCF) (tel: 0890 20 30 40; www.oncf.ma) is Morocco's national railway operator. Fast trains shuttles (TNR) and air-conditioned express trains connect the main cities in the north-western part of the country: Fès, Meknès, Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech.
Connections
From Marrakech – 7 hours; Meknes – 1 hour; Tangier – 5 hours; Casablanca – 4 hours.
Getting Around in Fes, Morocco
Public Transport
Local buses, which tend to be crowded but run regularly, connect the Ville Nouvelle with various parts of the old city. Route numbers are marked on the side of the buses. Some useful ones include bus 9 (place Atlas in Ville nouvelle to near the Dar Batha Museum); bus 12 (Bab Boujeloud to Bab Ftouh, the Medina's southeast gate, Fès el-Bali); bus 19 (railway station to Place er-Rsif, central Fès el-Bali). The only practical way of getting around the medina is on foot. (You can get taxis from all the gates of the medina.) All hotels/riads should provide essential medina maps locating their property and thus assisting you. Do not underestimate the importance of this map; the medina is extraordinarily difficult to negotiate. You may wish to hire an official guide. Do this through your hotel/riad and not on the street.
Taxis
There are two types of taxis: the small, red petits taxis operate within the city limits, tend to be metered and are inexpensive, only carrying three passengers. Grands taxis are bigger and travel fixed routes from Fès to outlying areas mostly from the main bus station (gare routière). Both types of taxis are often shared and drivers may wait until the taxi is full before departing. You can ask to have a petit taxi to yourself.
Driving in the City
Driving to Fès by car involves a long journey across Europe to Algeciras, from where frequent ferries depart for Tangier or Ceuta. Parking is widely available throughout the Ville Nouvelle. If you stay in car-less Fès el-Bali you can leave your vehicle in the small car park south of Bab Boujeloud, just a few minutes walk from the old medina.
Car Hire
Fès has many car rental companies, including Avis, (tel: 0535 626 969; www.avis.ma), Budget (tel: 0535 940 092; www.budget.com), Europcar (tel: 0535 626 545; www.europcar.ma) and Hertz (tel: 0535 622 812; website: www.hertz.com).
