Fez, MA

The rooftop restaurant of the Palais Faraj, plating refined Moroccan and Mediterranean dishes from a terrace with a sweeping view over the whole medina. The city's standout special-occasion dinner, setting and food in equal measure.

A beautiful traditional dar in the medina where the kitchen plates Franco-Moroccan cooking with a Parisian-bistro polish, served in a candlelit courtyard. The grown-up, romantic medina dinner with genuine culinary ambition.

A restaurant set in the atmospheric ruins of a collapsed courtyard house, all wildflowers and crumbling walls, serving modern Moroccan small plates by day and dishes like slow-roasted lamb by night. The most charming setting for a meal in the medina.

An ambitious tasting-menu restaurant in the medina built on hyper-local, seasonal Moroccan ingredients reworked with avant-garde technique, in a stark minimalist room. The most forward-thinking kitchen in the city, for those who want a culinary event.

A welcoming riad restaurant near the R'cif Mosque doing diffa, the Moroccan banquet style, with freshly made Fassi tagines, pastilla, and breads at fair prices in a courtyard setting. Traditional feasting without the inflated medina markups.

A cross-cultural cafe spread over a tall medina house near Bou Inania, a Fez institution for all-day breakfasts, the famous camel burger, and an eclectic Moroccan-international menu. As much a cultural hub of music and classes as a place to eat.

A simple, friendly spot just inside Bab Boujloud turning out honest tagines, brochettes, and grilled food at budget prices to a constant flow of travelers and locals. The reliable cheap, filling medina meal when you do not want a production.

The rooftop terrace of a lovely restored riad, serving a Mediterranean-leaning bistro menu and a classic three-course Moroccan menu of pastilla, tagine, and couscous with medina views. A calm, polished dinner open to non-guests.

A bustling old-school cafe in the Ville Nouvelle where Fassi families come for coffee, fresh juices, and pastries amid the everyday life of the new town. The unvarnished local coffee stop away from the medina's tourist terraces.

A short climb to the ruined Marinid royal tombs on the hillside north of the medina, where the crumbling mausoleums frame the single best panorama over the whole old city. The classic walk for sunset over Fes el-Bali.

A 16th-century hilltop fortress on the south side of the valley, reached by a walk up through olive groves to a viewpoint facing the medina from the opposite ridge. Quieter than the northern tombs and a fine alternative panorama.

A restored 18th-century royal garden between the old and new medinas, with shaded avenues of mature trees, a lake, and fountains fed by the Fez river. The city's only real green lung and a flat, calm escape from the lanes.

A walk along stretches of the great medieval walls and gates that ring the old city, from Bab Guissa around toward Bab Ftouh, looking down over the medina and out to the surrounding hills. A way to grasp the scale of Fes el-Bali from its edge.

A museum of Moroccan arts and crafts inside a 19th-century Hispano-Moorish palace, strong on the blue-and-white Fassi ceramics the city is famous for, set around a tranquil Andalusian garden. The setting and the pottery collection are both worth the visit.

A museum of traditional Moroccan woodwork housed in a beautifully restored 18th-century fondouk, or caravanserai, on Nejjarine Square. The carved-balcony building around its courtyard is as impressive as the instruments and furniture inside.

A weapons museum inside the 16th-century Borj Nord fortress on the hill above the medina, with arms from across the centuries and, just outside, a commanding view over the old city. History and panorama in one stop.

A traditional steam-and-scrub bath, the centuries-old Moroccan ritual of black soap, exfoliating glove, and rinsing in hot tiled rooms, offered in local public hammams and private medina spas alike. The restorative end to a long, dusty day in the lanes.

A hands-on half-day learning to make Fassi specialties like pastilla, tagine, and bread with local cooks, often beginning with a guided shop through the souks. A delicious, sociable way to take a piece of Fez home.

A large pottery and zellij cooperative on the edge of the city where you can watch artisans throw, paint, and hand-cut the blue Fassi ceramics and mosaic tiles the city is known for, from raw clay to finished fountain. A genuine working workshop, not a staged demo.

A vast, faded 19th-century palace of the powerful Glaoui family, partly restored and shown by the family's caretakers, a warren of decaying salons, painted ceilings, and courtyards. A more raw, atmospheric palace visit than the polished museums.

A grand 19th-century parade ground and gate by the royal palace that serves as the spectacular open-air stage for the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music and other concerts. Worth timing a visit around if a performance lands during your stay.

The walled old city of Fez, the largest car-free urban area in the world, a labyrinth of some 9,000 lanes packed with mosques, workshops, and souks unchanged for centuries. Getting hopelessly lost in it is the whole point, and the experience the city is built on.

A 14th-century Marinid religious college widely held to be the finest in Morocco, a small courtyard sheathed in carved cedar, stucco, marble, and zellij. Rare among the city's religious buildings, non-Muslims are welcome inside.

Founded in 859 and recognized as the oldest continuously operating university in the world, now a vast working mosque at the spiritual heart of the medina. Non-Muslims cannot enter, but you can glimpse the grand courtyard from its many doorways.

The city's largest medieval tannery, a honeycomb of stone vats where hides are still dyed by hand in the same way for a thousand years, best seen from the leather-shop balconies above. A vivid, pungent, genuinely medieval spectacle.

The grand ornamental gate marking the western entrance to the old medina, tiled blue on the outside and green on the inside, framing a view straight up to two minarets. The classic threshold into Fes el-Bali and a constant meeting point.

A small but exquisite 14th-century Marinid college near the Qarawiyyin and the spice souk, packed with some of the finest zellij, carved plaster, and cedar in the city. Often overshadowed by Bou Inania, and quieter for it.

The shrine and tomb of the city's founder, one of the holiest sites in Morocco, hidden deep in the medina behind decorated walls and a wooden bar that once marked its sacred precinct. Non-Muslims cannot enter but can peer into the dazzling interior from the doorways.

The royal palace of Fez in the Fes el-Jdid quarter, closed to visitors but famous for its monumental gates, seven huge brass doors set in carved cedar and zellij framing an open square. The gates alone are one of the city's great photo stops.

A restored 17th-century synagogue in the Mellah, the old Jewish quarter, with painted woodwork, a stone Torah ark, and a mikvah bath in the cellar. A poignant, well-preserved window into a community that has all but left the city.

A small, beautiful medina square centered on an ornately tiled public fountain, flanked by the old carpenters' souk and a restored caravanserai. One of the prettiest corners of Fes el-Bali and the heart of its woodworking quarter.