What's the best area to stay in Fes?

When people ask me where to base themselves in Fes, my honest first answer is almost always the same: stay inside Fes el-Bali, the old walled medina, in a converted riad. Fes is a city you experience by being lost in it, and waking up behind a studded wooden door in a tiled courtyard, with the call to prayer rolling across the rooftops, is half the reason to come. The Ville Nouvelle (the French-built new town) has tidy modern hotels and is easier for cars, but it is a taxi ride from everything you actually came to see, and you lose the atmosphere entirely.

Within the medina, the area I steer first-timers toward is the western edge around Bab Boujloud, the famous Blue Gate, and the main artery of Talaa Kebira that runs down from it. This is the most navigable slice of an impossibly complex city — you can find your way back to the gate, there are landmarks and food stalls, and you are walking distance from the Bou Inania medersa and the bulk of the souks. Riads here range from simple, characterful guesthouses to genuinely grand restored merchant houses; for a sense of the type, places like Riad Fes, Palais Amani or the smaller Dar Bensouda show what a beautiful Fassi courtyard house can be.

If your priority is quiet and a rooftop view rather than being in the thick of the bustle, look higher up the slopes toward the Andalusian quarter (Adwa) on the far side of the river, or to riads perched on the medina's upper edges. From up there the terraces look out over the whole sea of green-tiled roofs toward the hills, and the lanes are calmer. The trade-off is honest: you walk further, often uphill, to reach the main sights, and the climb home at the end of a long day in the heat is real. For travellers who value calm and panorama over being central, it is worth it.

My honest guidance: book a riad in the medina, not the new town, and pick its position to match your style — near Bab Boujloud if you want to be central and find your way easily on a first visit, higher up the Andalusian or upper-medina slopes if you want quiet and views. Almost every good riad will arrange a porter to meet you at the nearest vehicle gate, because cars cannot reach most doors and the lanes defeat newcomers with luggage. Whichever you choose, confirm exactly where it sits and how you reach it on arrival, since "in the medina" can mean a five-minute or a twenty-minute walk from the nearest taxi.