What can you do in Fes in one day?

Fes rewards a focused day, and the focus should be almost entirely on Fes el-Bali — the great medieval medina, one of the largest car-free urban areas on earth and a UNESCO World Heritage maze of some nine thousand lanes. You will not "see it all" in a day and you shouldn't try; the magic of Fes is depth, not coverage. With limited time I strongly recommend a licensed local guide for at least the morning, because the medina genuinely is a labyrinth and a guide turns confusion into revelation, threading you efficiently between the highlights.

Begin at the Bab Boujloud, the ornate "Blue Gate," and plunge into the medina. The architectural showstoppers come quickly: the Bou Inania Madrasa, a 14th-century Quranic school of breathtaking carved cedar, stucco and zellige tilework, and the smaller but exquisite Al-Attarine Madrasa near the spice and perfume souk. You'll pass the Al-Qarawiyyin, often cited as the world's oldest continually operating university and a working mosque — non-Muslims admire it from the doorways and surrounding lanes rather than entering. Let the senses lead between these: the coppersmiths' square, the spice mounds, the dyers' lanes.

The unmissable Fes experience is the Chouara tanneries — the medieval leather works where hides are still cured in stone vats of natural dye exactly as they were centuries ago. You view them from the terraces of the surrounding leather shops, who hand you a sprig of mint for the smell and hope you'll buy a jacket or babouches afterwards (no obligation, but it's the etiquette of the view). The honeycomb of coloured pits, with workers wading between them, is one of the most photographed and genuinely astonishing sights in Morocco. It's the moment most people remember Fes by.

For lunch, settle into one of the medina's beautiful riad restaurants — Fes does grand, ornate courtyard dining superbly — and try a local speciality like pastilla, the sweet-savoury pigeon (or chicken) pie dusted with cinnamon and sugar that the city is famous for. Afterwards, browse the artisan quarters: Fes is Morocco's craft capital, so the pottery, the brass, the weaving and especially the leather are exceptional. As the day cools, drive or climb up to the Marinid Tombs or the Borj Nord viewpoint on the hills above the city for a sweeping sunset panorama over the whole medina — the call to prayer rising from a thousand minarets across the bowl of the old city is unforgettable.

My one-day formula for Fes: a guided morning through the Blue Gate, madrasas and souks to the tanneries; a riad lunch with pastilla; an afternoon of craft browsing; and a sunset viewpoint to take in the scale of what you've just walked through. It's intense and wonderful — and if you can stretch to a second day, our short Fes itinerary lets you go deeper into the artisan workshops and the calmer corners most day-trippers miss.