What is Meknes like in spring?

Spring is the season I quietly send people to Meknes for, because the city wears it beautifully. Sitting inland on the fertile Saiss plateau, Meknes wakes from a damp winter into March with daytime highs in the high teens, then settles through April and May into a near-perfect 24–27°C, with mild nights of roughly 10–14°C. The rains that grey the winter taper off, the light turns golden and clean, and the great ochre walls of Moulay Ismail's imperial city glow against a sky that's finally blue.

What I love most is how the countryside frames the city in spring. Meknes is wine and olive country, ringed by some of Morocco's most fertile farmland, and after the winter rains the Saiss plains are a vivid carpet of green dotted with wildflowers and red poppies. Drive out to the Roman ruins of Volubilis — half an hour away and an essential pairing with Meknes — and you'll find the mosaics and toppled columns standing in waist-high grass and blossom, with storks nesting on the arches. It's one of the most photogenic combinations of season and place I know in the whole country.

Practically, spring makes the sightseeing effortless. You can spend a full morning walking the monumental Bab Mansour gate, the vast Heri es-Souani granaries and the mausoleum of Moulay Ismail without the energy-sapping heat that makes summer afternoons a slog. The medina — smaller, calmer and far less touristed than Fes just up the road — is a pleasure to wander, the cafés spill onto sunny terraces, and the locals are out enjoying the same fine weather you are. There's a relaxed, lived-in feel because mass tourism mostly skips Meknes.

My only honest caveat is that early spring still carries a tail of winter: a March visit can hand you a cold, wet day or two and chilly evenings, so I'd pack a warm layer and a light rain jacket alongside the t-shirts. By late April and May that risk is gone and you're in pure, reliable warmth. If you want the green landscapes, the wildflowers at Volubilis and the gentlest sightseeing weather, aim for April — it's my single favourite month to put Meknes in an itinerary.