Where do I buy pottery and ceramics (Safi, Fes)?

If ceramics are what you are after, the two names to know are Safi and Fes, and they are genuinely different traditions. Safi, on the Atlantic coast, is the workshop of the nation — a whole hillside quarter of potteries and wood-fired kilns, the Colline des Potiers, where you can watch the wheels turn and the painters work, then buy straight from the source. The volume there means prices are the best in Morocco, and it is where most of the colourful tagines, bowls and platters you see everywhere actually originate.

Fes is the prestige end. The city is famous for its deep cobalt "bleu de Fès" pottery, painted with fine geometric and floral patterns, and for zellij — the hand-cut, hand-laid mosaic tilework that decorates fountains, tabletops and trays. The potters’ cooperatives outside the medina walls, around Ain Nokbi, let you watch the entire process, from throwing and glazing to the painstaking chiselling of mosaic tesserae. Fassi pieces cost more, but they are heirloom-grade and instantly recognisable.

In practice, where you buy depends on what you want to carry home and how. Marrakech and the medina souks sell pottery from both places, conveniently but with a markup and less choice of the finest work. If your route runs through Safi or Essaouira’s coast, the Safi potteries are worth the stop for everyday pieces and the joy of buying at the kiln. If you are in Fes anyway, the cooperatives there are the place for the blue ware and a serious mosaic platter or table.

My honest, practical advice: ceramics are heavy and breakable, so be realistic. Check glazed tableware is lead-safe before you eat off it — reputable cooperatives and modern kilns use food-safe glazes, but unbranded decorative pieces may not be intended for food. Tap a piece and look for hairline cracks, buy from established workshops rather than market stalls for anything fine, and have larger or fragile items professionally packed and shipped rather than wrestling them into hand luggage.