Home › Guides › Fez › Free Things to Do

Free Things to Do in Fez

Fez is generous to the budget traveller. The medina itself is free, the gardens are free, the viewpoints are free, and the best experiences — getting lost, watching craftsmen work, drinking in the views — cost nothing.

What's genuinely free, and what's worth the few dirhams anyway.

The medina: the world's best free sight

The main event costs nothing.

Photo: Straitgate, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The medina of Fes el-Bali is the largest living medieval city in the world, and walking it costs nothing. The lanes, the souks, the craft quarters, the street life — it's all free and it's the main event. Give it a full day, minimum, and don't rush.

The tanneries are free to view from the surrounding terraces (you'll be offered mint for the smell — take it). The craft quarters — Seffarine's metalworkers, the dyers, the weavers — are working streets, not attractions; watching is free, buying is optional.

Bab Boujloud, the Blue Gate, is free. The Mellah's streets are free. Getting gloriously, happily lost is free.

Keep reading: Gardens and viewpoints →

Gardens and viewpoints

Jnan Sbil gardens — the 19th-century royal garden between Fes el-Jdid and Fes el-Bali — are free and open daily. Fountains, shaded paths, 3,000 plant species, peacocks in the bird coops. Go at dusk when the local families arrive.

The viewpoints are free: Borj Nord and Borj Sud fortresses overlook the medina, and the Merenid Tombs give the classic panorama. Sunset from any of them is the best free show in Fez. The Royal Palace's seven doors are an exterior-only sight, but the doors themselves — and the square — are free.

Keep reading: Nearly free and worth it →

Nearly free and worth it

Photo: Blake Handley from Victoria, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Bou Inania and Al-Attarine madrasas charge small entry fees (a few dirhams) and are worth every one — but the exteriors, the lanes around them, and the general tilework-spotting are free.

The Sufi Festival's street programme and the Sacred Music Festival's free concerts (in season) are free. The souks' people-watching — the porters, the donkeys, the bargaining — is free and endless. And a glass of mint tea on any terrace, while not free, is the cheapest great experience in the city.

Practical tips

• The medina is free — the best sight in the city costs nothing to enter.
• Tannery viewpoints are free but the 'guides' expect a tip or a shop visit.
• Jnan Sbil gardens are free and open daily.
• Sunset viewpoints (Borj Nord, Merenid Tombs) are free; take a taxi up.

The best things in Fez never had a ticket. Walk, look, sit, drink tea — the city does the rest.

Host a free event in Fez? List it on Dayfari free →