Best Rainy Day Activities in Fes When the Weather Turns
Words by
Fatima El Amrani
I have lived in Fes for thirty seven years. I have watched rain turn our medina streets into rivers of red clay. I have seen tourists stare at grey skies and pull out their phones. The best rainy day activities in Fes are not something you search for on a screen. They are already here, waiting inside the walls that have sheltered Fes for twelve centuries.
Inside the Bou Inania Madrasa
The Bou Inania Madrasa sits on Talaa Kebira, the main artery feeding life into the medina. Rain slides off its carved cedar roof and disappears into channels that engineers designed in 1351. That water system still works. You can stand in the central courtyard and listen to rain hammering the zellige tiles while dry air wraps around you.
Order nothing here. Look up instead. The stucco calligraphy above the prayer niche contains Quranic verses written in a hand so fine that scholars argue which master carved it. Morning light, even on cloudy days, turns the green and turquoise tiles into something electric. Every diagonal pattern means something. The eight pointed star repeats because it represents the eight gates to paradise.
The Vibe? Quiet and close to sacred. Other visitors lower their voices without being asked.
The Standout? The Marinid era carved stucco in the upper gallery that most people walk past because the stairs look narrow.
The Catch? You cannot photograph the prayer room. The sign is only in Arabic and the guard will remind you firmly.
Visit between nine and eleven in the morning. The tour groups arrive at noon and the courtyard disappears under their umbrellas. A detail that most tourists would not know: the fountain in the center connects to the same water channel network that supplies the nearby Kissariat al Kifah marketplace overhead. That network is still maintained by a family of water engineers whose last name is in no guidebook.
The madrasa connects to Fes in this way: it was the brain before the internet. Theology, law, astronomy, mathematics, all taught under one roof by professors who traveled from Baghdad and Cordoba. Bring a towel for wet shoes at the entrance. The stone floors do not forgive a slip.
Tea and Books at Café Clock
Café Clock sits deep in the medina near Bab Rcif square, on Derb El Magana street. The rooftop has the minaret of the Zawiya of Moulay Idris II in one direction and the Alaouite arches of the Bou Inania minaret in the other. Rain clouds turn those views into something a painter would not dare to fake. The original medieval water clock on the upper terrace is not original to the building. It was reconstructed in 2004 as a cultural project after the old mechanism and its thirteen bronze bowls disappeared during colonial administration. The reconstruction keeps the memory alive even if the engineering is modern.
The best time to visit is any time except Friday noon. Early afternoon on weekends fills the place with students from the nearby Qarawiyyin library area, and the rooftop seats vanish. Order the camel burger with a fresh mint lemonade. It is serious food, not a gimmick. The camel meat is halal and pan seared with cumin and a thin layer of harissa. An average meal runs between 70 and 120 dirhams depending on the portion and drinks. Ask to see the small art gallery on the first landing with rotating local artists. That connects to the broader character of Fes, where craftsmen unions still control quality standards that a government agency in another country would abandon.
A detail that most tourists would not know: the back staircase leads to a narrow terrace that the staff use for drying laundry. That terrace gives a flat roof view onto the Qarawiyyin minaret. Nobody advertises it because the railing is low. Ask politely. They might say yes if the wind is down. The place lives and breathes the Fes medina identity more genuinely than some new restaurants that pretend to be riads from another era.
Get Lost in the Henna Souk near Bab Bou Jeloud
In Fes, the indoor activities continue even outside. The Henna Souk opens off Talaa Sghira, the lower main street, right before your feet would hit the dirt if you tried to cross a wet courtyard. The roof is a patchwork of corrugated metal, reed mats, and faded awnings. Rain on that roof sounds like a drum solo. The sellers ignore it. They have been sitting in this corridor for generations.
The ground floor of the Chrabliyine quarter around the souk was historically the leather perfume and cosmetics district. Henna, kohl, rose water, and khol containers made of hammered tin. An old woman near the far end sells pure henna paste mixed with lemon juice and essential oil. Buy a small container for around 20 dirhams if you trust the vendor. Avoid any station offering glitter "black henna" tattoos. Real henna is orange brown, not black with PPD.
The best time to visit is late morning. By lunch, the sound of rain overhead brings everyone under the cover and the aisles compress into a single file negotiation lane. The crowding is intense but the conversation is better. Shopkeepers are bolder with discounts because they talk more quietly when the rain is loud.
A detail that most tourists would not know: the Henna Souk follows the exact path of an old water channel that fed the tanneries beyond Place Seffarin. You can see the depression in the central flagstones. That waterway fed the Chouara Tanneries and several dye houses before being rerouted in the 1960s to reduce fungal loads in the leather rooms. The rain still finds old shadows.
Pray and Breathe at the Qarawiyyin Library
The Qarawiyyin Library sits inside the University of al Qarawiyyin complex on the left bank of the Fes River. The entrance from the Place Seffarin side is wooden double doors under a carved archway that was re gilded by artisans whose families live in the surrounding alleyways. Carved ivory and thin sheets of metal meet you at eye level. The building was founded in 859 by Fatima al Fihri, and that fact means the oldest continuously operating university library on earth sits right here, a five minute walk from a leather dyer with red stained forearms.
Non Muslims and women can enter certain halls during the current restoration windows, but confirm the hours before walking. Last year the morning access was eight thirty until eleven and afternoon access was two thirty until four. When rain hits, this is where the city hides. Inside, the air smells of leather resin and old paper resin. Look for a ninth century Quran manuscript displayed near the central reading area. The calligraphy is Kufic script, angular and unbowed by time.
A detail that most tourists would not know: the restoration team in 2016 found an underground drainage canal running beneath the main reading room. Medieval engineers dug it out to channel river surge away from paper stores in the lower levels. Some of those channels connect to the same network under Place Seffarin. The smell of old books and wet stone starts to mean something. Donations for library preservation are accepted if you catch a manager at the help desk. Ask about the printing archive on the upper floor. That printing tradition ties Fes to Gutenberg's era. North African scriptoria were already experimenting with metal type from waste bronze in the thirteenth century.
Souk el Henna becomes a microcosm of Fes
Rain drives the leather sellers from the courtyard into the side corridors. The smell intensifies. Carbolic acid and pigeon droppings and tannin hit your sinuses in waves. After a while that smell fades. Then you smell saffron from the next section. The leather section leads to the carved wood section, then into the hemp rope and basket alley, then into copper workers tapping out rhythm with no speaker needed. Souk el Henna and the surrounding alleys are where the indoor sights of Fes compress into one circuit you can cover in two slow hours.
At the far end of the corridor, a wood carver in his sixties works on a panel for a door in the Andalusian quarter. His left hand has two fingers missing. His right hand is faster than any machine. Ask to see his tools. He will lay them out on a cloth: fishtail gouges he forged himself, chisels that look medieval, a homemade mallet with an olive wood head. The carving section connects to the broader character of Fes like this: these wooden panels form the geometrical backbone of most interiors in the old city. Cedar beams, carved moucharabieh screens, ceiling rosettes.
The best time to visit is after one in the morning when tour groups have not yet arrived and the shopkeepers are fresh, or after four in the afternoon when they want to close a deal. A meal in one of the back alleys near Souk el Henna runs between 40 and 90 dirhams. Some places serve bowl vegetable couscous in reused cans. Others have proper china. Ask where the locals are eating. Crowd is currency in this market.
A detail that most tourists would not know: the beams in the roofing over the Henna Souk corridor were once ship masts from the old port at Sebta, modern Ceuta. When the Spanish reclaimed Ceuta in the seventeenth century, shipbreaking operations sold the salvage wood south to Fes to cover souk roofs. Many of those beams show old iron nail holes from rigging stands. Run your hand along the interior underside of any beam at the southern end. Old iron smells different from new steel.
The Hammam Experience
Public hammams in Fes are stone sweat rooms with underground furnaces, domed ceilings with star shaped vents that fog when pressure shifts outside. The best rainy day things to do in Fes all lead here eventually because damp stone and damp skin meet without apology. Hammam Mermaid on Derb El Miter and Hammam Chami both offer mixed gender family sessions, or women only hours, but verify. Schedules shift with the season and the political winds around public hammam prayer hours.
Order a package with black ghassoul soap and a rough glove exfoliation called a kessa. That combination costs between 50 and 120 dirhams depending on whether you include a mask and massage soap upgrade with eucalyptus or argan. The technique: steam for fifteen minutes until you drip, paste with ghassoul on your skin for ten minutes, then scrub with the kessa until your skin turns the color of roasted lamb. That is a good thing. Follow with a bucket rinse at the corner tap. Some hammams offer extra argan oil for after. Pay for it.
The Standout? The moment the ghassoul dries between steam rounds. Your skin tightens and you feel a high like no sauna in a resort can match.
The Catch? The changing room has communal clothing piles. Bring your own towel and flip flops and strip downstairs.
The best time to visit is mid week, late morning, before the afternoon rush of housewives and midwives and neighborhood aunties. Fridays around noon are where the real social sorting happens. Who is seen with whom. Which family sends only the boy. A detail that most tourists would not know: the black soap bar was traditionally used for washing hair as well as skin. Modern tourists often carry shampoo that the hammam women find laughable. Get a small cup of ghassoul and use it on your scalp. Your hair will go seven days without getting oily, like magic. The hammam relates to the broader character of Fes in this way: the building was once free, paid for by a waqf religious endowment. The furnace burns olive pit waste from the surrounding presses. Nothing is wasted. Heat is distributed through clay pipe channels under the floor.
Hands on Pottery at Ain Nokbi Workshops
The Ain Nokbi quarter sits on the northern plateau above the medina where potters have worked since at least the eleventh century. Rain turns the ochre clay piles outside each workshop into mud slide material, but inside the roofs hold tight. Pottery workshops dot the streets between the Marinid Tombs viewpoint and the Bab Ftouh bus station. Look for the kilns. The chimney smoke gives cousins away.
Pay a visit to the cooperative near the old water tower, where firing happens on Tuesday and Friday. The potters will let you turn a small bowl on the wheel if you arrive before ten in the morning, when the clay is wet enough to be forgiving. After that, the afternoon scraping and trimming hour is less fun for amateurs. Prices run between 80 and 250 dirhams for a finished painted plate, depending on size and glaze. A small hand turned bowl to take home, if the potter trusts you, might cost 60 dirhams.
The best time to visit is early morning on a market day, Tuesday or Thursday, when the kilns came alive yesterday and the potters have finished inventory. Ask about the cobalt blue pigment. That blue comes from a special ore once imported from the Sahara caravans, now sourced sometimes from industrial cobalt oxide from Europe. The old and new coexist. Each dish connects to Fes this way: the famous blue and white Fassi pottery was once a symbol of wealth. Only a merchant with a successful Sahara caravan investment could afford the cobalt overload on every dish.
A detail that most tourists would not know: the circular scars you see on many courtyards in the old city, those shallow round craters in the paving, come from large amphora jars. The jars were used as water coolers by lining them with citrus peel for flavor. When the amphora cracked, the potter came to carve out the old jar and replace it with a new one. The scar remains like a fossil of a neighborhood's water system.
Dar Batha Museum
Dar Batha sits near Bab Bou Jeloud on the corner of the former Kettanin Quarter gardens. Former palace turned museum. The building itself dates to the late nineteenth century under the Alaouite sultan Hassan I, and its zellige courtyard holds one of the finest samples of Andalusian geometry in North Africa. A fountain sits in the middle. Ceiling carvings alternate between floral arabesque and Quranic bands.
Inside the galleries, rain becomes irrelevant. Ceramic halls hold carved molds made of plaster that reveal how each piece was assembled. Calligraphy cases show reed pens from three centuries. A dedicated room holds restored Qarawiyyin manuscripts under climate controlled cases. The garden side has a stepped fountain where water flashes against blue tiles even when the sun is hiding.
The Vibe? Silence with a regal undertone.
The Bill? Museum entry costs 30 dirhams per adult. Students sometimes pay half but the policy fluctuates.
The Catch? The museum can close suddenly for private cultural events. Ask your riad host or call ahead via your hotel front desk.
The best time to visit is midweek mornings or rainy afternoons when the interior shadows make the gold leaf on framed calligraphy almost glow. Late afternoon light brings golden streaks under wooden lattice shades on the garden side.
A detail that most tourists would not know: the wooden ceiling beams in the main gallery once belonged to houses in the Andalusian quarter demolished for a colonial expansion road. The architect, Mohammed Torres, constructed the palace as a museum in 1915 by commission from the French protectorate government. He reused the best woodwork he could salvage. Every beam tells a demolition story.
Jnan Sbil Gardens
Jnan Sbil Gardens sit wedged between the medina wall and the new city, at the eastern end of the Mellah district. The park was a sultan's private garden opened to the public under the French administration in the early twentieth century. Palm canopies shelter wet concrete paths. Bamboo groves hiss when raindrops hit their hollow leaves.
Nothing to buy. Nothing to order. Just walk. The gardens have small fountains, gravel paths with hidden mosaic borders, and century old dragon trees that lean like old men after a heavy night. When rain hits, the palm fronds turn into green roofs. Find a bench in the central kiosk pavilion. Stay until you hear the irrigation spouts stutter. They are driven by the same underground water channels that feed the Qarawiyyin network under the medina. Rain and gharb canal water mix in silence.
The best time to visit is early morning when joggers and dog walkers fill the paths, or late afternoon when the light turns the wet garden gold green. Weekends bring families with children running between tree roots and fountains. The gardens connect to the broader character of Fes like this: the land once belonged to a branch of the Alaouite royal family and access was restricted by a wall with bronze studs. Today, anyone can enter. The democratic promise of the garden is fragile but real.
A detail that most tourists would not know: the rose garden section near the southern wall contains varieties of Damask rose cultivated for rose water in the medieval Henna Souk. Wadi Dar Debbagi, just south of the medina, bloomed each May with the same variety. Some urban gardeners argue the city rose is sweeter due to pollution stress on the petals. Sceptics say nostalgia handles the flavor testing.
When to Go What to Know
Fes rain comes mostly between November and March, with some surprise showers in April and October. Mornings are often dry. Heavy downpours start around noon or after three. That afternoon pattern makes two time blocks reliable: before eleven and after four thirty. Hammam hours shift. Market hours hold. Museum hours fluctuate with Moroccan school holidays Eid and Mawlid. Check local schedules. Many riad hosts will call a taxi or negotiate a grand taxi fixed price across the new city for around 20 dirhams per person on a shared route. Small rain drops can turn the old medina flagstones slippery and steep near Bou Inania and the tanneries. Wear rubber soles or good grip shoes. Leather soles die on wet zellige.
Wi Fi at most covered venues can vanish when the signal lines flood. Download maps before leaving your hotel. Offline Google Maps or Maps works fine in the medina grid.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many days are needed to see the major tourist attractions in Fes without feeling rushed?
Three full days allows one day for the old medina core including the madrasas, the Qarawiyyin complex and the Chouara Tanneries, one day for the new city sites and pottery, and one flexible day for a hammam, museums and rooftop cafes. Four days is more comfortable.
What is the safest and most reliable way to get around Fes as a solo traveler?
Small white taxis within the city and shared grand taxis for longer routes are widely available. Uber and Careem both operate in Fes. Within the medina, everything is walkable but distances between gates and underground corridors can be deceptive.
Do the most popular attractions in Fes require advance ticket booking, especially during peak season?
No major attraction currently requires advance booking. Dar Batha and the Bou Inania Madrasa are ticketed at the door and queues form only during the spring festival window between late April and mid May when visitor numbers spike.
Is it possible to walk between the main sightseeing spots in Fes, or is local transport necessary?
The old medina Bou Inania, Qarawiyyin, the tanneries and the souks are all within a twenty minute walk of each other on foot. Ain Nokbi and the pottery workshops are a fifteen minute uphill hike from Bab Ftouh. From the new city, Dar Batha and Jnan Sbil are a short downhill walk from the Bab Bou Jeloud taxi stand.
What are the best free or low-cost tourist places in Fes that are genuinely worth the visit?
The exterior zellige facades at Bou Inania Madrasa and the Chouara Tanneries rooftop can be viewed for free. Jnan Sbil Gardens has no entry fee. The Qarawiyyin Library exterior courtyard is accessible to all. Neighborhood hammams charge between 50 and 120 dirhams for a full soap and scrub session. Street food in the medina costs between 10 and 30 dirhams per serving.
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