Around Fez
Fez beyond Chefchaouen
The Chefchaouen day takes a full day on its own, so plan around it rather than trying to squeeze in extras — this covers where it fits in a broader Fez trip and what's worth doing on the days before and after.
See Chefchaouen tickets on GetYourGuide ↗Fitting it into a trip
| When | Why it works | |
|---|---|---|
| This tour | Full day | One long day; give it its own slot rather than stacking it |
| Fez medina | Half to full day, any day | The world's largest car-free urban area — easily its own day |
| Volubilis & Meknes | Full day | Roman ruins and an imperial city, opposite direction from Chefchaouen |
| The Middle Atlas | Full or half day | Cedar forests and mountain towns south of Fez, a different landscape again |
Give Chefchaouen its own day
Door to door the Chefchaouen trip runs close to twelve hours, which makes it a full day on the calendar rather than one half of a double-header. Give it its own slot in a Fez itinerary, with a quieter day on either side where possible, since the early pickup and late return leave little energy for much beyond a nearby dinner that night.
Fez's own medina deserves its own day
Fez el-Bali, the old walled medina, is widely described as the largest car-free urban area in the world, with thousands of narrow lanes, historic madrasas, tanneries and souks that easily fill a full day on their own. Pairing it with Chefchaouen on the same date isn't realistic — the two are better treated as separate full days than combined into one exhausting one.
Volubilis and Meknes, in the other direction
A day trip to the Roman ruins at Volubilis and the imperial city of Meknes runs roughly west and south of Fez rather than north into the Rif, making it a genuinely different day of Moroccan history rather than a variation on the mountain drive to Chefchaouen. Travellers with several days in Fez often treat the two as complementary full-day trips in opposite directions.
The Middle Atlas, for a different mountain day
South of Fez, the Middle Atlas offers cedar forests, Barbary macaques and mountain towns like Ifrane and Azrou — a cooler, greener contrast to both the city and to the Rif's own mountain landscape around Chefchaouen. It's a reasonable alternative or addition for travellers who want more than one mountain day without repeating the same drive.
Spacing the long days out
Anyone stacking Chefchaouen alongside other full-day trips out of Fez should spread them across the week rather than booking them on consecutive days — each one has its own early start and long return leg. Building in a genuinely low-key day in the city between two of these, free of any fixed pickup time, pays off more than it sounds like it would.
Arriving or leaving via Tangier instead
Travellers building an open-jaw itinerary — arriving in Fez and leaving via Tangier, or the reverse — sometimes route through Chefchaouen as a stop along the way rather than a round-trip day from either city. It's a reasonable way to avoid backtracking the same road twice, though it needs its own transport arrangements rather than this shared day-trip listing, which returns to Fez by design.