Trip date: September 2023
Gail, Caitlin, and I were picked up from our hotel in Tangier at 8am by our private driver Madhi who I had booked thru Fes Authentic Tours. Madhi would be driving us to check out Tétouan and Chefchaouen on our way to our next Moroccan destination of Fes. He would also be our driver from Fes to Marrakech with an overnight in the Sahara Desert. This was a great arrangement as I really didn't want us ladies to be driving around Morocco on our own, and although there are trains to Fes and Marrakech, it's harder to get to these small mountain towns.
It was just over an hour to Tétouan, at the base of the Rif Mountains, and Madhi's car comfortably fit us all and our luggage, always a plus! It was similar to a Rav4 compact SUV. As we drove into town we could see that every streetlight had a huge stork nest on the top, it looked like the light posts were made for them! We must have driven past 20 storks!
We parked and walked into the medina of this 2000 year old city, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town is heavily influenced by the Spanish who came here from Granada so a lot of signage is in Spanish as well as Arabic. We were told that besides Arabic, most Moroccans also speak Spanish in the North and French in the West, but I found French widely spoken in every city so got to continue to practice (unfortunately for them!).
Mahdi walked us through the ancient medina and explained that they really don't get a lot of tourists here, so there aren't the usual street hustlers and crowds. The market is lined with shuttered stalls, the town is known for its high quality crafts, which the owners reveal each day when they open up the doors. I loved walking past them closed, not knowing if gold or beans would be displayed!
We also walked to the Royal Palace which King Mohammed VI still is known to visit in the summer even though his main residence is in Fes now. The square in front was set up for a crowd so he was possibly due to arrive that weekend.
Outside of the Grand Mosque, Madhi pointed out a board with a lot of Arabic writing. Turns out this is the town's real estate listings! Places for sale and for rent are advertised, but without photos. I mean that is very old school!
We all loved Tétouan, it's very pretty, easy to walk around, and has one of the best small souks of the cities we visited. It was also quite early, so not a lot was open, but that made it even more charming for us.
I thought of getting one of the popular drinks that was said to be invented here, called the za3za3, but Madhi told me that the smoothies, made with avocado, dates, almonds, milk, and a lot of honey, is a huge sugar bomb that the locals love when they are coming off a fast or are otherwise needing an energy boost. Since I was going to be mainly sitting in a car all day, I didn't think a sugar high was such a good idea. We stopped on the way out of town for a mint tea though.
It was another hour and a half to Chefchaouen, and a beautiful drive through some very hilly terrain in the Rif Mountains. Unfortunately for Madhi, there was a lot of road work so he had to navigate the graded road and patches of old asphalt.
We parked outside of the old town when we arrived in Chefchaouen, and walked up the narrow steep lanes to the medina.
It's all blue, but not in the sweet dreamy way I thought it would be. It's blue because of social media and tourism. Originally the town was thought to have been painted blue by Jewish refugees during WWII to remind them of Heaven. So before the early 1900's the city was just another typical Moroccan city.
But why has the tradition been kept alive? You need only to walk around and see all the tourists for you answer. The city has realized it could draw visitors to it if it had a hook (we have Leavenworth in WA state). And each year the city gets together and repaints the entire town blue which keeps the tourism dollars flowing.
Some adorable nooks, courtyards, and doorways actually had signs letting you know you had to pay them to take a photo!
We strolled around and then went to Sofia for lunch, the first female-owned restaurant in town, so you know we were there to support! My tagine of chicken and vegetables was excellent! It was also funny that Madhi felt that he should eat with a fork and knife around us, and slopped some food on his pants. He was frustrated and said that like most Moroccans he was use to eating with his hands. We assured him that we didn't mind at all!
After lunch we continued along the blue streets (no cars or scooters allowed here luckily) until we reached the Oued el Kebir river. Here is where the local women wash their clothes, beating them against the rocks. Unfortunately the water was very low so there wasn't a lot going on.
Originally we thought of staying in Chefchaouen, but I'm very glad we just did it as a day trip. Don't get me wrong, it is still very pretty, but too touristy for me. I know my pictures make it look like it wasn't crowded, but it was! I'm just good at getting shots, haha! I'm very glad we all got to see The Blue City.
We left Chefchaouen and continued our drive to to Fes, another 4 hours. This part was a bit less interesting, scenery wise, but it was also a lot less twisty since we were now out of the Rif Mountains. There were a lot of trucks stacked sky high with hay bales that I was sure would topple over!
On our drive we mainly just listened to Madhi's Moroccan music, ate nougat, and I watched an F1 race I had downloaded to my phone. Our last stop to stretch was at a viewpoint overlooking Sidi Chahed Lake where 200+ species of birds are said to winter, and the water's color looks like Chefchaouen! It was a very relaxing day!
And then we drove into Fes...
All photos from Tétouan and Chefchaouen here.
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