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AhPek Biker - Riding Adventures
Morocco 2025 Day 4: Chefchaouan to Fez
Morocco 2024 Day 4: 18th April (Friday)
Small Group (Non-cycling) Tour of Morocco.
Day 4 - Chefchaouen to Fez:
Day 4 - Chefchaouen to Fez:
Chefchaouen (Vancii Hotel)>Bouzafer Spanish Mosque>Ouazzane>Fez (Riad El Yacout)>walk>Fez Medina>Riad El Yacout.
This is page 4 of a 13-page blog. Click Here To Go To Title Page.
Route recommendations, here are some tips on travelling to and around Morocco:
1. Traffic Directions!
Driving in Morocco is left-hand drive, and driving is on the right-hand side of the road. Do look to the correct side when crossing roads.
Speed limits are between 60 km/h within urban areas, 100 km/h outside urban areas, including expressways, and 120 km/h on highways. Do adhere to these limits, as often police are monitoring with radars; our driver-guide was careful about this.
Speed limits are between 60 km/h within urban areas, 100 km/h outside urban areas, including expressways, and 120 km/h on highways. Do adhere to these limits, as often police are monitoring with radars; our driver-guide was careful about this.
2. Immigration & Customs Requirements
For Morocco, citizens of Malaysia do not need a visa to enter for travel purposes and can stay in the country for 90 days without a visa. Click here for visa requirements for other countries.
3. Getting to and around Morocco.
Morocco is easily accessible by air as most major airlines serve Morocco and have flights to major cities such as Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech. We flew return via Emirates to Casablanca with transit in Dubai at a fare of MYR4,430 per pax. Do note that Emirates now charges for seat selection.
For ground arrangements, we booked a 13-day guided tour through Tenere Tours at €1,350 per pax. This included stays at comfortable hotels and riads, and a night at a caravanserai luxury camp in the desert. Breakfast was included, and also dinners at the Dades Valley Hotel, Merzoga Riad and Desert Caravanserai Luxury Camp.
The guided tour included a 9-seater van with a driver-guide to take the six of us to/from the airports, and from city to city. And also the camel ride to the desert camp. We paid extra for walking tours at the Fez Medina and Marrakech Medina at €85/group/city.
For ground arrangements, we booked a 13-day guided tour through Tenere Tours at €1,350 per pax. This included stays at comfortable hotels and riads, and a night at a caravanserai luxury camp in the desert. Breakfast was included, and also dinners at the Dades Valley Hotel, Merzoga Riad and Desert Caravanserai Luxury Camp.
The guided tour included a 9-seater van with a driver-guide to take the six of us to/from the airports, and from city to city. And also the camel ride to the desert camp. We paid extra for walking tours at the Fez Medina and Marrakech Medina at €85/group/city.
For out-of-pocket spending, we exchanged Euros to Moroccan dirhams (MAD) at local money-changers in Rabat and Rissani. As a contingency, we brought along our Wise debit cards, do note that this may not be acceptable at many places.
4. Places & Things of Interest
En route were several places of interest, some of which we visited and others we did not for lack of time (Note: click on GPS coordinates for a directional map to respective places):
a. The blue houses of Chefchaouen Blue Town (GPS: 35.16943, -5.26642) and at the Sabanin Neighbourhood (GPS: 35.16887, -5.25816).
a. The blue houses of Chefchaouen Blue Town (GPS: 35.16943, -5.26642) and at the Sabanin Neighbourhood (GPS: 35.16887, -5.25816).
d. Volubilis Roman Ruins (GPS: 34.07198, -5.55233).
f. Bab Fez Fountain (GPS: 34.04301, -5.06318).
h. Riad El Yacout (GPS: 34.05995, -4.98057) in Fez.
5. Food
a. Breakfast
Inclusive hotel Western & Moroccan breakfast at Vancii Hotel (GPS: 35.16799, -5.26153) in Chefchaouen.
b. Lunch
b. Lunch
Grilled Chicken Kebabs, Chicken Stew, & Maghrebi Mint Tea at APIA Café & Restaurant (GPS: 34.83428, -5.54331) in Ouazzane.
c. Dinner
c. Dinner
Mediterranean Food: Crispy Orange Chicken, Sardine Balls Tajine, Cucumber Salad, Baba Ghanoush (Eggplant puree dip), Sesame Dip, Mezze Tapas, Infusion Thyme Drink, & Orange Flower Lassi at Fondouk Bazaar (GPS: 34.06430, -4.97957) in Fez.
6. Accommodations
Nearby, within walking distance, is a Fast Machine Self-service Laundry at (GPS: 34.05931, -4.98002).
7. Dressing
I brought two long pants along and four shorts. In the end, I didn't wear the shorts as the weather can get quite cold in the morning and evenings, especially with stronger winds at the seaside.
When entering mosques, men can wear shorts, but ladies have to cover up their legs and heads. Scarves and long pants are recommended; if wearing shorts, bring a sarong or something to cover one's legs.
8. Communicating with Each Other
When travelling in a group, it's important to be able to communicate with each other, especially if one gets lost from the rest.
Upon arrival at Casablanca Airport, booths selling pre-paid sim cards can be found just before exiting the luggage reclaim area. There were booths selling Maroc, Orange, and Inwi pre-paid tourist phone sim cards. We opted for the Maroc sim card as it provides better coverage even in remote areas, which I found to be true, and it only had poor or no signal at remote stretches far in the hills or desert. We got the 15 Gb card, which is valid for one month for 100 MAD. Should this be inadequate, memory can be topped up at any phone shop.
9. Communicating with Locals
At favourite tourist destinations, markets and medinas, many locals speak fairly good English, some French and Spanish. At the smaller towns, locals speak some rudimentary English, and our local guide was most helpful in translating for us.
10. Weather
Average day temperatures in Chefchaouen were 24°C, while the average day and night temperatures at Fez were 24°C and 9°C, cloudy with a light drizzle at noon.
Useful weather forecast sites for Chefchaouen & Fez are AccuWeather. For more detailed weather, including cloud cover and wind speed, use Weatherspark and Ventusky.
11. Navigation
I used MapMyRide to track our routes and stops. Geo-tagging of places of interest was via FaceBook or Google Maps.
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PRELUDE
Yesterday we left Tangier and arrived at Chefchaouen by noon. After a Chinese lunch and a short rest, we walked around to explore the blue town. It is indeed a beautiful place, and we enjoyed exploring the many alleys and lanes of the Chefchaouen Blue Town, showcasing many of its unique blue houses.
Today, we decided to skip visiting the Volubilis Roman Ruins and had the whole morning to walk around the town some more. After that, we headed for Fez, and were pleasantly surprised to discover, en route, an interesting cooperative shop and restaurant at Ouazzane. In Fez, the riad we stayed in, Riad El Yacout, was one of the most beautiful and impressive ones we stayed in while in Morocco.
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DAY 4: CHEFCHAOUAN-FEZ
Small Group (Non-cycling) Tour of Morocco.
Day 4 - Chefchaouen to Fez:
Most of the posts below are linked to my Facebook postings during the trip and are embedded here with some comments. (NOTE: Click on respective posts to link to the FB post to read more details. If you can't see the posts, please log out of your Facebook first.)
A very nice hotel breakfast with a wide range of Western and Moroccan breakfast, including Ka'ak, (it's something like a cross between a Ham Chin Peng and a doughnut, round like a doughnut but with the texture of Ham Chin Peng. And also Gazelle Ankles, similar to Malaysian Curry Puff but less spicy; do Gazelle's ankles really look like these? Also, they operate a Chinese restaurant for lunch and dinner, so soy sauce is available, which we normally use for our eggs instead of salt.
Most riads in Morocco have flat roofs for guests to relax and sometimes have breakfast, especially during the hot summer months. Vancii Hotel's have a flat roof, but one with a plus point: a view of Kasbah Chefchaouen and behind it a beautiful panoramic view of blue houses of Chefchaouen Blue Town. Cushions were laid out for guest to lazily lounge here.
12:00 noon - Goodbye Chefchaouen, we had a good and beautiful time here.
Oops! It's not really Goodbye, yet.
We requested Oualid, our driver-guide, to make a detour and drive halfway up to Bouzafer Spanish Mosque. Cars are not allowed all the way up, and many stopped at this viewpoint with a beautiful vista of Chefchaouen.
The more adventurous can take a hike to the mosque. (Didn't mean sound rude here, one really has to hike up!)
1:00 - Rest stop at Afriquia OUAZANE.
There's a diner here called Grill Restaurant Station Afriquia (GPS: 34.89365, -5.53479), but the food served here (braised chicken with couscous) didn't look
appetising, so we skipped the place after using the restroom.
Ahead was APIA Café & Restaurant, a much better place to dine. While waiting for our ordered food to be ready, we popped over next door to the APIA Cooperative Shop. It's a cooperative that sells
local products. And the good thing is that they sell argan oil here too.
Shopping! That got the girls into a very happy mood here, and needless to say, we came back again after finishing lunch.
For the full range of products the cooperative sells, click here.
Between the APIA Cooperative Shop and the APIA Café & Restaurant were nice decorations of umbrellas and hats hanging from the sky and walls.
Lunch at APIA Café & Restaurant in Ouazzane:
Grilled Chicken Kebabs, Moroccan Braised Chicken & Maghrebi Mint Tea.
Grilled Chicken Kebabs, Moroccan Braised Chicken & Maghrebi Mint Tea.
Passing by Ouazzane, its Pueblos Blanco reminds me of Zuheros, the Pueblos Blanco (white town), where we stayed during our 2019 cycling tour of Portugal
& Spain.
5:30pm - Along the palm-lined Highway Route N4 leading into Fez.
At this roundabout leading into the city is the Bab Fez Fountain: ceramic gateway
arches highlighting that Fez is a city renowned for its Moroccan Pottery.
We are glad that our tour organiser, Tenere Tours, had upgraded us to this riad, as it is indeed a very grand and beautiful one. We took our time exploring the different parts of this riad.
6:30pm - walking through the streets & alleys of Fez Medina. It's the largest medina in the world, but we didn't have time to linger as we were rushing for dinner. No worries, though, we will have a guided tour of this medina tomorrow!
The fusion Mediterranean Dinner at Fondouk Bazaar was one of the best meals of our trip:
On the table were Crispy Orange Chicken, Sardine Balls Tajine, Cucumber Salad, Baba Ghanoush (Eggplant puree dip), Sesame Dip, Mezze Tapas, Infusion Thyme Drink, & Orange Flower Lassi.
On the table were Crispy Orange Chicken, Sardine Balls Tajine, Cucumber Salad, Baba Ghanoush (Eggplant puree dip), Sesame Dip, Mezze Tapas, Infusion Thyme Drink, & Orange Flower Lassi.
Pleasant views greeted us on our return to Riad El Yacout.
'Ahlam saeida
(That's "Pleasant dreams" in Arabic)
(For more photos of Day 4, Click Here)
This is page 4 of a 13-page blog. Click Here To Go To Title Page.
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You are at - Jotaro's Blog /AhPek Biker-Footsteps /Morocco 2025/ D4: Chefchaouan to Fez | Go to D1/D2/D3/D5/D6/D7/D8/D9/D10/D11/D12/D13-14
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