A Relais & Châteaux palace assembled from three adjoining riads inside the ninth-century medina — Moroccan, Oriental and Baroque-Andalucian wings, an outdoor pool inside Fez el-Bali, a rooftop terrace over the oldest continuously inhabited city in North Africa.
"The only address inside the world's largest car-free medina that delivers a pool, a Relais & Châteaux kitchen, and a 32-room scale without making you walk twenty minutes through the souks with luggage to get there."
Riad Fès opened in 2001 inside three adjoining historic riads on Derb Ben Slimane Zerbtana, in the Batha district at the western edge of Fez el-Bali — the older of the medina's two halves and the one that holds the Karaouine mosque, the Bou Inania madrasa, the tanneries, and the souks that have not meaningfully changed footprint since the eleventh century. The property was conceived by the Sefrioui family and developed in three phases over the following decade: the original Moroccan wing (the founding riad), the Oriental wing (added 2007 with dark-wood and tadelakt rooms), and the Baroque-Andalucian wing (added 2010, the property's largest expansion, built around a glass-roofed central court). Relais & Châteaux admitted the property in 2003; it has been the only Fez member of the association for most of the period since.
The 32 keys distribute across the three wings, each with its own architectural signature. The Moroccan wing is the founding building — traditional, courtyard-facing, with the warmest materials and the most ornate carved-cedar ceilings. The Oriental wing is the darker, calmer alternative — dark wood, black and white tadelakt, marble bathrooms, the design vocabulary of a Saharan tent hotel rather than a Fez palace. The Baroque-Andalucian wing is the largest and most photographed — black zellige tiles, white marble, an enormous glass-roofed atrium, the property's two largest suites and the rooftop pool deck that overlooks the medina. The Royal Suite and the Pasha Suite (in the Andalucian wing) are the headline accommodations.
The food-and-beverage operation is the most considered in the Fez medina: Le Restaurant Marocain runs the traditional Moroccan tasting menu in the formal dinner room — a méchoui, pastilla, and seasonal tagine sequence that holds at a level the riad's smaller competition cannot match. L'Ambre rooftop bar runs at sunset with the Atlas Mountains visible to the south on clear days. The Hammam is a serious operation — two adjoining rooms, full gommage and rasul programme, the Sothys treatment partnership. The outdoor pool inside the Andalucian wing is the only swimming pool inside Fez el-Bali at a hotel of this scale (most medina riads have a courtyard fountain or nothing); the indoor heated pool runs October through April.
Service is the considered Anglo-Moroccan Relais & Châteaux style — the front office multilingual (French, English, Spanish, Arabic), the concierge's medina book deep and current, the housekeeping team continuous over many years. The position is decisive in Fez: a vehicle drop in the Batha square delivers guests to the riad's front door in two minutes on foot, which solves the central operational problem of every other medina hotel (the long porter-and-luggage walk through the alleys). For honeymoons, anniversaries and milestone proposals in the most architecturally consequential medina on earth, Riad Fès is the answer without close competition.
The Andalucian wing's named suites — the Royal, the Pasha — are the headline honeymoon accommodation in Fez. The combination of the outdoor pool inside the medina, the Relais & Châteaux dinner room, the hammam, and the rooftop bar over the ninth-century city is unique in Morocco at this scale. Three to four nights in Fez pairs naturally with three in Marrakech and two in Essaouira for a ten-night honeymoon brief.
The most architecturally distinct anniversary address in Morocco. The Oriental wing for couples who want the quieter, darker register; the Baroque-Andalucian wing for the celebratory year. The kitchen handles in-suite anniversary dinners on request; the rooftop bar at sunset, the hammam, and a half-day with a private guide to the tanneries and the Karaouine sequence the trip without intervention.
The rooftop L'Ambre at sunset over the medina, candles arranged on a corner table by the concierge, the Atlas Mountains visible to the south — Fez delivers a once-in-a-lifetime proposal setting in a way that the more obvious Marrakech or Maldives options cannot match. The Pasha Suite as the post-proposal accommodation; the Relais & Châteaux dinner downstairs as the celebration sequence.
5 Derb Ben Slimane Zerbtana
Batha, 30110 Fez el-Bali
Morocco
Bab Boujloud (blue gate) 6 minutes on foot; Karaouine mosque 12 minutes; tanneries 15 minutes; Fez-Saïss Airport (FEZ) 20 minutes by road; train station 10 minutes
32 rooms and suites (three wings)
Deluxe Room from EUR 195/night
Junior Suite from EUR 320/night
Pasha Suite from EUR 750/night
Royal Suite from EUR 2,300/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Opened 2001; Relais & Châteaux since 2003; Andalucian wing completed 2010; Sefrioui family ownership
Outdoor pool inside Fez el-Bali
Indoor heated pool (October–April)
Le Restaurant Marocain (Relais & Châteaux)
L'Ambre rooftop bar
Traditional hammam & spa
3 bars / lounges
24-hour fitness center
Concierge-guided medina half-days
From EUR 195/night. March–May and September–early November are the optimal Fez windows. The Pasha Suite books four to six months out for European honeymoon weeks; the Royal Suite typically nine. Avoid mid-July through August: heat in the medina runs to forty Celsius and the pool deck is the only viable midday option.
Book This Hotel →The restored Pasha Faraj palace on the medina's southern hill, with a panoramic terrace over Fez el-Bali and 25 suites.
Christophe Pillet's contemporary design hotel on the Sahrai hill, the modernist alternative to the medina riad brief.
The coastal Relais & Châteaux address, ideal pairing with three to four nights in Fez for a ten-night Moroccan brief.