Fez Day Trips

Home to Morocco’s most well-to-do university, Al-Akhawayn, Ifrane is like a slice of Switzerland in North Africa. Cedar forests and lakes abound, and there’s even a ski mountain. In the summer, lakeside walks and lolling at cafés are popular pastimes.

Annexed to Rome in 44 A.D., Volubilis was originally settled by Carthaginian traders in the third century B.C. The Roman ruins here – ancient steam rooms, temples, and tiled mosaics – are Morocco’s biggest archeological drawcard.

Often considered more accessible to outsiders than Fez, the smaller imperial city of Meknes is home to impressive souks, mosques, and museums – all on a manageable scale.

The sulfuric odors are as strong as the alleged healing benefits at these natural thermal pools, where the water bubbles up from 4900 feet below the surface. This is the ideal antidote to the Fez medina’s grit and grime.

A freshwater nature preserve just inland along Morocco’s Atlantic coast, Lac de Sidi Bourhaba is a forested area rife with walking trails. A major stop-off point for migrating birds between Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, the lake here is considered Morocco’s best birdwatching domain (spot black-shouldered kites and barbary partridges).

Exit the road a few miles north of Ifrane for a 40-mile tour of Morocco’s most scenic lake country. Spot bountiful birdlife, picnicking Moroccan families and adventuresome mountain bikers.