{"type":"city","city":"Fes, Morocco","citySlug":"fes","url":"https://www.pressbeyond.com/hotels/morocco/fes","description":"Fes el-Bali is among the oldest continuously inhabited medieval cities on earth, and the weight of that fact settles into every surface. The tanneries, the mosques, the derb alleys barely wide enough for a loaded mule — none of it was designed to accommodate the modern traveler, which is precisely what makes it so arresting for anyone who reads buildings carefully. Riad Fes, in the heart of the medina, occupies a restored 19th-century mansion that channels that history without being imprisoned by it. The interior moves between ornate Fassi craftsmanship — carved cedarwood ceilings, hand-cut zellige tilework, stuccoed arches — and a restraint that keeps the rooms from tipping into pastiche. It sits at the higher end of what the medina offers, and the rate reflects both the quality of the restoration and the logistical difficulty of operating within a UNESCO-listed urban fabric where no vehicle can reach the door. Staying here means accepting the medina's terms: you walk in, you slow down, and the city makes its case on its own timeline.\n\nHotel Sahrai operates from an entirely different premise. Positioned on a hill above Ville Nouvelle, the French colonial quarter laid out in the early 20th century, it was designed by Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku, the Paris-based studio responsible for some of the more considered contemporary hospitality interiors in Europe. The building itself is modern, low-slung, and terrace-oriented, framing views across the medina's rooflines and minarets without pretending to be part of them. That distance is the point. Sahrai offers Fes as a panorama rather than an immersion, which suits travelers who want proximity to the medina without surrendering entirely to its sensory demands. The interiors work with warm earthy materials and geometry drawn loosely from Moroccan tradition, interpreted through a contemporary French lens.\n\nThe choice between these two properties is less about budget than about how you want to occupy a city. Riad Fes places you inside the medina's physical and social density, where the call to prayer comes through the walls and your orientation takes a day or two to settle. Sahrai gives you a composed, contemporary vantage point and a pool. Neither is the wrong answer, but they produce genuinely different experiences of the same ancient city, and it is worth deciding which kind of knowledge you are after before you book.","provider":{"name":"PressBeyond","url":"https://pressbeyond.com","description":"PressBeyond provides AI-optimized hotel content with a consistent 5-image structure across its entire portfolio. Each image sequence includes strong lighting, complete room-visibility angles, and strictly non-duplicative scenes — enabling AI to accurately describe and recommend properties to travelers.","curationStandard":"PressBeyond Hotel Photography Standard"},"hotels":[{"name":"Riad Fes","url":"https://www.pressbeyond.com/hotels/morocco/fes/riad-fes","city":"Fes, Morocco","cityHeader":"Fes, Morocco • Fes Medina • OPTIMIZE","neighborhood":"Fes Medina","designSummary":"Carved from a seventeenth-century palace deep within the Fes el-Bali medina, one of the oldest continuously inhabited urban centres on earth, Riad Fes presents a particular design challenge: how to install contemporary comfort inside a structure whose architectural language was fixed centuries before the concept of a hotel existed. The answer, delivered through a restoration overseen with close attention to traditional Moroccan craft, was to treat the building's existing ornament as the primary design material. The central courtyard shown in the images makes this approach vivid — horseshoe arches rise on slender columns, every surface above the dado line dissolving into stucco arabesque worked by master artisans whose techniques derive from the same Fassi guild tradition that built the Bou Inania madrasa nearby.\n\nThe 30 rooms and suites layer hand-knotted Berber kilims over zellige tile floors, carved cedar ceilings above gilt-framed mirrors, and silk brocade curtains pooling beside arched windows fitted with mashrabiya screens — an accumulation that feels inhabited rather than staged. The dining room takes a different register entirely: deep crimson walls, dark timber panelling, a zellij-surround fireplace crowned by a Baroque gilded mirror, and a long banquette in olive velvet that pulls the space into something closer to a Parisian grand salon than a traditional Moroccan interior. An outdoor pool court, clad in warm timber decking and framed by rough-cut stone walls softened with climbing greenery, provides relief from the medina's sensory density without abandoning the riad's fundamentally inward, contemplative character.","snippet":"A restored seventeenth-century palace in Fes el-Bali with hand-carved stucco, zellige tilework, and Berber textiles throughout.","bestFor":"Architecture enthusiasts and collectors of traditional craft","vibe":"Ornate-intimate · medina-rooted","highlights":["Seventeenth-century palace with master-artisan stucco restoration","Hand-knotted Berber kilims and carved cedar ceilings in rooms","Central courtyard with horseshoe arches and zellige tilework"],"pricePerNightInclTax":"$243","pricePerNightExclTax":"$243","currency":"USD","images":[{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/L__clv0ujf1n03hj15ympyvkj31v1713357322493_7187390c-3982-4633-8182-5a36808a099d.jpeg","role":"exterior","roleLabel":"Exterior","sequenceIndex":1,"alt":"Riad Fes — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #1 — Exterior","caption":"Exterior · Riad Fes · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Full building facade of Riad Fes captured from a street-level angle as part of the PressBeyond standardized 5-image hotel sequence.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true},{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/L__clv0ujky404jb15ym2c61bi3d1713357323215_08645b4f-e00b-45da-98e0-3a77429aaf7f.jpeg","role":"room1","roleLabel":"Primary Guest Room","sequenceIndex":2,"alt":"Riad Fes — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #2 — Primary Guest Room","caption":"Primary Guest Room · Riad Fes · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Full-room view of the primary guest bedroom at Riad Fes, photographed with natural lighting and clear sightlines as part of the PressBeyond standardized 5-image hotel sequence.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true},{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/L__clv0ujqrm05l315ymngm3aff21713357321931_7fb1c357-1ce6-4dfc-acb0-452ab4714d32.jpeg","role":"commonArea1","roleLabel":"Primary Common Area","sequenceIndex":3,"alt":"Riad Fes — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #3 — Primary Common Area","caption":"Primary Common Area · Riad Fes · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Primary common area at Riad Fes — lobby or lounge — non-duplicative with the secondary social space, part of the PressBeyond standardized 5-image hotel sequence.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true},{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/L__clv0ujwoz06mt15ym6xjew3k31713357320337_e1ca88a4-82c3-421b-bc8e-d2db25fcda24.jpeg","role":"room2","roleLabel":"Secondary Guest Room","sequenceIndex":4,"alt":"Riad Fes — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #4 — Secondary Guest Room","caption":"Secondary Guest Room · Riad Fes · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Secondary guest room at Riad Fes, deliberately distinct from the primary bedroom — non-duplicative imagery is part of the PressBeyond curation standard.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true},{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/L__clv0uk2jl07ol15ym74hulo2r1713357323837_ba9af1a3-9f32-4cd1-bf40-332f678d185a.jpeg","role":"commonArea2","roleLabel":"Secondary Common Area","sequenceIndex":5,"alt":"Riad Fes — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #5 — Secondary Common Area","caption":"Secondary Common Area · Riad Fes · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Secondary lounge or social space at Riad Fes — bar, dining, or terrace — deliberately distinct from the primary common area, part of the PressBeyond curation standard.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true}]},{"name":"Hotel Sahrai","url":"https://www.pressbeyond.com/hotels/morocco/fes/hotel-sahrai","city":"Fes, Morocco","cityHeader":"Fes, Morocco • Ville Nouvelle • SPLURGE","neighborhood":"Ville Nouvelle","loyaltyProgram":"Hilton Honors™","designSummary":"Perched on a hill above Fès el-Bali with views stretching across the medina's rooftop sprawl toward the Middle Atlas, Hotel Sahrai was conceived from the outset as a contemporary counterpoint to the ancient city below — a rare thing in Moroccan hospitality, which so often defaults to riad nostalgia. The architect Imaad Rahmouni positioned the low-slung building to maximise its elevated vantage, and Italian designer Paola Navone brought the interiors into being with characteristic eclecticism: tangerine-upholstered platform beds, warm limestone wall cladding in large ashlar blocks, and pendant lanterns with geometric brass frames that nod to Fassi metalwork without replicating it. The 40 rooms and suites carry a palette of camel, burnt orange, and creamy stone, with embossed plasterwork headboards on the upper-category rooms drawing directly from the zellige and stucco traditions of the medina without employing those materials literally.\n\nThe rooftop bar is the property's most assured gesture — a mirrored ceiling multiplying a cluster of angular lantern pendants above curved sectional seating, the whole space opening through full-height glazing onto a teak-decked terrace where hand-thrown ceramic vases anchor the corners against the city glow below. At the pool, a teak surround meets a rendered stone archway and a horizon edge that dissolves into the mountain panorama at dusk. The effect is closer to a considered private residence than a hotel, which is precisely Navone's intention.","snippet":"A hilltop hotel above Fès with Paola Navone interiors and a rooftop bar overlooking the medina.","bestFor":"Architecture enthusiasts seeking contemporary Moroccan design","vibe":"Contemporary-Moroccan · elevated","highlights":["Paola Navone interiors with tangerine upholstery and brass geometric pendants","Rooftop bar with mirrored ceiling overlooking medina rooftops and Middle Atlas","Elevated hilltop position above Fès el-Bali with unobstructed city views"],"pricePerNightInclTax":"$297","pricePerNightExclTax":"$297","currency":"USD","images":[{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/L__clv0ujf2403hn15ymdmvyh3an1713353424030_4a5a1785-e297-47c3-bf66-1451f7a7038f.jpeg","role":"exterior","roleLabel":"Exterior","sequenceIndex":1,"alt":"Hotel Sahrai — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #1 — Exterior","caption":"Exterior · Hotel Sahrai · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Full building facade of Hotel Sahrai captured from a street-level angle as part of the PressBeyond standardized 5-image hotel sequence.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true},{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/L__clv0ujkzu04jf15ymwszhtz3q1713353424693_497f3717-0e24-4bc6-8b43-ac820b3d2cdb.jpeg","role":"room1","roleLabel":"Primary Guest Room","sequenceIndex":2,"alt":"Hotel Sahrai — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #2 — Primary Guest Room","caption":"Primary Guest Room · Hotel Sahrai · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Full-room view of the primary guest bedroom at Hotel Sahrai, photographed with natural lighting and clear sightlines as part of the PressBeyond standardized 5-image hotel sequence.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true},{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/L__clv0ujqrz05l715ymb4hr3r591713353423389_41be7e12-0eef-4fb2-8c2c-ca7fa06ed63a.jpeg","role":"commonArea1","roleLabel":"Primary Common Area","sequenceIndex":3,"alt":"Hotel Sahrai — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #3 — Primary Common Area","caption":"Primary Common Area · Hotel Sahrai · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Primary common area at Hotel Sahrai — lobby or lounge — non-duplicative with the secondary social space, part of the PressBeyond standardized 5-image hotel sequence.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true},{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/L__clv0ujwqu06mz15ymti27fhxf1713353422192_86bfca36-3815-4151-b9e0-ef5e6d45059d.jpeg","role":"room2","roleLabel":"Secondary Guest Room","sequenceIndex":4,"alt":"Hotel Sahrai — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #4 — Secondary Guest Room","caption":"Secondary Guest Room · Hotel Sahrai · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Secondary guest room at Hotel Sahrai, deliberately distinct from the primary bedroom — non-duplicative imagery is part of the PressBeyond curation standard.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true},{"url":"https://d89wdvrh3yrgq.cloudfront.net/resized/L__clv0uk2kk07ov15ymgoab48yt1713353425337_f8b36b54-c9b6-434d-97a8-852358a4e94b.jpeg","role":"commonArea2","roleLabel":"Secondary Common Area","sequenceIndex":5,"alt":"Hotel Sahrai — Standardized Hotel Image Sequence #5 — Secondary Common Area","caption":"Secondary Common Area · Hotel Sahrai · PressBeyond hotel series","description":"Secondary lounge or social space at Hotel Sahrai — bar, dining, or terrace — deliberately distinct from the primary common area, part of the PressBeyond curation standard.","creditText":"PressBeyond","licensePage":"https://pressbeyond.com","distinct":true}]}]}