Dar Lalla Kenza

It's hard not to recommend Dar Lalla Kenza and its friendly manager Ali. Fes medina can be a bit of an intimidating place, especially at night. It is a huge network of winding small streets and back alleys like a maze, meaning it's easy to get lost and you don't want to get stuck looking for your Riad in the middle of the night, especially with shady hawkers about. Luckily Dar Lalla Kenza is located just up some steps off the main street with a range of restaurants and facilities. This means you can avoid the medina altogether at night if you like, and enjoy it in the day when it's a lot less scary and vastly more friendly. The Riad itself is lovely, the rooms are nicely presented, clean and comfortable. The roof terrace has stunning views across the medina and the manager Ali is a really lovely guy. He did everything he could to help us and never tried to sell us things we didn't want. It wouldn't have been the same without this Riad, so I have no hesitation in recommending it. The breakfast is also delicious and hearty!

It was slightly chilly in the Riad in the evenings during the winter months (early Jan), but this is a problem that effects most Riads, not just Dar Lalla Kenza. A few extra heaters would be nice, but you are provided with good quality bedding and blanklets so it's really not much of an issue at all.

The location is wonderful and the staff are very friendly and great English! Because there were four of us traveling and the quadruple rooms were booked when we reserved rooms, when we arrived we planned on one of us staying in the shared dormitory room. The staff was kind enough to upgrade one of our party into a single with no additional charge. Very kind. This was my second time staying here as I enjoyed the location, riad, and breakfast so much the first stay I decided to come back.

The staff suggestions for Fes were misleading. We asked for a restaurant recommendation; the restaurant was beautiful, but we were not told that the meal would be extremely expensive. Couscous typically costs 25 MAD and the restaurant we were taken to by the staff when we asked for a couscous recommendation cost us 900 MAD for 4 people for lunch, $90. Additionally, the tour we were highly recommended by the staff was supposed to be an English speaking tour, the guide did not know English, nor did he take us to historically important parts of the tour; we spent 5 hours on the tour which was pricey and uninformative.