by Michael
We arrived in Fes and did our usual walk to find a hotel. The problem with Fes (and many Moroccan cities) is that the hotels in the medinas (old walled cities) are on narrow streets behind nondescript doors. Even when we can find them, we can’t figure out if they are in our price range. And once you find a place, you must sit down and have some mint tea before you do anything else, then you can see the room, and maybe after that you can learn the price.
After visiting a couple places that were booked, we saw (and had mint tea) a place that we could have booked for about $35 per night. But we didn’t think it was a good value and wasn’t quite in the location that we wanted to be in, so we kept on. We went across the Fes Medina to find a better neighborhood but didn’t find the right type of doors. Many Moroccans tried to lead us to the “Funky Fes” (a cheap hostel) but we thought that wouldn’t be a good idea.
After at least an hour (we got so lost — literally going around the narrow winding streets in circles without seeing another hotel option), we found Dar Bensouda. The centuries-old building with a restored courtyard was gorgeous. We had to stay for the mint tea. And two nights.

This place is gorgeous (now say it again with a British accent — it will seem even better)
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