Staying in Fes

We stayed for two nights in Fes, at a place called Riad Fes Maya. The four of us agreed that never had any of us stayed in so gorgeous a hotel—not anywhere, not ever. I normally wouldn't devote an entire blog post to something so mundane as a hotel, but the riad in Fes that Peter and Jessa found for us is special. It is simply stunning. (And, we didn't break the bank to stay here.) It's so magnificent that I'm not exaggerating when I say I'd pay admission to tour it. The front door (above) is unassuming, but that's the way many old buildings are in Morocco: don't judge what might be inside by the front door.

Let me start off by saying that these photos won't do this place justice, as I'm not that skilled a photographer. But thankfully it photographs easily. When we walked in I tried to act cool but my jaw literally dropped. This is the (small) front desk and (large) lobby area.

This is the view looking up at carved plaster above the lobby. The riad is quite "small" in the sense that there are only something like ten rooms in total. It was once a family home and was recently converted into a riad.

Upon arrival we were treated to fresh-squeezed orange juice and cookies. This is normal in nice hotels in Morocco, but to be quite honest they should have given me smelling salts because I felt like fainting from shock at the beauty of this place.

We sat here to eat our cookies, drink our orange juice, and gain our composure.

We were constantly doing this. It was hard to act cool, even for Brad.

This was our room. Those floor tiles are all individual. It had a bathroom that was as delightful as the room.

My definition of a delightful bathroom.

Peter and Jessa's room. The short flight of stairs led to their bathroom. 

Their bathroom sinks. Ours were also ceramic, but a different design.

All levels of the riad had corner sitting areas like this. That's tile on the wall and chiseled cedar in the foreground. The mosaics on the floor (and wall) are all handcut.

The hallways looked like this.

This was the hallway outside of our door (which is open).

This is our window, looking out to that hallway.

The ceilings looked like this.

The tile throughout is exquisite. These are all individual pieces.

Inviting tables are set throughout with locally-made ceramics and metalware. 

Although tables were set in the lobby area, we ate our meals on the rooftop because the weather was perfect. This was our table.

More rooftop seating. I can't overstate the gorgeousness of the mosaics throughout the riad.

One more case in point for gorgeous mosaics: this fountain up on the rooftop.

This was the view (of the medina) from the rooftop of the riad. 

Some final thoughts. The service at this riad, which I haven't mentioned yet, was beyond compare, almost to too great a fault. The small staff literally slept on the premises and were at the ready round-the-clock. They made us feel like honored guests, which was of course nice but we all felt a bit uncomfortable at the fact that they literally never went home. But without a doubt staying here markedly affected the pleasure of our visit to Fes. We tried to spend a quality amount of time at the riad as it was such a treat just to be in the building. I'm giving all thumbs up for Riad Fes Maya.