2 Days: Fes to Meknes and Volubilis
Two days is enough for Fes’s two easiest real trips out of the city, no overnight required for either. Day 1 pairs Meknes and Volubilis, the imperial city and Rome’s edge; day 2 heads into the Middle Atlas for Ifrane and the Azrou cedar forest. Give the medina its own time separately, our 2-day Fes itinerary covers that.
Book these before you go:
- Meknes, Volubilis and Moulay Idriss day trip : the anchor booking of this trip, lock in a morning slot
- Fes to Middle Atlas day trip : confirm the cedar forest stop is included, not just the drive through Ifrane
- Your Fes riad : rooms inside the medina walls are limited, do not leave this until you land
| Day | Focus | Distance / travel time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meknes imperial city, Volubilis Roman ruins, Moulay Idriss | 60km, 45 min-1hr plus an onward taxi leg |
| 2 | Ifrane Little Switzerland, Azrou cedar forest and macaques | 1.5-2 hours each way |
Day 1: Meknes and Volubilis, the imperial city and Rome’s edge
An ONCF train from Fes Ville to Meknes runs 45 minutes to an hour, roughly 18-26 MAD, or charter a grand taxi round trip covering Meknes, Volubilis and Moulay Idriss for roughly 400-500 MAD for the whole car. Give Meknes an hour or two on its own: Bab Mansour’s gate is one of the most elaborate in North Africa, and the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail is genuinely open to non-Muslims, remove your shoes at the door. Volubilis , Morocco’s best-preserved Roman site, charges 70 MAD adult entry (fact-checked 2026-07), storks nest on the surviving Arch of Caracalla, and the mosaics reward hiring a guide at the gate. Moulay Idriss, the hilltop pilgrimage town nearby, earns the short stop even though parts of it stay closed to non-Muslim overnight stays. Book the Meknes, Volubilis and Moulay Idriss day trip on GetYourGuide .
Day 2: Ifrane and Azrou, Little Switzerland and a cedar forest full of monkeys
Ifrane and Azrou sit roughly 1.5-2 hours from Fes through pine-forested Middle Atlas roads. Ifrane earned its Little Switzerland nickname honestly, alpine chalets and genuinely snowy winters, a look no other Moroccan town pulls off. The better reason to come is the Azrou cedar forest, home to Barbary macaques resident year-round, not a rare sighting but a near-guaranteed one. A typical guided day tour runs 8-9 hours round trip with a morning pickup. Visitmorocco.com’s see and do page covers the wider Middle Atlas region if two days ever becomes a longer trip. Book the Fes to Middle Atlas day trip on GetYourGuide .
Bring small MAD notes for both days, toll booths, taxi fares and cedar forest parking attendants along the route rarely have change for a large bill.