We stayed at Dar El Hana for 3 nights and I booked here because of the great reviews. Leading up to the trip I was a little unsure what to expect of Fes, being 3 women travellers on our own, whether it would be safe and how much hassle we would get. My worries were completely unfounded and we had the most wonderful time and I could highly recommend this as a great place for a girls trip away.

From the moment we arrived at Dar El Hana we were absolutely looked after. We arrived early in the morning after a terribly early red eye flight and Josephine had already organised a lovely breakfast with tea and coffee for us on arrival, just what we needed! Over breakfast Josephine gave us copies of maps, complete with highlights and marked bits showing us where we were and how to get to certain places. She gave us a good overview of the old medina and how to find our way around, also recommending good places to eat.

Later that morning our guide arrived to give us a tour of the old medina (I pre booked this with Josephine before we arrived). This was a perfect introduction to the wonderful old city. He spent half a day with us and was very cheap (cost from memory about 10 pounds total) for all three of us. Ali, the guide was a local, very nice with excellent english and was able to tell us all about the history, people and landmarks of Fes. He also took us to the tannery and some wonderful shops with local moroccan handycrafts.

At Dar El Hana the housekeeper cooks the most delectable 3 course moroccan meals, which you can pre book with Josephine if you wish, 10 pounds per head and an absolute must! They are truly delicious! We enjoyed these meals on the roof terrace of the house watching the sunset and enjoying the warm weather. Just divine and a great way to finish off the day.

The rooms and house itself were spotlessly clean (very important to me!) and decorated in lovely moroccan style interiors. The beds were comfortable and there is air conditioning in each room for comfort when it gets too hot! The breakfasts are also lovely, ample and set you up for the day.

Josephine the hostess was the most lovely, helpful lady with nothing too much trouble. A car was pre arranged to collect us from the airport with a man to meet us with a cart to take our luggage and walk us right in to the Dar. This was brilliant and I would highly recommend organising this before you come. To try and arrange a taxi and walk into the old medina with your luggage on your own would be quite difficult and would not be very easy to find on your first arrival. The airport is about a 40 minute drive to the old medina.

Shopping......possibly one of the best places to shop that I have ever seen! Things are VERY cheap and you need to bargain to within an inch of your life to get the prices discounted, but even not discounted, they are still cheap! The locals expect you to bargain with them and seem to thoroughly enjoy this. This is the place to buy wonderful moroccan themed interior items. There are beautiful silk and wool hand weaved blankets in a rainbow of colours, incredible hand painted ceramics, plates, bowls, all the leather goods from the tannery, cheap leather bags, lovely hand made and dyed carpets etc etc...it just goes on and on. Our only regret is that we didn't buy MORE! but we just couldn't carry more than we had onto the plane or stuff any more into our bags! Ladies....this is a shoppers paradise! so come prepared for that!

Another must do, if it interests you, is a moroccan cooking class with famous Fes chef Lahcen Biggi. Famous English chef Rick Stein, if you are familiar with him, recently did a tv show with Lahcen while on his cooking travels of morocco. This was so much fun and I would recommend this too. Josephine again can book this for you. It includes going out in the morning with Lahcen, buying all your produce and meat for the meal at the food markets, that you prepare later in the day. Lahcen's kitchen is in a beautiful moroccan house just outside the old medina where you go and cook the meal and then enjoy it later in the most gorgeous surrouondings.

Overall the people of Fes were very friendly and helpful. Incredibly most of them speak fairly good broken english, along with fluent French and arabic! Being fair western women we did get stared at and hassled a bit, so dress conservatively, covering shoulders and don't wear anything above the knee. Wear flat comfortable shoes, preferably covered shoes, as the streets are filthy and dusty with lots of animal "doo" around! We never felt unsafe and the main hassles we did get were for us to buy things from their shops, rather than being rude. At night if we wanted to go to a restaurant, Josephine would book this for us and the restaurant would send one of their waiters out to collect us from the house and walk us to and from the restaurant for a very small fee! I would recommend this at night if you are going out as it would be very easy to get lost in the small winding streets in the old medina.

Lastly, I could not recommend Dar El Hana highly enough. It is a lovely, clean, quiet haven to go to amongst the chaos and vibrancy of the old medina. Dar El Hana gives you a real authentic experience of Fes and is in a brilliant location, within the old medina (make sure you stay in the old medina and not in the new city, otherwise you really would miss out on the true experience of the place). Josephine the hostess really makes your trip and experience everything you could hope it to be.

A wonderful place!

I was unfortunate that I had change my plans after having booked my accomodation at Dar el Hana. And there was no vacancy for my new dates
- so my experiences are not of a stay this place but managing through the issues of booking and cancellations.

My experience of interacting with Josephine through all this has been amazing. Since we were supposed to check-in close to 11:00 p.m., she offered to have light dinner ready for us delightfully accomodating requests for a vegetarian meal for my wife.

When we had to change dates at the last moment, she sent some very good recommendations - which werent just copy/paste of website links, but her comments about the place, location and their owners. Amazing considering that she wouldnt be getting our custom!

We are overwhelmed enough that my wife feels that we should anyway drop in to say a hello to Josephine - when was the last time you considered doing that at a place which declined you accomodation for being fully booked?

I couldn't praise the Dar El Hana highly enough. I arrived late late late in the night and Josephine made special arrangements to help me find my way. She had a driver pick me up at the train station at about 1:00 am and lead me to the Riad. Upon arrival, she offered me a snack and even hot chocolate. It was so nice of her to wait up to welcome me.

Fes is a challenging city to navigate, but the Dar El Hana is an excellent place to retreat to and recoup. I stayed in the Acacia room and it was lovely. It was spacious and bright. The bathroom was also nicely decorated. And there was plenty of hot water in the showers which was great.

I had dinner one night at the hotel and also breakfasts on all three mornings that I was there. The food was very good. The Riad was very social for having only three rooms and it was nice to meet other travelers, who were all very nice.

Josephine is very knowledgeable about the city and can provide helpful hints on how to get around. I highly recommend the Dar El Hana.

Josephine Kwan we applaud you! This little Dar off the main Talaa Kbira of the Fes Medina is a great place to become initiated with Morocco. Easy to find actually and safe to get back to in the dark. Josephine was a wonderful host and excellent adviser, she even took breakfast with her guests and was full of recommendations! However, like a lot of places in the Medina you may be awoken by the early call to prayers from very nearby mosques! Having stayed all over Morocco we can now look back and appreciate the in-room heaters, bins and use of kitchen!!