"Meknes" a Meknes Travel Page by barryg23

We had only the briefest stop at Meknes on the way to Rabat from Fes. Our original plan was to stay here for a whole day but we couldn't find anywhere to leave our bags while exploring so had to carry them around with us and hence only stayed for the morning. I certainly wouldn't advise carrying a backpack around the medina in Meknes!

We tried both train stations and the CTM bus station but none of them would take our bags. In the CTM place, they would only take them if we could prove we had a bus booked, at the main train station which was under renovation there was no left luggage, while at El-Amir station there was a left luggage but apparently it was closed. Never mind that there was four people sitting in the office doing nothing!!

By this point I was fed up of Meknes and we almost hopped on the next train to Rabat. Instead we decided to have a quick look around the medina. We took a petit taxi to Bab El-Mansour and began our tour. Maybe the museum would take our bags? But it being Monday, the museum was closed, so we had to carry them around the tiny streets in the medina. Apologies to all the people and donkeys I bumped into...

Despite all our bad luck, I really liked what I saw of Meknes and would have liked to have seen more. Fes is probably the most similar Moroccan city in terms of history and culture, but Meknes was more relaxed with much fewer tourists.

In 2007 we returned to Meknes and finally got our chance to see the city properly. Having hired a car in Fes and driven to Moulay Idriss and Volubilis, we drove on to Meknes and stayed overnight. The following day we explored the Imperial city and the medina. It was so much easier without those backpacks!