Fes dinner show: what the ticket covers

What the ticket is

The ticket is one evening of about three hours in a historic Fes palace: dinner at a private table, then a live folklore show with musicians, dancers and fire acts. A travel agency sells it as a package that includes pickup from your accommodation. The palace is a dinner venue, not a daytime museum visit, and the ticket does not add a city tour or a market stop. Start times are listed per date in the booking calendar, and the confirmation carries the details for your night.

What is on the table

Dinner opens with fresh bread, olives and a spread of cooked Moroccan salads. Each guest then picks a main course from a short set of classics, and the meal closes with fresh seasonal fruit, Moroccan mint tea and cookies. That sequence is the shape of a formal Moroccan meal, which traditionally starts with hot and cold salads and moves on to a tagine or couscous, with fruit to finish. The menu can change, so check the current main-course choices on the booking page before you decide.

• Bread, olives and cooked salads
• One main course of your choice
• Fresh seasonal fruit
• Mint tea and cookies

Read next: A Moroccan table: salads, tagine, tea

What you watch

A live folklore band plays through the evening on violin, oud and darbuka, and local dancers perform traditional folk numbers. The description of the evening also lists belly dancing, simple fire displays and a magic act. On some nights a staged Moroccan wedding invites guest volunteers to dress up and take part. The mood is festive and high-energy, and the format is interactive, not a hushed recital. The itinerary on the booking page lists the dinner first and the dance show second, though itineraries can change on the night. Expect to clap, to be looked at, and possibly to be invited to your feet.

Read next: Fes dinner music: oud, violin and darbuka

What a palace means in Fes

In Fes a palace is usually a very large courtyard house. Sultans built summer palaces in the city, and in the 19th and early 20th centuries grand viziers and other senior figures built private ones for their households. Like humbler Moroccan houses they face inward: a plain street front, then a courtyard where the tile, the plaster and the carved wood are kept. That inward plan is why the dinner is staged around the courtyard, and why the first sight of the room matters so much.

Read next: Inside a Fes palace: tile, cedar, plaster

Pickup and the old medina

The ticket lists pickup from your accommodation, and the booking page shows the details when you check a date. The catch is the medina. Fes el Bali is one of the world’s largest car-free urban areas, and only one major road enters it. If your riad or hotel is inside the pedestrian zone, vehicles cannot reach it, so the team arranges the nearest accessible pickup point. Plan to walk a little through the lanes before the ride, and again on the way home, and wear shoes that suit that.

Read next: Palace dinner in Fes: pickup, cash, dress

Drinks, cash and tips

Drinks are not included: mineral water, soft drinks and alcohol are all extra, and the venue takes cash only for them. Morocco’s currency is the dirham, issued by the central bank, Bank Al-Maghrib. Tips for the driver and venue staff are not included either. UK government travel advice urges caution at cash machines and says to avoid carrying large amounts of money, so take dirhams out during the day and carry only what the evening needs, in more than one pocket. Tip in small notes, which are easier to find than change for a large one. If you do not drink alcohol, water and soft drinks are also ordered and paid for in cash.

Who it suits

The evening is open to solo travellers, couples, families and groups, and each party has its own table, so a single seat is as welcome as a table for ten. Couples get a long, unhurried dinner with live music. Families get a lively room, but think about how late a three-hour evening runs for small children. Groups get the easiest night out in the city, with the dinner, the entertainment and the ride arranged by one booking instead of by a committee.

What travellers say

Travellers praise the amount of food, the ornate setting and the attentive service, and many single out the driver. The recurring criticism is the show: some call it uneven and would like clearer information about the programme and its length. That fits the format, a dinner with entertainment, not a staged production. If the food, the room and the music matter more to you than choreography, the evening works as intended, and if you want polished theatre, another ticket will serve you better.

Booking, paying and choosing a night

Through GetYourGuide, a booking is refunded in full if cancelled more than a day ahead, and a reservation can be held now and paid for later. Both terms belong to the GetYourGuide booking, so anything arranged directly with a provider carries its own conditions. Only dates in the calendar are on sale. Pick a night with room on either side, because a late arrival or an early start does not suit a three-hour dinner. In Ramadan, restaurant hours shift across Morocco and UK government advice recommends checking them, so let the calendar decide.

How it compares

A dinner at a medina restaurant of your own choosing gives you control over menu, pace and route, at the cost of the show, the pickup and the planning. The annual Festival of World Sacred Music, which began in 1994, offers concerts of a different kind in late spring or early summer, with its own programme and tickets, held at venues across the city. The palace dinner is the version you can fix on a calendar weeks ahead and walk into with a ride arranged. Choose by what you value: control, or a finished evening.

Who this isn't for

Skip it if you want a quiet, private dinner: the room is festive and the show is interactive. Skip it if you would rather pay for drinks by card, because drinks are cash only. Skip it if you need a menu built around a strict diet, since mains come from a set list; message the provider from the booking page first. And skip it if you plan an early night, because the evening runs about three hours plus the rides at either end.