Sefrou: A Gentle Detour to Morocco's Cherry Town

Most travellers pass within thirty kilometres of Sefrou and never know it. They are in Fès, deep in one of the world's great medinas, and nobody tells them that a short drive south-east, at the first rise of the Middle Atlas, there is a smaller walled town where a river runs under the houses and the shopkeepers still say good morning before they say anything else.

Sefrou sits at roughly 850 metres, which is enough to soften the summer and to fill the orchards with cherry trees. Around 87,000 people live here, and on Thursdays the whole valley seems to come down to the market. It is not a grand town. There are no palaces to queue for, no tiled courtyards on the postcard circuit. What there is, is ordinary Moroccan life at a pace you can actually keep up with.

For travellers over 60, that is the point. Sefrou gives you a medina you can walk across in twenty minutes, a waterfall in the hills, a Jewish quarter with centuries of memory in its balconies — and the freedom to be back in your Fès riad in time for tea.

A little history

The name is said to come from the Ahel Sefrou, a Berber (Amazigh) group who settled here long before the town had walls; the Amazigh word asfru is often translated as "the solution". Tradition holds that Idris II stayed in Sefrou while Fès was being founded, which tells you something about how old the road between the two places is.

For centuries Sefrou was one of the most important Jewish towns in Morocco — so much so that it was nicknamed "Little Jerusalem". At its height the Jewish community is estimated to have numbered several thousand, a very large share of the town, living in the mellah beside the river and trading with the Berber tribes of the Atlas. Almost all of them left for Israel, France and Canada in the 1950s and 1960s, and the quarter has been quiet ever since, though restoration work has saved parts of it.

Sefrou also has an unexpected place in academic history: the American anthropologist Clifford Geertz and his colleagues spent years studying this town in the 1960s and 1970s, which made Sefrou one of the most closely described small towns in the Arab world. And since 1920 it has held its Cherry Festival each June — three days of music, parades and orchard pride that UNESCO added to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2012.

Stained-glass window inside a synagogue in Sefrou.

What to see

Everything worth seeing is within a small radius, and most of it is free. Allow a slow half-day for the town itself.

The medina

Sefrou's old town is compact, walled and still lived in rather than staged for visitors. Narrow lanes, low arches, a few faded facades, tailors and grocers at work. You enter through one of the old gates — Bab Lemkam and Bab Merba are the usual ones — and you can cross the whole medina on foot in twenty to thirty minutes without ever feeling lost for long. Nobody will follow you offering a tour.

The mellah and the river

The Oued Aggai cuts straight through the heart of the old town, and the former Jewish quarter sits on the far bank, reached by a small bridge. Look up for the wooden and iron balconies that lean over the lanes, and for carved doorways. Parts of the mellah are ruined and closed; a restored synagogue and the old Em Habanim school complex can usually be seen with a local guide, who is worth arranging in advance.

The cascades

Upstream from the medina the river drops over a rocky ledge into a shaded gorge. It is a modest waterfall by world standards, but a lovely, cool, green spot and a favourite picnic place for local families. The flow is strongest in spring after the snowmelt and can slow to a trickle by late summer.

Sidi Ali Bouserghine and Kef el-Moumen

On the hill above town stands the hilltop shrine of Sidi Ali Bouserghine, with the best view over Sefrou's rooftops and the orchards beyond. On the slopes of Jbel Bina is Kef el-Moumen, a cave with old tombs, long venerated by both Muslims and Jews. Both are uphill sites with uneven footing — see our comfort notes below.

The old town of Sefrou.

Crafts, cherries and the Thursday souk

Sefrou is a working craft town rather than a souvenir town, and the difference is obvious the moment you walk in.

Its most famous product is tiny: the hand-knotted silk buttons, known locally as aqqad, that close djellabas and ceremonial kaftans across Morocco. They are made almost entirely by women, often in cooperatives, and a single garment may need dozens. Watching a pair of hands turn thread into a perfect bead in under a minute is one of those small travel pleasures you remember longer than a monument.

You will also find weaving — blankets, rugs and handira wedding covers — along with leatherwork, ironwork, basketry and turned wooden bowls. The artisan complex near Bab Lemkam is a sensible first stop if you would like to buy directly from makers.

Thursday is market day, when farmers come down from the Middle Atlas villages. It is busy, cheerful and crowded — wonderful for atmosphere, less so if you dislike jostling. Mornings are best.

A craftsman in Sefrou turning bowls from apricot wood.

A day trip nearby: Bhalil

Six kilometres north-west of Sefrou — ten minutes by car — is the village of Bhalil, and it is a genuinely different sight rather than more of the same.

Bhalil is built against a hillside honeycombed with cave dwellings. Some families still use these troglodyte rooms as part of their homes: cool through the fierce summer, sheltered through the Atlas winter. Above them the village climbs in blocks of blue, pink and ochre, linked by little bridges over the lanes. Several households welcome visitors for mint tea and a look inside, usually arranged through a local guide for a modest fee, which is the polite and easy way to do it.

Be honest with yourself about the terrain: Bhalil is steep, with stepped lanes and no handrails. Many visitors are perfectly happy to be driven to the upper village, visit one cave house and enjoy the view without attempting the full climb. Combined with Sefrou, it makes a relaxed full day out of Fès.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• Base yourself in Fès. Sefrou has only a handful of small guesthouses. Most travellers over 60 will be more comfortable keeping a good riad in Fès and coming for the day — the drive is only about 30 to 45 minutes each way.
• Hire a car with a driver for the day. It costs far less than you expect, saves the walk between sights, and means you can be dropped at the medina gate and collected on the other side.
• The medina itself is kind. It is small, mostly flat along the river, and the lanes are short. The surfaces are old stone and can be slippery after rain, so shoes with grip matter more than anything else you pack.
• Skip the hills if stairs are hard. Sidi Ali Bouserghine and Kef el-Moumen involve real climbing on uneven, unsignposted paths. You can drive most of the way up to the viewpoint area; ask your driver about the current road and go with someone local.
• The waterfall path is uneven. Expect rough ground and a few steps down into the gorge. Lovely, but not a smooth promenade.
• Avoid midday in July and August. Summer afternoons here regularly pass 35°C. Visit between about 9am and noon, rest, then come out again after 4pm.
• Bring cash and tissues. Cards are rarely accepted in the old town, and public toilets are scarce; use the facilities at your café or guesthouse.
• Medical care: for anything beyond a minor problem, Fès has the region's main hospitals and is close by. Carry your regular medicines with you rather than leaving them at the hotel.
• Thursdays are the liveliest and the most crowded. If a busy market feels like too much, come another day — the town is calmer and no less charming.

The al-Qala quarter, on the slopes outside Sefrou's old town.

What to eat

Sefrou is not a restaurant destination, and it would be unfair to pretend otherwise. What it offers instead is produce and simple, honest cooking.

Cherries come first. The orchards around the town make Sefrou Morocco's cherry capital, and from roughly mid-May to late June the souk fills with fresh fruit, cherry juice and jars of preserve. Outside the season, look for the local olive oil and the mountain honey brought down from the Atlas — both make excellent, light, packable gifts.

On the food side, expect the good staples of the Middle Atlas: harira soup, bissara (a warm purée of dried fava beans with olive oil and cumin, a classic cool-morning breakfast), lamb or chicken tagines with olives and preserved lemon, grilled brochettes from a street grill, and fresh msemen flatbread with honey. Mint tea, of course, and more of it than you planned on.

A practical tip: eat early or arrange lunch through your guesthouse or guide. Choice is limited and the small places stop serving sooner than you might expect.

Getting there

Our verdict

Sefrou will not overwhelm you, and that is precisely its gift. After two or three days in Fès — magnificent, exhausting, endlessly uphill — an afternoon here feels like stepping out of a crowded room onto a balcony.

Go for the small things: the river sliding under the old houses, the women knotting silk buttons, the smell of cherries in June, the man who insists you try the honey before you decide. Go because the town asks nothing of you and nobody is selling you a carpet.

We would recommend it warmly to anyone over 60 who is already visiting Fès and wants one gentle, genuine day away from the crowds. Take a driver, wear proper shoes, keep to the flat lanes along the river, and leave the hilltop shrine to those with strong knees. You will still come home with the better story.

The Oued Aggai flowing through the old town of Sefrou.

“In Sefrou the river does the talking, and the town is content to listen.”

Photo credits

• Sefrou, region fes: Soufiane absri, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Sefrou Synagogue 1499801190: Omer Simkha, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Sefrou,medina: Bertramz, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Kunsthandwerker in Sefrou: Mhobl, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Sefrou,qala: Bertramz, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Sefrou,OuedAggai: Bertramz, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons