VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon
LyonThe Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

Photos: Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lyon by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Fes or Lyon?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Fes for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Fes’s own page.

Choose Lyon for

  • nightlife
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Lyon’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Fes 5, Lyon 12: Lyon leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Fes 62, Lyon 84: Lyon leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Fes 80, Lyon 77: Fes leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Lyon 58: Lyon leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes 52, Lyon 64: Lyon leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Fes 62, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Fes 22, Lyon 62: Lyon leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Lyon 58: Fes leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Fes 80, Lyon 42: Fes leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Lyon 68: Lyon leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes 70, Lyon 40: Fes leads by 30 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes and Lyon.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Fes
49match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Lyon
Best match
60match

Wins on nightlife and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Lyon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
FesLyon

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre). Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFesLyon
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightFrench
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation408 m160 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsLyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre141 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureFesLyon
City population1,167,842519,127
People per km²3,65010,838
Museums within 10 km243
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fes or Lyon somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.