Driving and car hire in Syria

Deciding whether to drive in Syria comes before deciding what to drive. Roads are poorly maintained, checkpoints are frequent, night driving is a risk of its own, and your insurance almost certainly excludes the country. What follows is for people who decide with that in front of them.

Driving yourself, or hiring a driver

Most visitors hire a car with a driver. It is taken by the day, arranged through a hotel or a local agency, and it is in practice the only reasonable way to reach the places public transport does not go — Krak des Chevaliers, Qasr ibn Wardan, Palmyra. The driver is also the person who knows the state of the roads that day: which route is open, which checkpoint backs up at which hour. Renting a car to drive yourself is not a common option for a foreigner; where it is offered the price and terms move, so ask for a written contract.

Settle what the daily rate covers before you set off: fuel, the driver’s meals and overnight stay, trips outside the city, waiting hours. Left unspoken, they all arrive separately in the evening.

Licences and documents

Syria is a party to the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, not to the 1949 Geneva Convention. An International Driving Permit is recognised, but it has to be the one issued under Vienna. Carry your own licence, the permit, your passport and the vehicle registration; a checkpoint can ask for all of them. Traffic drives on the right.

Road conditions

The spine is the M5: 450 kilometres from the Jordanian border through Damascus to Aleppo. The M4 links Latakia to Saraqib, 120 kilometres. The stretch of the M45 between Bab al-Hawa and Sarmada has been widened to three lanes. Repairs are under way and some links are shut: work on the Rastan bridge was scheduled to run to February 2026, and bridge 46 in Latakia closed in July 2025, forcing a 6 kilometre detour. The British foreign office calls the roads dangerous because of poor maintenance, the fragile security situation and unexploded weapons, and says routes can be blocked without warning. Stay on the asphalt; the warning about unexploded weapons is a literal one.

One city rule catches people out: at roundabouts the entering car has right of way and the cars already in the circle wait. Damascus and Aleppo traffic is heavy and the signage is unreliable.

Fuel

Petrol comes from the red pump, marked “Super”, and diesel from the green one; petrol costs roughly twice as much. Stations thin out beyond the cities, queues are ordinary and supply changes day to day. The one workable rule: fill up at the first station once the tank drops to half, rather than waiting for the next one. Prices move — ask at the pump. Before a long stretch, ask the driver what the tank is holding.

Checkpoints

Security force checkpoints stand on the main routes, and any intercity trip passes through several. What to do is simple: slow down, put the window down, drop your high beams, keep your hands visible. Have your passport and entry stamp within reach. Do not photograph the checkpoint, military vehicles or the men working them — this is what gets visitors into trouble more than anything else. Answer briefly. Waiting time cannot be predicted; a morning start always beats an evening one.

Night driving

Do not take an intercity road at night. Street lighting depends on the power supply and is absent along most routes; you will meet unlit vehicles, animals and unmarked roadworks. The British foreign office singles out night driving as dangerous. Checkpoints are more cautious after dark too. Build the day around arriving before dusk, even where that adds a day to the route.

Accidents and insurance

If you have an accident, get a police report however small the damage and however clear the fault; without one the hire car account will not close. A driver who hits a pedestrian is routinely held responsible. Most travel policies and rental contracts exclude Syria, so have the Syria clause read to you before you buy. Roadside assistance is effectively non-existent: keep a spare tyre, a jack, water and a charged lamp in the car.