One month in Syria: a frame for slow travel

A week shows the spine of the country, and the weekly programme in this section sets that out. Thirty days buy something else: seeing the same place twice, going back tomorrow to a hall that was shut today, and making one stop in a day instead of three. This page builds that frame.

What a month changes

The wrong expectation is that a month lets you see more. The opposite is true — in a month you see less per day, and what you see stays with you. Three things are gained.

The first is a spare day. A closed museum, a wing under repair, a road shut and a day spent ill cannot be made up inside a week; in a month they move to tomorrow. The second is the second visit, since a courtyard in morning light and in late afternoon light is two different buildings. The third is the neighbourhood: buying bread from the same oven on three mornings is a different thing from touring a city.

The frame: five regions, thirty days

The programme divides into five regions, each leaning on its own base. Damascus and around it takes seven days, the south four, the central line five, the coast five, Aleppo and the north six, the desert and the Euphrates three. Thirty in total.

The order follows the geography: moving in one direction from south to north removes the backtracking. Leaving the desert until last has a separate reason — it is the part that depends most on conditions and the easiest to drop at the end.

Damascus and around: seven days

The first three days are inside the walls and on foot. The line from Hamidiyeh to the Umayyad Mosque, the Christian quarter, the madrasas and the bathhouse, the Ottoman face of the city, the shrines. Each of these sits on this site as its own half day or full day, and they should not be stacked. The fourth day takes the museum and the slope of Qasyoun.

Days five and six leave the city: one for the monasteries towards Qalamoun, one for the Barada valley up to Zabadani and Serghaya. The seventh day is empty. Do not programme it. Go back to the market, stretch out breakfast, wash clothes. The rest of the month rests on that day.

The south: four days

The run south from Damascus is short. Two days go to Bosra, because the theatre and the fabric of the town do not fit into one and the second walk stands on this site as a separate route. One day goes towards Suweida, Qanawat and Shahba. One day covers Deraa and Ezraa, where the junction of the Hejaz railway sits and the rails run through the market street.

This region is built on basalt and the colour of the stone differs from the north. Three days in the same heat and the same light make telling the periods apart genuinely easier.

The central line and the castles: five days

Homs and Hama are the bases. One day for a half day in Homs plus Qatna and Kadesh, one day for Krak des Chevaliers. In Hama, a day for the water wheels and a day for Apamea and Shaizar. The fifth day runs out to Masyaf and the Ismaili castles.

Two of those five days fall on castles, two on cities and one on the countryside. Two castles back to back are tiring, so putting a city day between them is what keeps the pace.

The coast: five days

Two days in Tartus: one for the town and Arwad, one towards Hawabi, Qadmus and Baniyas or along the line of three castles. Two days in Latakia: one for the town and its surroundings, one from the mountain down to the sea or up the road to Kassab. The fifth day takes the coastal run from Latakia down to Tartus.

The coast is the resting section of the month. The climate is mild, the distances are short and the evening happens on the corniche. If you are coming in summer, put these five days in the middle; they set a cool interval between the heavy heat of the interior.

Aleppo and the north: six days

Aleppo asks for three days on its own: the citadel to the mosque, Jdeideh and Aziziyeh, the wall line and the gates, and the market. This site carries around ten separate walks in Aleppo and they spread across three days comfortably.

The other three days go outside the city. One for the Dead Cities, one for Jebel Barisha or the northern massif, one towards Idlib for Ebla and Saint Simeon. These are the most rural days of the month; roads and access change, so keep the order loose and ask at the hotel each morning.

The desert and the Euphrates: three days

The last section is the most conditional. Two days for Palmyra is realistic: one for the site, one for the castle and the tower tombs. The third day takes the line of desert palaces, or the drive back to Damascus.

Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor are a separate decision and have their own page on this site. Adding them to a month is possible but needs six days rather than three, and depends on the state of the region that week. If you leave them out, close the programme with three days here; this is the first place to cut.

Rest days, season and what is left out

One day in every region stays empty, and that emptiness is the working margin of the plan. The days remembered at the end of a month are often those empty ones. There is also this: thirty days do not pass at one pace with one bag, and a slowing between the seventh and the tenth day is normal.

The season splits this frame in two. April and May, and October and November, work across all four climate zones at once. In summer the interior and the desert are heavy while the coast and the mountains are livable; in winter the coast is wet, the desert and the east are cold and the roads are more fragile.

What the frame leaves out should be written plainly. The north-east, meaning Hasakah and Qamishli, is not in these thirty days; the Golan and the border lines are not; and this frame carries no long trek and no night under canvas. Where to go and where not to go is answered on its own page in this section, and this programme does not stand in for it.