Syria for women travellers

The question women ask is always the same: can I go on my own. The honest answer takes two sentences. Women do go, and most of those who come back describe feeling at ease in the street. Official advisories, at the same time, state plainly that women travelling alone face harassment and verbal abuse. Both are true, and both belong on the same page.

The short answer

Travelling alone in Syria is a thing that can be done. The impression travellers share is consistent: traders are helpful, streets are busy, invitations to a family table come often, and being foreign draws attention without drawing hostility.

At the same time the security picture differs region by region, and official advice remains negative for the whole country. What holds in one part does not hold in another. What follows are the habits that narrow that gap.

Dress: what, and where

The measure is the same everywhere: shoulders and knees covered, fabric loose. A headscarf is not needed in the street; inside a mosque it is. Carry a thin scarf, and it will earn its place several times a day.

The difference is by quarter. Dress is relaxed around Bab Touma and Shaalan in Damascus, and in Jdeideh in Aleppo. In Idlib and in the countryside the measure is conservative and a headscarf is expected in practice. Looking around as you enter a quarter tells you more than any list.

Travelling alone

A few habits take the friction out. End the day before dark: streets empty and the lighting depends on whether the power is on. Start intercity journeys in the morning. Have one person who knows where you are that day — the owner of your hotel is enough.

“Are you married?” is not hostile. It is a standard way of opening a conversation. If you would rather not have it, keep the answer short. A ring, or saying that your husband is waiting at the hotel, is a closing line travellers use often and it works. You do not have to lie; closing the subject is enough.

Taxis and the road

Sit in the back of a taxi. Agree the fare before you get in — meters do not run, and bargaining afterwards starts from a bad place. At night, have the hotel call the taxi; a driver the front desk knows carries a different kind of responsibility from one flagged down in the street.

In shared taxis and minibuses, sitting next to another woman is a common choice and nobody finds it odd; telling the driver is enough. On buses the seats are numbered, so the question does not arise. At checkpoints your passport is asked for and the exchange is short and formal.

At the hotel

The hotel takes your passport at check-in and registers it, which is required. When you go up, look at the lock and at whether the door bolts from the inside. In courtyard houses in the old cities the room doors are often wooden and simple. Asking to change rooms is taken as normal.

Most women travellers pick small family-run hotels, and not for the comfort: the owner is at the desk, the door opens when you come back late, and if something goes wrong you know who to talk to.

In the souq and the street

Talking to traders is normal and usually enjoyable. Asking a price commits you to nothing. If staying long in one shop means being out of sight of the crowd, step out and carry the conversation on in the street.

Photography runs the other way too: someone may ask to be photographed with you. No is a complete answer and no reason is expected.

What is actually uncomfortable

What travellers describe most is looking and commentary: long stares in the street, remarks from behind, conversations about where you are from that will not end. Anything physical is reported rarely, though not never, in a crowded market or a packed minibus.

The response that works is short and plain: do not stop, do not meet the eye, keep walking. If it persists, do not go quiet. Raising your voice and turning to the people around you usually brings traders and passers-by into it. The crowd here is on your side.

Where it is easier, where to take more care

Central Damascus and Aleppo, the Christian quarters and the newer districts are where women travellers describe the easiest time. Hama and Tartus are small and quiet. Idlib and the countryside are conservative, and both dress and moving around alone ask for more care there.

In the northeast, the eastern desert and the south the picture changes month by month, and advisories are heavier for those areas. This site’s page on where to go and where not to sets out that distinction in detail. It applies here as well, with one extra notch of caution.

Practical items

Sanitary products are sold in pharmacies and supermarkets in the cities, but the choice of brand is narrow and tampons are not widely stocked. Bringing what you use is the safest plan. Painkillers are easy to find.

Public toilets are few. Mosques, restaurants and hotel lobbies are what people actually use, and nobody objects. Carry wet wipes and hand sanitiser — in many places water is as intermittent as the power.