Practical information
Visas, border crossings, cash, SIM cards, getting between cities — where the plan is built.
145 Practical
Can you book anything online in Syria?
Hotels, flights, tours and museums: what works online and what does not. Sanctions came off, so why is there still no payment rail, and what does WhatsApp do.
Common mistakes travellers make in Syria
Wrong season, too little cash, old and new pounds confused, phones at checkpoints, photos without asking. Twenty items and where each one is explained.
How far you get in one day in Syria
Damascus to Aleppo is 350 kilometres and four to five hours; Homs to Hama, forty-five minutes. Which pairs fit one day, and what to allow for checkpoints.
The castles of Syria: which one is for you
There are 25 castle entries on this site and you do not need all of them. Which you can drive to, which means a climb, which still stands, which is a ruin.
Museums of Syria: what is kept where
Ugarit’s alphabet is in Damascus, Tell Halaf’s basalt figures guard Aleppo’s door, the Dead Cities’ mosaics sit in Maarat. Where each site’s finds ended up.
Roman and Byzantine Syria: what is left where
Palmyra’s colonnade, Bosra’s basalt theatre, Apamea’s two kilometres and the Dead Cities of the north. What each period left where, and how to build a route.
Crusader traces in Syria
Krak, Marqab, Safita, Yahmur and Saladin Castle sit on one route; Tartus’s castle-town, its cathedral and Arwad do not. Who came, what is left, what you see.
How Islamic architecture developed in Syria
From the courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque to Mamluk street fronts and Ottoman complexes. Which building brought which idea first, and how to see it in one walk.
Water in Syria: channels, wheels and cisterns
Hama’s wooden wheels, Palmyra’s underground channel, the Barada branches of Damascus and the cisterns of the Dead Cities. How water is found, moved and stored.
A year in Syria, month by month
What happens where in each month: weather, harvest, holidays, crowds and closed doors. One frame for all twelve months, and which region actually works when.
How to read a building in Syria
Where the inscription sits, how a reused column gives itself away, what grey mortar tells you, where the mihrab points. Eight questions worth asking on site.
Hiring a local guide in Syria
A guide, a driver and the keyholder at the door are three different jobs. Where to find a guide, how the fee is agreed, which language, and who vouches.