Straight answers about Syria

The main tourist corridor, Damascus, Homs, Hama, Aleppo, and the coast, is being visited safely by international travellers every week, almost always with a local guide. Parts of the northeast, the far south, and areas near several borders remain unsafe or closed.

Most Western governments still advise against all travel to Syria, which has real consequences for your insurance. Both of those statements are true at once, which is why the honest answer is longer than a yes or a no.

The risks that actually affect ordinary visitors, in order of likelihood, are road accidents, unexploded ordnance off the main roads, and limited medical facilities outside the major cities. Terrorism risk has fallen substantially since 2024 but is not zero. Petty crime is genuinely low by regional standards.

US passport holders do visit, usually through a licensed tour operator that arranges the visa. The State Department advises against all travel, which affects insurance and means consular assistance is extremely limited. Nothing about being American makes you a target on the street.

Solo women do visit. Syrian society is conservative and street harassment is less common than in some neighbouring countries. A guide and modest dress make the trip considerably easier rather than being strictly necessary.

A serious and continuing hazard, concentrated in formerly contested areas and off the main roads. The rule is simple and absolute: stay on surfaced roads and marked paths, and never enter ruined buildings or open ground off-route.

Most nationalities do. For many, the process runs through a licensed Syrian tour operator who issues an invitation or security approval, which is one of the main reasons visitors travel with an operator. Processing times vary widely, so start six to eight weeks before departure.

Yes. Damascus and Aleppo airports are both operating, with a growing but still limited number of international routes. Many visitors still fly to Beirut and cross by road, which takes around three hours from the airport.

Yes, from Lebanon, Jordan, and parts of the Turkish frontier. The Beirut to Damascus road is the most used route by visitors. Crossings from Iraq and the areas adjoining Israel are not viable.

Yes. Tourist visas are being issued, hotels are taking bookings, tour operators are running trips, and archaeological sites and museums are reopening in stages. It is open and it is not yet easy, which are different things.

No. Food, accommodation, and site entry are cheaper than almost anywhere else in the region. The significant costs are the guide and vehicle, and getting into the country. Once you are there, daily spending is low.

No. Foreign cards do not work, and there are no ATMs available to visitors. Syria is a cash economy for travellers: bring clean, new USD or EUR notes covering everything you expect to spend, and change what you need locally.

Everything you plan to spend, plus a meaningful buffer. There is no fallback if you run short. We deliberately do not publish daily figures, because the exchange rate moves fast enough that any number we printed would mislead you within weeks.

Modest and unremarkable. For women, covered shoulders and knees, with a scarf for mosques. For men, long trousers. Damascus and Aleppo are used to visitors and nobody expects you to dress as a local, but covering up attracts less attention and is simply more comfortable.

Yes, and it is legal and available. Syria has its own wine and arak production, and bars and restaurants serve alcohol, particularly in Damascus, Aleppo, and the coastal cities. Drinking in the street or anywhere near a mosque is another matter.

Almost everywhere, yes, and people are usually pleased to be asked. Never photograph checkpoints, soldiers, military sites, or government buildings. That rule is worth taking seriously.

Majority Sunni Muslim, with substantial Alawite, Christian, Druze, Ismaili, and Twelver Shia communities, and a Yazidi presence in the northeast. Syria has one of the oldest continuous Christian populations in the world, and Damascus has been a centre of both faiths for centuries.

Yes, though both are slow by European standards. Hotel wifi is fine for messaging and unreliable for video calls. Buying a local SIM on arrival is more dependable, and cheap.

Yes, with cuts. Most hotels run generators, so expect short gaps rather than long blackouts. Carry a power bank and charge things when you can rather than when you need to.

Arabic is the official and majority language, spoken day to day as Syrian Arabic, a dialect of Levantine Arabic. Kurdish is second by number of speakers. Armenian, Syriac, Aramaic, Adyghe, and Turkish are each spoken by established communities, and Aramaic survives as a living mother tongue in three villages north of Damascus.

Some, especially younger people in Damascus and Aleppo and anyone working in tourism. French is present from the Mandate era. A guide removes the problem entirely, and learning five words of Arabic changes how you are received.

Damascus is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, with settlement evidence going back several thousand years and continuous urban occupation for at least three millennia. The claim to be the oldest capital in the world is contested but not unreasonable.

By land area, more than half of it is steppe or desert. By population, no: most Syrians live in the green western third, along a Mediterranean coast, in forested mountains that get snow every winter, and in river valleys. The country is roughly the size of Washington state and contains five distinct landscapes.

Depends who you ask. Historically: Damascus and Aleppo, two of the oldest cities in the world; Palmyra; the first alphabet, at Ugarit; Damascus steel; Aleppo soap. Culturally: Arabic poetry, the Aleppine musical tradition, and a standard of hospitality that visitors consistently describe as unlike anywhere else.