A friend and I, we are planning to travel from Beirut via Krak des Chevaliers to Aleppo in mid-November.
We only have got one night to spend in between Beirut and Aleppo and are rather unsure about the possible route.
Actually we think it would be nice to travel from Beirut via Baalbek to Krak des Chevaliers, stay there overnight and travel further the next day to Aleppo after visiting the castle of Krak des Chevaliers.
Now I have heard that the region close to the Lebanese-Syrian border North of Baalbek (around Hermel) is pretty dangerous (as most of the Beeka Valley seems to be, too).
Does anyone know whether it would make any sense at all to travel from Baalbek to Krak des Chevaliers via Bcharre and Tripoli instead? Or is it better to totally skip Baalbek and go directly from Beirut to Krak des Chevaliers? But even then the direct route would lead via Tripoli which according to some sources would be insecure as well.
Any ideas or suggestions? Any tips concerning transportation?
After all I hope that the plan should work out to get up early in Krak the day after the border crossing to visit the castle and then travel further to reach Aleppo on the same day, shouldn’t it?
Thanks in advance for all your help!
We are really looking forward to our trip to Lebanon and Syria!
Yes, you can do it. Even with public transport.
Take a minibus or service taxi from Cola station to Baalbek.
From Baalbek you have to find a minibus or service taxi to Al-Kaa border (it's probably better to go to by-pass of Baalbek at first and look for transport on transit to north).
From the border you have to take service taxi to Homs. If there is nothing going to Homs you can also take a taxi to Al Qusayr (first bigger village in Syria) and take a bus from Al Qusayr to Homs.
From Homs you have two options. If you have still time and it's not getting dark you can take any transport going to Tartous and ask to be dropped off at the junction to Qalaat al Husn (Krak des Chevaliers) and then probably you have to take a taxi until your hotel.
If it's quite late when you arrive Homs it's better to take a taxi all the way from Homs to your hotel.
After visiting of Krak take any transport going back to Homs-Tartous motorway and then any transport going to Homs. You may be lucky to get a minibus or service taxi all the way from Qalaat to Homs. From Homs it's easy to find a bus to Aleppo. You may have even time to make a stop in Hama on the way and arrive to Aleppo at the evening. There are plenty of buses on this main road.
I don't know cureent prices for any of the busses or service taxis but you can find average prices from recent guide books.
And there are no problems in Bekaa and near the Syrian border. Baalbek is actually getting a little bit overcrowded already with tens of buses of tourists arriving every day from Damascus. It was very different from situation 2 years ago when I visited it.
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