Travel in Syria

lambtiger...... Stash 99% of your luggage at your 1st hotel in Damascus, not forgetting to pick it up en-route to the airport. Get inter - town buses (coaches to you and me). They are cheap,frequent, comfortable and safe. Then you can take local mini-buses or even taxis to shuttle you out to sites/ruins when ever required. Hire car is certainly a better option. Particularly if you only have 6 days, the roads and signage outside of the cities are clear and of high quality. You would most probably walk into the old city of Allepo, or even take a local taxi from your hotel to the gates. Public transport including taxis are cheap as chips. In any case you will be amazed how cheap that taxi driver waiting on a street in Damascus or Allepo actually is. Especially when there are no travel agent's fees to bump up his taxi's fares.
Having said all that, my bottom line would be, if I went to Syria again, I would like to have a hire car.

Hiring a car is a good option, but not necessary by any means. As #1 said, leave your luggage with your hotel in Damascus and you can get anywhere in the country on public transportation for just a few dollars.

You have picked a good time to visit Syria, summer here is unbearable so autumn is good choice.
A girlfriend of mine is coming from Spain in september, and I am planning to rent a car and tour Syria with it, I guess it's the best way to Syria the whoel country with the least expenses possible, so I recommend you doing that too.
You can also visit the coastal cities if you are interested in archaeology, and its beautiful country side too, it's like being lost in paradise.

Do you need to overnight in Palmyra? I travelled around with luggage in tow from Aleppo to Hama to Damascus. I used each of these cities as a base and it worked out perfectly. The only drawback was a very long day trip from Hama to Crac and Palmyra which was arranged by hotel in Hama. If you travel from Aleppo to Crac, Hama and then Palmyra be prepared for along day. Buses from Aleppo - Hama - Damascus are frequent and there are not expensive, you can take the train too if you prefer but these are not as frequent. I hired a car and driver to sightseeing around Aleppo (St Simons, Dead Cities, etc) and then drop me off in Hama, it cost much less than $200. If staying in Palmyra overnight is a must, you can still travel around easily using public transport and maybe hire a car and driver for a day or two if needed, just to be able to do some sightseeing enroute. Of course, travelling around will be much easier if you can leave your luggage in Damascus, not a bad idea to email a few places and ask, see what kind of response you get. In any case, I wouldn't refuse to travel by bus just because of your luggage, the buses are modern, clean and comfortable and your luggage can be stored in the baggage compartment at the bottom of the bus. At least this is true on the Aleppo - Hama - Damascus route, not 100% certain about buses to/from Palmyra. Remember, you MUST produce your passport in Syria to buy a bus ticket or train ticket, make sure you keep it handy. Hope this helps.

Thanks for all your help!

Agree with the above posts. The best solution is to use local buses. Plenty of reliable companies, comfortable and safe buses...and how cheap. The staff is friendly even if nobody speaks English, don't worry. Just a hint : learn how to write figures in arabic...this can help ! In some places such as Palmyra, though, check ticket prices with locals...it's likely they will try to charge you more and/or ask for extra money for your luggage. Most of the time, prices are set and exposed on posters above the counter. Palmyra is the only place where I've experienced that during 2 journeys in Syria...this city is somehow special...I loved it the first time 6 years ago, I found it was a total tourist rip off the second time last December.
Plenty of minibuses can help for local trips, public ones or you can easily charter one for a reasonnable price.

Eric