Travelling around Syria

OP, go independently.

As for getting car and driver, I usually go to a part of town where there aren't many tourists and ask cab drivers. No commissions to hotels, no drivers used to tourists paying huge amounts of money, and you know your money if going to someone who needs it. Downside is you may have a few detours in out-of-the-way areas (Dead Cities for example). Upside is your driver may be seeing these places for the first time, and will probably get a kick out of it (mine all did). Maybe best advised if you have a few words of Arabic or a phrasebook.

CK

i agree with much of what has been said here. I am staying (rite now )at hotel Afamia (mid range option) in Damascus near the souk. It is great here- helpful staff. Did have trouble with one of the 100 euro a day drivers- which has nothng to do with my hotel. As the person above said, bargain hard. I have not heard 4 day minimum- i had one for one day (regular taxi- much cheeper than supposedly "English speaking VIP" van driver)... & at a different time 2 days.

I have traveled all over by myself (as a woman) but for some reason i have had a few creepy experineces here which make me think there are other more idea places for a solo female- that said, i have never felt threatened as i may have in other places such as Morocco- just wierded out here a few times. In general Syria is a nice place- with sweet people. lots to see & the bus system/roads/banks are all easy for the independant traveler.

I think is not a good idea for a woman traveling alone get an unknown driver in the streets to go to distant and isolated places anywhere in the world especially in Middle East, that could end in a "creepy experience" mentioned by ZoeyII .

I would like an indication of a tourism company that rent car with driver or a hotel that offers drivers for full day tours for more reasonable prices

Good point Vania- actually most of the creepy experiences i had there were in the big cities- when people who i just met struck up conversations about taboo subjects- the plight of Kurds, Judaism, drinking, sex, etc- Maybe i am a bit paranoid but i thought perhaps they were secret police wanting to know where my interests were. I just ignored those comments or even said, "please let's speak of this no further." I did not know who to trust- if anyone at all. Strange- and creepy.

Regarding # 12, fully agreed on the saftey issue. Syria is very very very safe, and as said by so many one of the safer places to travel in the world. However, as a almost local (expat american living here) I do have to advise against getting a taxi off the streets from just anywhere as a private driver. Get one through your hotel, or a taxi office and make sure someone knows your itinerary. Most local women here do not grab taxis to go out even within the city to more remote places unless calling someone from an offfice and such. THere have unfortunately been more and more reported crimes happening via taxis here it is just sad. Especially in Aleppo and here in Hama. Just be careful. .I know our friend is also a driver with car here for tourists and his price is also about 100 euro a day, you however, would probably easily make it around by bus and see all you wanted to see in the two week given. Dead cities and some of those remote sites like Qasr ibn Wardan can be arranged through the hotels here in Syria and is relatively cheap, car and driver to Qasr ibn Wardan for instance ran us about 1000K and we split that with another family who went with us. THe hotels usually try and book other travelers together to reduuce cost if you dont mind going wiht others. It is up to you. I think all here will agree that the Hotel Cairo and Riyadh here in Hama are just great at organizing trips wiht car and driver in and around Hama and its very cheap. In Damascus and Aleppo I am sure other hotels offer the same. In the end going it solo here as a women with precautions is more than fine, i do it all the time with my four kids, though I feel lucky to finally have my own car. Well if there is anything else I can help with please holler.

Aisha in Hama

ireneadler

i totally agree with some of the previous post-ers - Independant travel is really easy, allows you to go at your own pace, make itenary up as you go along etc, etc....and because it's Syria when you actually do arrive at most of the historical sites you'll have pretty much ALL TO YOURSELF.

I accept that i travelled with a friend, which made things even easier for me, but logistically getting around Syria was easy peasy. We arrived in Damascus, had only 10 days, and just planned our course of action from there.!!

The way we got to see A LOT was, as some previous people have mentioned, was to hire a car and driver. Depending on what you want the cost will vary (ie.longer days / more sites = more money), but i can't remember us paying more than $US75 each ($150 on your own) and that was for a really long day from Aleppo to Palmryia, via Rasafa (which was Amazing IMHO).

As others have said you can easily use the public transport which we did at a couple of points, but depending on how much you want to see (and in Syria there is LOADS) you can only generally fit in one, maybe two sites per day, as opposed 3 or 4 with car and driver. So if you want to see them all you'll have to factor in extra hotel nights. Hama for 2 nights was a really good base for us - and we stayed at the Hotel Riad (or it could have been the other one in LP - HOtel Cairo?) which offered the car and driver

We did not get any history overrload on any one day as the beauty of Syria, amongst many many things, is the historical stuff they have is so VARIED - so it's quite hard to get bored looking 'at the same sort of stuff'.

So i guess it's down to your budget seeing as you've got no problem doing it alone. I've gone on for quite a bit as i really really LOVED my trip and will be going back I'm sure.

GO GO GO and ENJOY ENJOY ENJOY

oh and i forgot to say in last post that if i were you i would ignore going to Jordan on this occassion even though you do have 4 extra days than we did - there is just so much to see and do in Syria

We too was thinking of cramming in Jordan on the same trip, but so glad we didn't. Save Jordan for another time - Petra has already got tourist overload so when you go there doesn't really matter i guess - i have the feeling that Syria is getting more and more popular (keep seeing it advertised and featured in travel mags and newspapers etc.), so it would be a shame to miss out not having sites all to yourself!!!

Having said that i am gagging to see Jordan and Petra at some point!!!

As said before, all depends on your budget and the sites you want to visit.

October will be very busy which means you better make an itinerary, book your hotels in advance and find a car with driver for the days when you need one.

You can contact me, if you need help with this. I'm quite used to it.

I'm living near Aleppo, by the way, as a Belgian being married to Mohamed, a very experienced driver who knows his country extremely well. He usually asks for 5250 SYP per day (the Euro is at about 64 currently). This includes his accomodation, food and petrol.

Travel_Buff: when did you travel in Syria alone? It rather sounds like it might have been a while back - especially judging by the other comments.

ZoeyII: Thanks for specifying, I got pretty worried about the "creepy incidents" you mentioned in general... And that's a good tip to say, "please let's not talk about this anymore." I'm a single woman travelling to Syria as well, and usually quite outspoken but will have to have a strategy to avoid situations like that :)