City by city
Where you can go, city by city
What each place is, whether it's currently safe to visit, and how long it's worth. Damascus and the west function largely normally for visitors; other areas do not — this is the honest split as of October 2026, so check again before you travel. Times are driving times, which in Syria means checkpoints included.
Damascus
The Old City is the reason to come: a walled quarter of stone lanes wrapped around the Umayyad Mosque, with the Hamidiyya souk running through it under a bullet-punctured barrel roof that throws pinholes of light onto the crowd. Courtyard houses have become restaurants where mezze arrives under lemon trees. Straight Street, named in the Book of Acts, still runs east to west. Outer suburbs remain heavily damaged and are not places to wander.
- Umayyad Mosque at late afternoon, when the courtyard fills with families
- Bakdash in the Hamidiyya souk for pounded pistachio ice cream
- Mount Qasioun at dusk for the whole city laid out below
- Day trips to Maaloula, Bosra and Krak all start here
- Status
- Fully operating
- Worth
- 3–4 days
- From Damascus
- —
- Best time
- March–May, September–November
This is the underrated risk. Contamination is widespread in former front-line areas, around Palmyra, and along old defensive lines. The rule is simple and absolute: stay on hard-surfaced roads and worn paths, never enter a ruined building or an open field, and never take a shortcut across ground you have not seen someone else walk.