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.
Bosra
Built entirely from dark volcanic stone, Bosra's Roman theatre is among the most complete surviving anywhere — a 15,000-seat auditorium enclosed within a later Arab citadel, which is why it lasted. The town around it is made of the same basalt, with Roman columns still holding up ordinary houses. Close enough to the Jordanian border to be a first or last stop.
- Walk the basalt old town, not only the theatre
- Ask whether the Bosra festival is running this season
- Status
- Open; avoid Sweida to the east
- Worth
- Half day
- From Damascus
- 2 hours
- Best time
- Spring and autumn
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.