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.
Palmyra
Colonnaded avenues that once linked Rome to the Silk Road, standing in open desert. ISIS destroyed the Temple of Bel, the Temple of Baalshamin and the monumental arch in 2015; what survives is still extraordinary, and restoration is under way. Getting there is the hard part. The desert around the site is still being cleared of mines, the town is under military administration with checkpoints, and ISIS cells remain active along the desert roads; an ambush in Palmyra killed two US soldiers in December 2025. Reports disagree on whether a security clearance is still required, so go with a licensed operator, who will know this month's rule.
- Ask your operator a week ahead whether a clearance is needed this month
- Sunrise light on the colonnade is the reason to overnight
- Never step off the cleared paths, for any photograph
- Status
- Licensed operator strongly advised; mine and ISIS risk
- Worth
- Overnight or long day
- From Damascus
- 3 hours
- Best time
- October–April; brutal in summer
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.