Middle East - Anthony Ham [436]
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EATING
Most places to eat are on or around the main drag, Sharia al-Quwatli. Most places serve alcohol.
You’ll find cheap restaurants selling roast chicken, felafel and shwarma on Sharia al-Quwatli, between the Traditional Palmyra Restaurant and Saahat al-Jumhuriyya. Grocery and fruit-and-veg shops are also found in this area.
Venus Restaurant ( 591 3864; Sharia an-Nasr; meals S£250) Near the Traditional Palmyra and anything but its friend, this place has a similar menu. We’re not in a position to judge whether this type of imitation constitutes a sincere form of flattery or an infringement of commercial rights, but its prices are a few notches cheaper, even if the atmosphere’s not quite the same.
Spring Restaurant ( 591 0307; Sharia al-Quwatli; meals from S£250) The friendly Spring has a ground-floor dining area and a Bedouin tent on the roof where you can enjoy a meal and nargileh (S£100) in summer. The set mensaf (lamb on a bed of rice) meal is S£250, mezze cost around S£50 and grills start at S£150. Students get a 20% discount.
Traditional Palmyra Restaurant & Pancake House ( 591 0878; Sharia al-Quwatli; meals around S£300) The most popular restaurant in town, this long-standing place serves decent mensaf, lamb or chicken casseroles and a few other local specialties; all meals come with soup and complimentary tea. There are also delicious sweet and savoury pancakes (around S£200) if you don’t want the full set meal.
Casa Mia ( 591 6222; meals around S£300) One of the newer restaurants in town, Casa Mia is fast drawing a tourist crowd, partly for its classy, if understated, traditional decor and partly for its local specialties such as quaj (oven-baked vegetables), mjadarah (burghul and lentils) and kusa mahshi (rice, meat and zucchini). The mensaf we had here was especially tasty. As a newcomer with no axe to grind, it’s something of a haven from Palmyra’s restaurant wars. The menu doesn’t list prices. It’s off Sharia al-Omar.
Of the hotel restaurants, the Ishtar Hotel serves a good set menu of mezze, soup, mensaf and dessert for around S£350, while the upstairs roof restaurant at the Hotel Villa Palmyra serves reasonable buffet-style meals (lunch/dinner S£330/495). The Zenobia Hotel (meals around S£500) gets mixed reviews, although the setting is lovely.
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DRINKING
Locals can be found gossiping over cheap tea or playing cards at Cave Cafeteria near Saahat al-Jumhuriyya. Women won’t feel comfortable here.
The outdoor terrace of the Zenobia Hotel is a more sophisticated world away where you can nurse a beer (around S£150) looking out over the ruins. Other good hotel bars include the cave-basement at Ishtar Hotel and the downstairs bar of the Hotel Villa Palmyra. Most restaurants also serve alcohol.
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GETTING THERE & AWAY
Palmyra doesn’t have a bus station. The most popular (and regular) buses are those of Al-Kadmous. They stop at the Sahara Café on the edge of town (2km from the museum; a taxi should cost S£50). The ticket office is in front of the café. Buses to Damascus (S£190) leave hourly from 6am to 7pm, at 9.30pm and hourly from 12.30am to 6am. Buses to Deir ez-Zur (S£150, two hours) leave hourly from 8am to 8pm. Services run less often to Homs (S£135) and Hama (S£150). Other private companies offer a similar service and leave from a spot 200m north of the Sahara Café.
Microbuses (S£65) and minibus service taxis (S£75) travel to Homs between 6am and sunset. They leave from outside the Osman Mosque.
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THE EUPHRATES
One of the most historically significant rivers on earth, the Euphrates cuts a swathe through northeastern Syria, and arrayed along its banks, and in its hinterland, are a number of little-visited but rewarding sites.
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DEIR EZ-ZUR