Middle East - Anthony Ham [447]
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While hitching a ride with locals is not unusual in Syria, we (and many locals) don’t recommend that single women travellers hitch in Syria, especially since a young Canadian backpacker went missing in the area around Hama in 2007. It’s worth noting that the young woman was the first foreigner ever to disappear in Syria and the case remains unsolved.
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TRANSPORT IN SYRIA
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GETTING THERE & AWAY
Entering Syria
For information on Syrian visas and entry requirements, Click here.
Air
Syria’s main international airport ( 544 5983-9) is 32km southeast of Damascus and has regular connections to other cities in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia on a variety of European- and Middle East-based airlines. There are also reasonable regional and occasionally European connections from Aleppo ( 421 1200). Lattakia has just one weekly Syrianair flight to Cairo.
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DEPARTURE TAX
There’s an airport departure tax of S£200 payable in local currency at booths next to airport check-in counters. If you’re leaving via one of Syria’s land borders, the departure tax is S£500.
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Syrian Arab Airlines (Syrianair; www.syriaair.com) is the national airline. It has a small fleet, which includes some recently purchased Airbuses. From Damascus, Syrianair flies to destinations across Europe and the Middle East.
Land
Syria has borders with Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq. It also shares a border with Israel, the hotly disputed Golan Heights, but it’s a definite no-go zone that’s mined and is patrolled by UN peacekeepers.
IRAQ
The only open border crossing with Iraq is just south of Al-Bukamal in the extreme east of the country, although whether it’s open to foreign travellers depends on the prevailing political and security winds.
JORDAN
There are two border crossings between Syria and Jordan: at Nasib/Jabir and Deraa/Ramtha. These crossings are 3km apart. If crossing by car, service taxi or bus you’ll cross through the main Nasib/Jabir post, on the Amman-Damascus highway. If you’re travelling by train or local transport, you’ll use Deraa/Ramtha. Microbuses from the bus station at Deraa charge S£250 per person to take you across the border to Ramtha. The best way to get to Deraa from Damascus is to catch a bus from Baramke Garage.
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JUST ACROSS THE BORDER: JERASH, JORDAN
If Syria’s stirring Roman ruins of Palmyra, Apamea and Bosra have captured your imagination and you’re eager for more, you’d be surprised how easy it is to visit Jerash (Click here), Jordan’s premier Roman site. Make sure you’ve a multiple-entry Syrian visa (Click here) before setting out. With that sorted, catch either a private bus (Click here) or service taxi (Click here) from Damascus’s Al-Samariyeh Garage, pick up your Jordanian visa at the border (Click here) and continue on the same bus to Irbid (Click here) in northern Jordan; setting out early will allow you to make the 3½- to five-hour journey and arrive in Irbid early enough to reach the ruins by sunset or for an early start the next morning. From Irbid, regular minibuses make the 45-minute trip to Jerash, where there is a handful of sleeping options (Click here) that allow you to make an early start. Another alternative, if you’re coming from Bosra (Click here), is catch a minibus to Deraa, cross the border, then catch a Jordanian minibus down the highway to Irbid; you could, in theory, travel from Damascus to Bosra and on to Irbid in a single day, but you’d be hoping your minibuses fill up fast en route. Why bother? Well, for a start Jerash is stunning when bathed in the early morning and early evening light, especially its unique Oval Plaza (Click here) and beautiful South Theatre (Click here) with fine views over this lovely site.
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From Damascus, there are daily buses to Amman (Click here), for which you need to book in advance as demand for seats is high, or you can catch a service taxi. The famous Hejaz railway trip (Click here) is also