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Getting There By Air:

Damascus International Airport (DAM)
Tel: (011) 444 3400.

The airport is located 30km (18 miles) south of the city. Facilities in arrivals include a tourist information office, car hire, Internet access, a 24-hour currency exchange office, ATM and bar. In departures there is car hire, currency exchange offices, Internet access, ATM, restaurant and shops and a business lounge.

The airport is connected to the city by a dual carriageway, so it only takes around 30 minutes to get into town. A regular airport bus leaves every 30 minutes from roughly 0600-2300 to the stop outside the Kairawan Hotel on Sharia al-Ittihad in the city center. Fixed-price yellow taxis wait outside the terminal and the price is the same whether you hail one directly or buy a taxi ticket inside the airport.

Getting There By Water:

Due to the unrest in the region, and diminished demand in recent years, there are currently no ferry services between Syria’s main port of Latakia, the nearest port to Damascus, and Alexandria (Egypt), Beirut (Lebanon) or Bodrum (Turkey). Ask the tourist information for an update on the situation.

Getting There By Road:

Syria has a good and extensive road network and Damascus is at the heart of it. The M1 highway connects Damascus northwards with Aleppo via Hama and Homs, and southwards with Amman in Jordan. From Aleppo the E5 runs to Istanbul via Ankara and Iskenderun in Turkey. Highway 1 connects Damascus with Beirut. Highway 2 goes to the Iraqi border, and intersects with the road to Palmyra. There is no emergency breakdown service.

The most efficient and cheapest way to travel is by luxury intercity bus. The main bus station is Garaj Baramkeh, just northeast of Martyr’s Square where the state-run Karnak buses run to all places south of Damascus, including Bosra, as well as to Beirut, Amman, Cairo and Riyadh.

The other bus station is Garaj Harasta, or Garaj Pullman, on the Damascus-Homs Road, 5km (3 miles) northeast of the city center, from where the luxury Pullman coaches and other companies leave to all destinations north of the city, including Aleppo, Lattakia, Palmyra and Turkey. Both stations also have a terminal for service taxis and microbuses serving the same destinations.

Getting There By Rail:

Damascus has two main stations: the historic Hedjaz Railway Station on Sharia Port Said (currently under restoration) and the modern Kadem Railway Station, 3km (2 miles) south of the city center. Microbuses for Kadem station leave from the central depot next to the National Museum, and taxis are relatively cheap.

Trains services are as slow as they are unreliable and not often used. Syrian Railways (CFS) (website: www.cfssyria.org) runs domestic services from Damascus to Aleppo, Latakia and Tartous, as well as international services with a weekly train from Damascus to Tehran, and the weekly Toros Express via Aleppo, Gaziantep in southern Turkey to Haydarpasha station on the Asian side of Istanbul. A slow twice-weekly narrow-gauge train links Damascus with Amman in Jordan (223km/139 miles), running over part of the famous Hejaz Railway (website: http://nabataea.net/hejazad.html), the line attacked by TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and the Arabs during the Arab Revolt in 1917. The train should be running again from summer 2007.

Getting Around:

Public Transport
The easiest way to visit the sights in Damascus is on foot, and for most of the old city that is the only way. The white-and-blue public buses and the white microbuses are cheap, but very crowded and difficult to use as the destination and numbers are only written in Arabic. The best place to pick either up is from the city bus and microbus depot, on Sharia Shukri al-Quwatly, underneath the flyover right next to the National Museum, which is also where you can get some information.

Taxis
After walking, taxis are the best way to get around, as they are plentiful, drive around town at all times of the day and night, and relatively cheap. Insist on using the meter (although fewer drivers are willing to these days) or agree on a price before leaving.

Car Hire
Car hire is readily available and most companies have offices at the airport and/or in the city center. These include Cham Car (tel: (011) 221 6615; website: www.chamhotels.com/cars.html), Europcar (tel: (011) 543 1536; website: http://car-rental.europcar.com) and Hertz (tel: (011) 223 2300; website: www.hertz.com).

Bicycle Hire
There are no bicycles for hire in Damascus.

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