Syria for cheap

On my scale: cheap country.

60£SYR = 1€

Visa (French citizen): 28$. If you can, and need it, buy a multi entrance visa in your own country before coming (not affordable at the border). You really don’t need to pay the extra 15 days tax they ask you. You will pay 500£SYR to get out Syria, but expect to pay an extra-backshish. You won’t get in with an Israeli stamp in your passport, or evidence you have been to Israel ; American citizens may encounter difficulties to obtain their visa at the border.

cigarettes: 50£SYR / 0.90 €.

sandwich: 25 to 75 £SYR / 0.45 to 1.20€.

tapas dinner (3 plates, of humus, French fries, falafel, salad or foul): 40 to 150 £SYR / 0.75 to 2.70€.

beer: 50 to 75£SYR / 0.90 € to 1.20€ There is at leass one liquor store per city, ask for it.

Internet cafe (1h): from 25£SYR (Der Ez Zur) to 100££SYR (Palmyra) / 0.45 to 1.80€.

More about Damas especially : check this link

Accommodation:

- Hama:

Cairo Hotel: 250£SYR  /4.50€. Roof, without breakfast, Internet (slow) access.

Alternatively, the Riad Hotel (next door) have same prices. Roof is bigger, and more crowded, but the Wifi is better (those two hotels share it Wi-Fi in fact)

- Marmusa:

Monastery: for free, bring some food for your first day, then you can stay and work to eat twice a day, a breakfast and a bed. You can ask for laungery. Bring your cigarettes, and alcohol is forbidden. Your religion [or lack of…] does not matter. Taxis from Nebek (between Homs and Damas) are 300£SYR, you can hitchhike on those 17km but check if it’s for free before getting in a car.

- Palmyra (or Tadmor):

New Afqa Hotel: 300£SYR  /5.50€. Personnel’s dormitory (in summer, roof is 250£SYR), without breakfast, helpfull personnel, Wifi extra for 100£SYR per day.

You can have a roof at the Sun Hotel for 250 £SYR, the cleanest one (but no kitchen); same prices at the Baal Shamin Hotel, but no Internet access, and web cafes are very expensive. At the New Tourist Hotel, you can ask for a dirty single room at 300 £SYR. Almaza (33cl) here is 100£SYR !

- Deir Ez-Zur:

Al Jamia Al Arabia Hotel: 400£SYR  /7.20€. Single room (doubles at 600£SYR), without breakfast, very helpfull personnel.

Same prices for an other hotel in the same street (sharia Khaled Ibn Al-Walid), closer of the central place.

- Ath Thaura:

Hotel Al Arabie: 400£SYR  /7.20€. Triple room in low season, I was alone, without breakfast, very helpfull personnel.

Rakka seems to be a shitty spot. Ath Thaura is a modern soulless city, but people are friendly, and the place is closer of local highlights.

- For Damascus, check this link again. I forget the name of my hotel in Aleppo, but you’ll find a roof for approximately 300£SYR, without breakfast.

Others :

Everything is more expensive in Damas, and most of all in Palmyra.

You can also find easily cheap accommodation in Homs (uninteresting city), and Tarsus.

You can sleep at the Krak des Chevaliers: the restaurant on the hill next to the castle rent matelasse for 250£SYR. You can sleep in Bosra, in one of the restaurants front of the castle, but it may be an hard negotiation to have a good price.

Access to touristic places is cheap, but “unfortunately”, there is a lot to see ! Transport is cheap, buses and minibuses can bring you almost everywhere; train is even cheaper (I found an Aleppo-Damascus for 50 £SYR :) ). Hitchhiking is easy and a very good way to encounter people.

You will be invited to dinner and sleep in some local houses for free quite regularly. For what I experienced, you can trust those people.

Not a lot of bars and discos when you get out Damascus.

You can stay in Syria for less than 15€ per day, easily.

This is just a feedback from my experience. If you got some useful prices information, share it in the Comments !