Damascus Travel Forum

Hi,
Planning to visit Damascus and had a few Qs. since my last visit there was ages ago
-which hotel is better Al majid which i`m more inclined towards, Sultan or Salam having read the last two hotels reviews here ,overall and location wise as i would like to visit the old city ,souk al hamediah and ommayad mosque ? Al majid is in assaffra is that close to omayad mosque,hamidiah etc.?whithin walking distance or ?
-Which hotel is close to buses that leave for palmyra ,busra as i would like to go for a day trip? how far is Almajed from the that particular bus station?
-Is it ok if i wonder around in Palmyra on my own ,any possibility of being hassled.
-Are currency exchange outlets widely available , better rates than banks? do they have a uniform rate or ? how many Syrian liras to a US dollar ?
-Do you still need to declare the amount of currency you bring in and leave with ?
-how much is the airport taxi ,is that counter where you pay and get a coupon still there ?
-ok last one, do you need to hand in your passport when checking in hotels like almajed for instance .
Thanks for any replies.

Re being hassled at Palmyra - in my experience, everyone gets hasssled, male or female, young or old. Best thing to do is to ignore them, if you can. We were also hassled by children in the town itself but when we couldn't get rid of them, Syrian adults gave them a few choice words which certainly did the trick. The hassling isn't of the nasty kind, it's just a damned nuisance.

a) I don't know. The Sultan is about 10-15 minutes to Hamedyah.
b) Palmyra buses leave from the Pulman bus station (taxi 50-100 syrian from Hamidyah) and buses to Bostra leave from Baramke station which is a 20 minute walk from Sultan hotel.
c) Of course you can go to Palmyra on your own. What do you think it's just a town full of people waiting to hassle you?
d) It's easy to exchange US$
e) Taxi from Airport 500 Syrian Lira
f) yes, you need to give your passport when you check into ALL hotels and you need it to use city-city buses. If you don't have it they won't let you travel.

In the hotels I stayed in in Damascus and Palmyra, they asked for my passport, made a copy, and returned it.

I don't expect a lady to be hassled in Palmyra except to be sold something. I think to a lesser degree comp;ared with walking in soulk al-Hamiddyeh.

Currency, you can change easily in the government bank in Al-Muhafaza square for example. They open at 9:00 approximately (the sign says 8:30), there will be a line. A private trader may offer to exchange for you at a little bit less than the offical rate. You have to consider how much less you will get to save the 30 minutes or so waiting in line. The rate changes sometime late morning. so, if yo know that the Euro went up for example then you should wait till PM. If you knwo the the US$ went down the day before, then exchange early.

The Custom do not want you to take out Syrian or foriegn currency. If you are carrying in large amount, you should declare it so that you are able to get it out. In general they do not ask, I did not declare anything.