Damascus Safety Guide
Health, security, and travel safety information
Emergency Numbers
Save these numbers before your trip.
Healthcare
What to know about medical care in Damascus.
A decade of war left Syria's healthcare network in tatters, clinics bombed, shuttered or limping along. Damascus still has more working hospitals than anywhere else in the country. Yet shortages of drugs and specialist gear drag on.
Foreigners who need a bed usually land at Shami Hospital in central Damascus. Al-Mouwasat takes trauma cases 24/7. Keep your insurer's evacuation hotline in your pocket, the issue is not finding a hospital. It is whether that hospital can fix you.
Chemists line the main streets of the Old City and downtown, and many everyday pills sit on open shelves. Supply chains are erratic. Do not bank on finding your exact brand. Pack your full prescription course plus spare strips and a photocopy of the script.
Medevac cover is compulsory. Ordinary travel insurance rarely lists Syria. Buy a policy built for conflict zones or humanitarian work and get written confirmation that Syria is named.
- ✓ Slip a pouch into your daypack: rehydration salts, broad-spectrum antibiotics if prescribed, water-purification tablets and a short course of anti-diarrhoeals.
- ✓ Pin Shami and Al-Mouwasat on your offline map before you land. Do not wait until the sirens start to search.
- ✓ July and August can wring the water out of you. Stick to sealed or filtered bottles and double your intake.
- ✓ Carry a doctor's letter in both English and Arabic that lists the generic name of any prescription drug, not just the brand.
Common Risks
Be aware of these potential issues.
Damascus is calmer than it was between 2012 and 2024, but the calm is brittle. Transitional security forces man checkpoints on every major artery. Armed robberies, factional flare-ups and leftover ordnance surface on the outskirts. Deterioration can be sudden.
Driving in Damascus is a gamble. Traffic police appear when you least expect it, lane paint has long since vanished, traffic lights blink at random, and cratered asphalt turns every journey into slalom. After dark, the hazards multiply: streetlights are dead outside the centre, and sudden checkpoints loom without warning.
Pickpockets work the crush in Hamidiyah Souq and the busiest alleys of the Old City. The odds are still lower than in most regional capitals, yet a moment of inattention will cost you.
Damascus tap water is off limits. Pipes cracked during the war and supply cuts let contamination in. Even where the tap runs, the risk of a stomach-turning bug is high.
Unexploded ordnance still litters parts of Damascus, above all in districts that saw fighting between 2012 and 2024.
Damascus runs on shifting legal sand. Checkpoint personnel may demand papers. Yet who has authority and what document satisfies them changes by the hour. Journalists and Syrians who left during the war draw the closest scrutiny.
Scams to Avoid
Watch out for these common tourist scams.
Syria still juggles parallel exchange rates. Informal changers on Barzeh or Souq Saruja sidewalks flash tempting figures, then skim bills by sleight of hand or slip in lower denominations. The gap between official and black-market numbers can yawn wide.
A friendly local falls into step inside the Old City, has a free tour, then steers you into chosen boutiques where he pockets a cut of whatever you spend. He'll swear there's no pressure. Yet the smile hardens if you leave empty-handed.
Unlicensed cabs quote sky-high figures to anyone who looks foreign, at the airport or outside the Sheraton. Meters, when present, spin on a rigged tariff.
Vendors in the Old City pass off fresh replicas, or pieces that Syrian law forbids from leaving, as genuine Roman coins or limestone capitals. Buying real antiquities breaks Syrian law and the import rules of almost every home country.
Safety Tips
Practical advice to stay safe.
- • Log your trip with your foreign ministry's advisory service before you cross into Syria.
- • Line up dependable local contacts, people or groups already working in Damascus, before you leave home, not after you land.
- • Download offline maps of Damascus and the Old City. The net drops out often and won't guide you.
- • Keep hard copies of every document: passport, insurance, contact list, accreditation.
- • Brief someone at home on your day-by-day plan and set a check-in rhythm with agreed steps if you miss a call.
- • Approach checkpoints calmly, with your window down and hands visible.
- • Stash passport and papers where you can reach them in seconds, never at the bottom of a pack.
- • Do not photograph checkpoints or security personnel under any circumstances.
- • If your Arabic is thin, a local voice on the phone can smooth most checkpoint stops before they escalate.
- • Never argue with checkpoint officers. Stay calm and request to call your embassy or local contact.
- • Send your daily route to a trusted contact each morning before you step out.
- • Keep pricey electronics or camera gear out of sight in markets and on the street.
- • Move in pairs or small groups. Going solo in Damascus carries more risk.
- • Head back before dusk unless you have a clear reason and trusted company for night travel.
- • Stay low-key: loud foreign manners tag you as a target.
- • Local SIMs exist but signals fade. Carry a satellite messenger if you're working in Damascus.
- • Encrypted messaging apps are advisable for sensitive communications.
- • Assume every text, call, or post is watched by several sides. Think before you hit send.
- • Power outages are frequent. Carry a power bank to keep your phone charged.
Information for Specific Travelers
Safety considerations for different traveler groups.
Damascus feels more conservative than most Western cities yet looser than Gulf capitals. Women, local and foreign, fill cafés, souqs, and the Old City. Verbal harassment and stares in crowds are routine but rarely turn physical in central districts. Solo women face more hassle than those in pairs and need tighter plans.
- → Team up when you can, for evening outings or trips to outer neighbourhoods.
- → Book rides through a driver you trust instead of waving down street taxis, after sunset.
- → On longer stays, link up with a reliable local woman who can flag any new no-go zones or shifting customs.
- → Ignore catcalls, answering back, even in self-defence, usually drags the moment out.
- → Near mosques in the Old City, where norms tighten, a local female ally is worth her weight in advice.
Syria's books hold no single law that names same-sex couples for prison the way some neighbours do, but broad "public morality" clauses and the fresh rulebook drafted by transitional authorities criminalise LGBTQ+ expression in practice. Post-Assad statutes are still being written. Yet waving a rainbow flag in public already courts serious danger, this is not a classroom debate.
- → Keep every detail of orientation or identity locked down in every Damascus conversation.
- → Skip every public touch, hand-holding, a quick kiss, an affectionate glance, if you travel as a same-sex couple.
- → Steer every chat away from LGBTQ+ topics unless you are talking to someone whose loyalty you can bank on.
- → Hotel clerks can, and sometimes do, pass notes to officials. Book only through vetted channels and stay cautious even behind closed doors.
- → Ring ILGA World or your foreign ministry's LGBTQ+ desk before you even search flights to Damascus.
Travel Insurance
Protect yourself before you travel.
Every mainstream travel policy lists Syria under exclusions. You need a conflict-zone or humanitarian-worker plan, no corner-cutting. Shattered hospitals and the real chance of a medevac make this the first checkbox on your list. An uninsured lift from Damascus to Amman, Beirut, or Istanbul empties bank accounts fast.
Ready to plan your trip to Damascus?
Now that you've got the research covered, here's where to go next.