Syria Nowruz & Easter Expedition

Day 1 — 17 March

Beirut • Damascus • First Encounters in the Old City

Your journey begins on the road from Beirut, where the group meets for the first time and the landscape changes from Lebanon toward Damascus. Today is not about “covering” the capital; it is about arriving inside it.

• Meet near Beverly Beirut Hotel at 9:00 AM. The drive to Damascus, including the border crossing, normally takes around 3 hours, with Syrian Guides assisting throughout.
• Check into your Old City hotel, settle in, then gather for the welcome briefing: introductions, money, SIM cards, practical notes and the rhythm of the 13-day journey.
• Lunch is served after check-in and the briefing, giving everyone time to sit around the same table before exploring together.
• Walk gently through UNESCO-listed Old Damascus: Straight Street, Bab Sharqi, narrow residential lanes, small churches, hidden courtyards and the ordinary life that continues between ancient walls.
• Meet craftsmen and neighbours when the moment allows, and begin noticing Syria through people — bread ovens, shop doors, tea glasses and conversations — rather than only monuments.
• Finish at Nofara Café with the traditional hakawati storyteller, whose costume, gestures and dramatic voice turn an old Damascene café into a living theatre.

Day 2 — 18 March

Damascus • Monumental History, War Scars, Souqs & Crafts

The second Damascus day has a different purpose: to connect the capital’s grand history with its recent wounds, living faiths and the craftspeople who keep its identity alive.

• Drive through parts of Ghouta and Jobar for context on destruction, return and reconstruction before visiting the National Museum for the much longer story of Syria.
• Enter the Old City through Hamidiyah, visit the Umayyad Mosque, and move through Khan Asaad Pasha, Bzuriyeh and the surrounding merchant lanes.
• Meet Abu Toni, a master of Damascene mosaic for more than fifty years, and watch how tiny pieces of wood become a craft passed from one generation to another.
• Visit an Ajami painted-wood workshop when open and meet artists or craftspeople who continue one of Damascus’s most distinctive decorative traditions.
• Lunch is included, with the restaurant selected around the day’s route. Tea with a shopkeeper, a conversation with an artist or an unexpected invitation may become as memorable as the planned stops.
• End among rooftops, church bells, calls to prayer and evening cafés, with time to experience Damascus as a living city rather than a museum.

Day 3 — 19 March

Mar Musa • Palmyra • Monastery Steps & Bedouin Hospitality

This is one of the great transitions of the journey: from a monastery reached on foot in the mountains to the open Badia and one of the ancient world’s great caravan cities.

• Climb the stone approach to Mar Musa al-Habashi, where the landscape opens with every step and ancient frescoes wait inside the remote monastery.
• Drive east as cultivated land gives way to desert, arriving at UNESCO-listed Palmyra and its monumental colonnades, temples and vast horizon.
• Hear Zenobia’s story alongside the much more recent story of destruction, loss and what Palmyra means to the families who still call the oasis home.
• Meet local hosts over bitter Arabic coffee, learning the small gestures and rituals that shape Bedouin hospitality.
• Share lunch inside a Bedouin tent: cushions, food, tea and conversation, with enough time for the people of Palmyra to become part of the day rather than a backdrop to the ruins.
• Continue east through the Badia toward the Euphrates, leaving the classic tourist circuit behind.

Day 4 — 20 March

Palmyra • Deir ez-Zor • Dura-Europos • Mari • Hasakah

Today follows the Euphrates into one of the deepest layers of Syrian history, but it is also a day about the people of the east: strong family networks, tribal traditions, coffee rituals, war scars and communities rebuilding ordinary life around extraordinary ruins.

• Leave Palmyra after breakfast for the drive to Deir ez-Zor, usually around 2–2.5 hours depending on road conditions.
• Walk through the covered souq and spend time around the city and Euphrates, seeing both the eastern character of Deir ez-Zor and the very visible traces of years of war.
• If open and accessible, visit the Deir ez-Zor Museum. This visit will be reconfirmed closer to departure because opening and access can change.
• Lunch is included in the Deir ez-Zor area, with time for local flavours, strong Arabic coffee and encounters that help explain how life along the Euphrates differs from Damascus and western Syria.
• Continue downstream to Dura-Europos, an extraordinary city where Greek, Roman, Persian, Jewish and early Christian worlds once met on the Euphrates frontier.
• Travel onward to Mari, one of the great Bronze Age cities of Mesopotamia, and imagine the river as the highway that connected kingdoms long before modern borders existed.
• Turn north toward Hasakah, approximately two hours depending on the final route, and check in at Yozarsef Hotel.
• Visit Mar George Church and discover part of Hasakah’s Christian and handicraft traditions, including local carpet weaving when the craft visit can be arranged.

This is a long, ambitious eastern-Syria day. The exact order of Dura-Europos, Mari, Deir ez-Zor and the Hasakah arrival may be adapted to road conditions, permissions, opening times and daylight.

Day 5 — 21 March

Ain Diwar • Nowruz • Qamishli • Tell Wardiyat • Hasakah

This is the cultural heart of the expedition: a journey into Syria’s far northeast when the Jazira is green with spring and Nowruz brings families outdoors. In a single day, Kurdish celebration, Syriac Christianity, Assyrian village life and the borderland landscapes of the Tigris region come together.

• Leave Hasakah early for the roughly three-hour drive toward Ain Diwar, watching the dry landscapes of the previous days give way to green fields and broad spring scenery.
• Explore Ain Diwar, including the historic Roman Arch and the dramatic far-northeastern landscape close to the Tigris region.
• Visit Barbita Church and encounter another strand of the Christian heritage that has survived for generations in the Jazira.
• Join the Nowruz celebrations in the area: music, dancing, traditional clothing, family picnics, tea, fires and the sense of spring becoming a shared public celebration. The exact gathering point and timing will follow the local programme.
• Lunch is included as part of the day’s local experience, arranged around the Nowruz celebration rather than forcing the festival into a restaurant timetable.
• Continue to Qamishli, walk through the city and its souqs, and visit the Virgin Mary Church while learning how Kurdish, Arab, Syriac/Assyrian and Armenian communities have shaped the city.
• Travel to Tell Wardiyat for an encounter with Assyrian village life and the stories of a community whose language, faith and identity form a distinctive part of northeast Syria.
• Return to Hasakah for a second overnight at Yozarsef Hotel after one of the most culturally diverse days of the journey.

Nowruz is a living celebration, not a staged show. Locations, timings, weather and community plans may change, so we keep this day flexible and follow the best local celebration available.

Day 6 — 22 March

Resafa • Tabqa • Euphrates Dam • Jaabar Castle • Aleppo

Another substantial road day, but one of the most visually varied. We leave the far northeast, cross desert archaeology and then meet the modern Euphrates at the great dam and Lake Assad before climbing into a medieval castle above the water and continuing toward Aleppo.

• Leave Hasakah after breakfast and travel west toward Resafa, the remarkable desert city known historically as Sergiopolis, with fortified walls, churches, cisterns and monumental remains rising from an empty landscape.
• Continue toward Tabqa and the Euphrates, where the story shifts from ancient caravan and pilgrimage routes to modern engineering and the huge reservoir of Lake Assad.
• See the Euphrates Dam / Tabqa Dam area as access allows. Because this is strategic infrastructure, stopping points, photography and proximity will follow local instructions on the day.
• Lunch is included on the route, timed around the long journey so that the group still has enough daylight and energy for the Euphrates landscapes.
• Continue to Jaabar Castle, dramatically surrounded by Lake Assad. Walk through the fortress and look across the water at one of the most unexpected landscapes in the itinerary.
• Use the journey itself to understand how the Euphrates connects ancient settlements, modern agriculture, hydroelectric power, villages, war and today’s attempts to rebuild normal life.
• Continue west to Aleppo, arriving for the evening and a complete change of atmosphere: stone lanes, food, markets and one of the world’s great historic cities.

Day 6 is one of the longest travel days. The order of Resafa, Tabqa, the dam and Jaabar may be adjusted according to road conditions, security instructions, access and daylight.

Day 7 — 23 March

Saint Simeon • Aleppo • Abdul and the Memory of a City

Aleppo is experienced through architecture, food and memory — especially through people who stayed, reopened, restored and kept telling the city’s stories when much of the world knew Aleppo only through war.

• Visit the monumental Monastery of Saint Simeon Stylites, hearing how the ascetic on a pillar drew pilgrims from across the ancient world.
• Return to UNESCO-listed Old Aleppo, climb the Citadel and look across a city where restored roofs and wartime scars can still share the same view.
• Walk the souqs and old quarters among merchants, soap makers and craftspeople who reopened where families had worked for generations.
• Lunch is included in Aleppo, chosen to introduce the city’s food culture rather than simply interrupt the day.
• Meet Abdul for tea in his artistic old-city house. He speaks five languages, remained in Aleppo through the war years and remembers neighbourhoods, families, architecture and humour from inside the city’s changing story.
• Continue at street level through workshops and restored corners, leaving time for the unscripted conversations that make Aleppo feel personal.

Day 8 — 24 March

Dead Cities • Saladin Castle • Mountain Roads • Latakia

A visually rich day that moves from abandoned Byzantine villages to farming country, high mountain roads and one extraordinary fortress before descending to the Mediterranean.

• Visit one carefully chosen settlement within the UNESCO-listed Ancient Villages of Northern Syria, giving enough time to walk among stone homes, churches, tombs and olive presses rather than rushing through several ruins.
• Look beyond the archaeology to today’s countryside — farmers, roadside stalls and communities that have also lived through displacement and return.
• Lunch is included on the route, kept simple and well-timed so the landscape remains the focus.
• Continue to UNESCO-listed Saladin Castle, crossing the dramatic rock-cut approach and exploring the walls and viewpoints above the surrounding green mountains.
• Descend toward the coast as vegetation, air and light change almost completely from the landscapes of the previous days.
• Arrive in Latakia for a slower evening by the Mediterranean after one of the tour’s most concentrated heritage days.

Day 9 — 25 March

Samra • Kassab • Armenian Syria • A Slower Mediterranean Day

After several history-heavy and long-distance days, today deliberately slows down. Forest, mountains, Armenian culture, sea air and conversations replace the intensity of the previous chapter.

• Drive north through forested roads to Kassab, closely associated with Syria’s Armenian community.
• Walk its streets and churches while hearing how families preserved language, food, faith and identity across generations.
• Stop for coffee, tea or conversation when opportunities arise; the rhythm of a mountain town matters more today than collecting monuments.
• Lunch is included locally, with Armenian or regional flavours whenever available.
• Continue toward Samra and the northern Mediterranean landscape for viewpoints, village roads and the meeting of wooded slopes with the sea.
• Return to Latakia for a relaxed seafront evening among families, fishermen and cafés.

Day 10 — 26 March

Tartus • Baeet • Lunch with Inaam • Jarjour Winery

One of the most personal days of the tour. Tartus opens the morning, but the heart of the day is two people in the countryside: Inaam around her family table and Yousef among his barrels.

• Follow the Mediterranean south to Tartus for its seafront and old quarter before turning inland toward the villages of Wadi al-Nasara.
• Arrive in Baeet and meet Inaam in the simple, creative village home she has shaped with care and personality.
• Share a home-cooked lunch with Inaam. Over the table, she shares parts of a life marked by tragedy, persistence, hospitality and hope — without turning her story into an exhibit.
• Continue to Jarjour Winery and meet Yousef, an inventive, intensely passionate winemaker who kept producing and experimenting through the war years.
• Walk through the winery, talk grapes, barrels and fermentation, and taste Soulaf wines, including the unusual blue wine when available.
• Overnight in Wadi al-Nasara, ending the day in the Christian-majority valley whose villages, food and personalities gave the afternoon its character.

Day 11 — 27 March

Krak des Chevaliers • Nabk • Maaloula • Damascus

Today connects a monumental fortress with one of Syria’s most intimate mountain towns, with a local lunch and Nabk’s famous sweet breaking the road naturally between them.

• Explore UNESCO-listed Krak des Chevaliers: halls, ramps, courtyards, defensive passages and broad views across Wadi al-Nasara.
• Continue east to Nabk for lunch, then taste the town’s famous hariseh, a syrupy semolina dessert finished with pistachio.
• Enter Maaloula, where houses seem to grow from the cliffs and narrow lanes, stairs and passages form an organic maze between homes and monasteries.
• Walk the village on foot, climb viewpoints and visit historic Christian sites while hearing about its Aramaic heritage.
• When local residents are available, listen to stories of leaving, returning, rebuilding and preserving traditions after the town’s wartime suffering.
• Return to Damascus for an Old City evening that should now feel very different from Day 1 — familiar after nearly two weeks of stories from across the country.

Day 12 — 28 March · Easter Sunday

Daraa • Bosra • Easter Evening in Damascus • Farewell Dinner

The final full day begins in southern Syria and finishes in one of the liveliest evenings of the journey. After the black-basalt streets of Bosra and the recent memories of Daraa, we return to Damascus as Easter celebrations move into the streets — scouts, drums, music, dancing, families and colourful lights changing the mood of the city after dark.

• Drive south through Daraa Governorate, the region where the 2011 Syrian uprising began, using the road journey to understand why this area became central to Syria’s recent history.
• Explore UNESCO-listed Bosra: the monumental Roman Theatre, fortress walls and black-basalt old town where homes, mosques, churches and archaeological remains overlap.
• Meet residents when circumstances allow and listen to firsthand memories of shelling, shortages, displacement, staying, returning and trying to make ordinary life work again.
• Lunch is included at a family restaurant near the Roman Theatre, where we sit down for a local meal before continuing the day in southern Syria.
• Return to Damascus in the late afternoon, as neighbourhoods and Christian quarters begin to take on the atmosphere of Easter Sunday evening.
• Experience the celebration in the streets rather than as a formal church programme: scout bands and drums, music, dancing, Easter greetings, families gathering and colourful lights after dark. The exact streets and scout routes depend on the local 2027 programme.
• Leave room for spontaneous moments — following the sound of a scout band, stopping where families gather, watching the lights come on and feeling a side of Damascus that only appears on special evenings like this.
• Gather for the farewell dinner, closing a journey that began with Nowruz in the Jazira and ends with Easter celebrations in Damascus.

Easter calendar note: 28 March 2027 is Easter Sunday for Western-calendar churches. Orthodox Easter falls later in 2027, so celebrations differ between Syrian Christian communities. The exact streets, scout routes, timings and community programme will be confirmed closer to departure.

Day 13 — 29 March

Damascus • Final Lunch • 2:00 PM Transfer to Beirut

The final morning stays deliberately easy: time to pack, return to a favourite lane and leave Syria without turning departure into another rushed sightseeing programme.

• Breakfast at the hotel, then free time for a final coffee, souvenir shopping or a short Old City walk.
• If you ordered crafts during the journey, use the morning to collect or carefully pack them.
• Have a quick local lunch before departure — shawarma, falafel or another simple Syrian favourite.
• At 2:00 PM, the group transfer leaves Damascus for Beirut, with Syrian Guides assisting through the border process.
• Arrival time in Beirut depends on border traffic and road conditions, so onward flights should be planned with a comfortable margin.
• The expedition ends with the faces behind the route still in mind: hosts, craftsmen, storytellers, families, artists, winemakers and people who made room for the group at their tables.