You booked the flight months ago. What you have not solved is the part that decides how the visit actually goes: how you will move. Three weeks at home means a grandmother in one neighbourhood, an aunt in another city, a cousin's wedding you promised to attend, and a father who wants to show you what has changed on a road he used to drive every day. None of that fits into borrowed cars and lifts arranged the night before.
Renting is the ordinary answer, and for people arriving from abroad it is a slightly different exercise than it is for someone living here. This is a guide to that difference.
Book before you fly, not after you land
The instinct of many returning Syrians is to sort the car out once they arrive — ask a relative, see what is available, decide on the ground. It usually works, in the sense that something is eventually found. But you spend the first two days of a short trip on it, and you take whatever is left rather than the car you actually wanted.
Booking from abroad removes that. You choose the car while you are still at your desk in Berlin or Dubai or Toronto, at a time when you can read the details properly and compare, and the car is waiting for you when your flight lands. Cancellation is free, so an early reservation costs you nothing if plans shift — and plans do shift, especially when the trip depends on other people's schedules.
Do the booking through our reservation form rather than trying to arrange it by phone across time zones. Everything you need to decide is on the page of each car: its kilometre allowance, and the deposit that particular car requires.
Your licence is fine
This is the question we are asked most by people abroad, and the answer is short: we accept driving licences from every country. A German, Emirati, Swedish, Saudi, Canadian or Turkish licence is accepted the same way a Syrian one is. There is no nationality condition attached to renting, and no requirement that you hold Syrian papers.
The other fixed condition is age: the driver must be at least 23.
If more than one person in the family will drive — you and your brother taking turns on a long day — say so when you book, so the paperwork is written correctly from the start rather than fixed later.
Landing at Damascus Airport
Damascus International sits roughly 25 to 30 km southeast of the city, out past the last of the orchards. It is not a distance you want to negotiate at two in the morning with luggage and jetlag, in a country whose taxi prices you have not tracked in years.
We meet arrivals at the airport, and delivery there is free, as is delivery anywhere inside Damascus. You come out of arrivals, the car is there, and you drive into the city yourself. If you would rather see the details, they are on the Damascus Airport car rental page, and city deliveries are covered under car rental in Damascus.
Give us your flight number when you book. Arrival times move, and a flight number lets us follow the change without a chain of messages.
Deposits: read the car's own page
There is no single deposit policy, and you should be suspicious of any rental company that gives you one number over the phone before you have chosen a vehicle. The amount, and the way it is taken, depend on the car. Each car states both on its own page — the same page you book it from.
The method varies too. For some cars it is cash, for some a hold on a card, and for some a signed undertaking — a written document you sign, with no money handed over at all. That last option surprises visitors from abroad who expect a card hold as the only possibility, and it is worth knowing about before you assume anything.
Check the page of the car you want. That is the honest answer, and it takes ten seconds.
Driving between cities to see the family
Most visits are not confined to one city. The relatives are spread out, and the whole point of having a car is that you can reach them on your own schedule instead of theirs.
Damascus to Aleppo is around 355 km on the M5, a drive of roughly five hours without long stops, passing Homs and Hama on the way — which is why so many visits take in three cities rather than one, with a lunch somewhere in the middle. If your family is in the north, the Aleppo car rental page covers pickups and deliveries there, and delivery to Aleppo, Aleppo Airport, Homs, Hama and Latakia is available, as is Tartus for fifty dollars.
Fuel is straightforward: the car is handed to you with a full tank and comes back full. Kilometre allowance is set per car and written on that car's page, which matters more for a visit like this than for a city trip — check it against the driving you actually plan to do.
When the trip ends somewhere else
Visits do not always end where they began. You land in Damascus, work your way north, and fly out from elsewhere; or the last week is spent on the coast with family and there is no reason to drive back down.
One-way rentals are available: you can collect the car in one city and return it in another. Arrange it when you book rather than deciding on the last morning, so the return point is written into the reservation.
A short checklist before you fly
- Book early — cancellation is free, so there is no penalty for reserving before your plans firm up.
- Bring your licence, whichever country issued it, and make sure every intended driver is 23 or over.
- Read the deposit line on the page of the car you chose, and note whether it is cash, a card hold, or a signed undertaking.
- Send your flight number so the airport meeting survives a delay.
- If you are ending the trip in a different city, say so at booking time.
None of this is complicated. It is simply the part of the trip that is easiest to leave until too late — and the part that, once settled, lets the visit be about the people you came for.