(Bab Tooma District in photo opposite) Right now, in summertime, Damascus is full of visitors, and it is very hard to find a cheap, nice place to stay. Hundreds of Western Arabic students add to the congestion caused by Saudi tourists and Iraqi refugees, meaning that while Syrian landlords may be pleased with the prices they can charge, you may not be. If your renting budget is more than 450 US a month, then you should have few problems. If not, you may have to wait a while before you can find any bed at all.

The majority of Western short term visitors stay in the Christian Old City, in the Bab Tooma area. Indeed, Bab Tooma is identified so heavily with Westerners that if you get lost in the Old City, locals may well point you in its direction without asking. Bab Tooma has two or three busy streets, surrounded by quieter, highly confusing alleys. Some of the buildings are being renovated, some have all but decayed, but the basic room that you will be offered will be very basic indeed. If you don’t mind shabby surroundings, you have far more options. Typically the host families are Christians with a five or seven room house, and they offer you a room and use of the communal toilet, shower and kitchen. You will have to decide whether you want a street level room, which will be expose to either noise from the street or noise from the family’s television, or a roof level room which will heat up dramatically around midday. With luck, your room will have a high ceiling, a fair amount of sunlight, a decent electric fan, and be sheltered from the noise of the main shopping streets, and you should expect to pay between 140 to 200 US a month for this. But you need to be persistent, especially if you plan to arrive late June or July: I have been offered a bed in a hallway, and a bed in a tiny, sagging roof room that even Jesus would have rejected.

How to find a room? One way is to walk down the busy streets near the entrance of the Old City (Touma Street, Al Keimarieh Street, Al Mustaqeem Street) and look for adverts in shop windows. The rooms they offer will probably be expensive, however: these landlords and agents know that some foreigners will pay anything, and adjust prices upwards accordingly. The two brothers who run the English language Shado Bookshop, on Al Keimarieh Street, seem the nicest of the bunch. Another way is to use an agent - one is Karim (094 729 791), but again, you will pay for the privilege, and you may start to feel your agent is not being completely honest with his recommendations. Best of all is to wander the Old City asking people, especially if you have a Syrian friend who can accompany you. My Australian friend Tim is teaching English here, and one of his adult students offered to help us find lodging. We wandered the streets for three nights running, asking old men outside shops, knocking on doors, interrupting parties in living rooms and courtyards. Lots of families were willing to help, but most of the leads we found failed. “Come back in August” was the general reply. I grew sick of searching and took a lovely room over a tiled courtyard with its own shower for 260 US a month; I plan to move again in August / September, when the crush abates, and reserve a cheap room for the next busy period, the winter.

Is it a good idea to live in Bab Tooma? It’s probably the easiest way to begin your time in Syria, and the shops, the picturesque streets and the English speakers are all nice. It’s also famous of its (relatively) liberal values - many Christian women wear clothes not too different from what English women wear out on a Friday night - so if you are a female traveller, it may feel easier to blend into than a more strict Muslim district. However, the tourist land / Khao San Road sensation quickly becomes tiresome, as does being routinely overcharged for bottles of water and plates of houmous. I’m not sure how good a view of Syria one gets from living in Bab Tooma, and personally, I’d like to leave soon. People say that the Mezze area is full of cheap housing, but it’s far from the centre. The Shalan district is central and lovely, but bring a full wallet. We spoke to an estate agent in Shalan (0933673384), and he offered us places costing us 300 US a month per person. Old hands in Syria will recommend that you haggle for cheaper prices, but this can be difficult to do in July. My plan is to stay in Damascus for a few months, study Arabic in the University, then try to move out of the city altogether, perhaps to a smaller place like Homs, or a beach town like Tartous. See my later articles on this site for more details.

See more from Daniel Wallace: http://danielwa11ace.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/photos-of-damascus/

Syria Country Profile

Real Estate in Syria