How much does Syria cost per day?

Checked 13 September 2026 against In Your Pocket’s Damascus money page, named 2026 independent rooms, Arabic market notes on shawarma after the new pound, and the cash already on Cash in Syria. Prices move. If a figure below is wrong, tell us.

What does that include?

A cheap independent day — a simple room, street food, walking, a minibus — has sat in the tens of dollars. In Your Pocket’s 2026 note put about US$50–80. Named 2026 rooms were about US$14–20. The bed is the swing. Farms publish three daily totals that do not agree. We will not freeze one.

That is food and a bed and town transport. The visa on arrival is extra, cash, before any of that. A Syria SIM card is extra. The day you hire a car is another budget.

Bring clean US dollars for the whole stay. Do not budget an ATM. How to carry and change them is on the cash page.

The bed

Some desks quote foreigners in dollars and locals in pounds. Ask which you are paying. Booking.com is not the working board. Cash on arrival is ordinary. Confirm new pounds or old if the receipt is in SYP. The hotel walk is How to book a hotel in Syria.

Food

A wrap or a street plate: a few dollars. Arabic 2026 notes put a Damascus shawarma sandwich around 250 new pounds — still a couple of dollars at the published new-pound band. Sit-down meals: a few dollars to about US$25. Agree the number before the plate arrives. Prices are often said in dollars and paid in pounds. What you actually eat on the circuit is What to eat in Syria.

If a menu still prints 10,000 or 80,000, that is usually the old scale. Divide by 100. Same rule as the cash page.

Moving around

Walk the old cities. In town, kam? or YallaGo in Syria once you have a number. A hop across the centre is a few dollars if you agreed it.

A garage seat on the tourist line has been a handful of dollars to about fifteen. Ask new or old. A hired car with a driver: operators in 2026 advertised about US$180 for a full day; independent 2025 quotes for Krak or Palmyra sat around US$200. That one day is not the cheap daily total. The road is on Getting around Syria.

Airport to the centre: agree in the hall. One independent 2026 note paid about US$25. Operators quote more. The flight itself is on How to get to Syria.

What sits on top

• Visa: cash dollars at the desk. US about US$200, UK about US$150, most EU about US$75. The table is on Visa on arrival.
• SIM: branded shop a few dollars plus a pack; hotels and the airport have charged foreigners about US$30–40. Syria SIM card for foreigners.
• Museum and citadel tickets: IYP’s 2026 note had state museums about US$4–8. One independent later paid about US$20 at Aleppo’s citadel and said the desk had gone up. Ask. Do not freeze a gazette.
• Insurance that names Syria: once, before you fly. Syria travel insurance.

A seven-day line on this site is the 7-day Syria itinerary. Three nights in Damascus only is the 3-day Damascus itinerary. Pack the visa, the nights, one hired-car day if you do Krak or Palmyra that way, garage seats, the SIM, and a buffer because the card will not save you.

If this fails

• The farm says US$31, and another URL says US$120: ignore the frozen total. Pack the bed band plus extras.
• The quote is 60,000 pounds for a bus: ask new or old. If it is old, divide by 100.
• The hotel wants dollars and the souq wants pounds: that is ordinary. Keep both.
• The card is declined: cash. Expected.
• You planned the cheap day and then hired a car: that day is about US$180–200 extra, not a rounding error.

What this page will not tell you

Today’s dollar rate. A live shawarma board. A packing total that fits every passport.

That a tour is required to eat cheaply. Independent travellers do this.

How we write: How we write.