The atmosphere in Damascus is electric now, and the streets of the Old City more alive than we’ve seen them before – and we’ve been regular visitors since 1998. Summer traditionally sees Syrian expats from around the world returning home to spend time with their families while Damascus has long attracted Gulf Arab tourists escaping … Read more about Damascus is Buzzing
Damascus boasts some of the Middle East’s most beautiful boutique hotels, which I’ve written about before on Cool Travel Guide. Mostly they’re enchanting old courtyard houses in the labyrinthine Old Town that have been exquisitely renovated with pretty fountains, cushioned sofas and the all-pervading scent of jasmine dripping from their walls. But Ghiath Machnock’s Art … Read more about Damascus’ Best Boutique Hotel
I found another photo that’s similar to the one I showed you earlier of the ribbons and pieces of cloth tied at an Islamic shrine in Syria. I took this photo in the lovely garden of a gold onion domed Russian Orthodox church in the Bulgarian countryside, where the branches of a tree were tied … Read more about Making connections: traditions and rituals of love and devotion, or, When you wish upon a heart
Looking through some photos from our trip to Syria last year (I was motivated to reminisce after skimming through our just-released Syria and Lebanon guidebook), I came across these ribbons tied to the tomb of an important Islamic figure. If you travel around the Muslim world and visit mosques and shrines, you’ll soon start to … Read more about Making connections: tokens of love and devotion, or, Tie a (yellow) ribbon ’round the…
Our research last year for the Syria chapter of our recently released Lonely Planet Syria and Lebanon guidebook required that we visit everything already in the book, along with many more sights that weren’t in the guide. And while we loved visiting all of those “out of the way castles and ruins”, when making decisions … Read more about Our Lonely Planet Syria and Lebanon guidebook: the challenges of guidebook research and other considerations