Land border crossings are getting easier all over the world. Central Asia, a place that use to be a nightmare for border crossings (Turkmenistan is still a little interesting), is now relatively hassle free. Africa is certainly still quite complicated in many places, but even that too is getting easier (not really in West Africa though).
The Middle East is also one place where borders are getting more stress free. Getting into Saudi is now a breeze once you’ve done the easy online visa. Same goes for Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan (we know this isn’t technically the Middle East). Another border where the process has recently become much easier is Syria and Lebanon. We recently finished a Syria tour and so here are our updates on the border. This relates to the border crossing known as Masnaa on the Lebanese side or Jdeidat Yabous on the Syrian side.
What has changed?
Previously to enter Syria you needed to be pre-approved for a visa which took anywhere from a week to 4 weeks. The border crossing then took forever! Sometimes you had to wait for up to 2 hours for them to process the visa and the whole system was quite confusing.
Previously you also had to pay for the visa at the border which took up more time. There is no payment now when you arrive by land. Unfortunately, we do expect visa fees to return as they are already applicable if you arrive by air.
whole process now is very quick, even for bigger groups. For our group of 10 recently it took us about 20 minutes. Two people were asked “what is your job” and that was about it. It was very easy, the official were very friendly, we got stamped and we were on our way.
How about exiting?
Exiting is even easier now. Previously you had to fill in a departure card and pay a departure tax (it was super cheap about 5000 SYP or $0.30 per person), but now that is all gone. If you have a non-Syrian passport, you simply line up, get the stamp and that’s it!
The Lebanese side
This is where there is a little chaos. This is mainly due to the increased volume of people going through this border. There are now always big crowds and the whole process to get stamped in Lebanon can take more than 1 hours and will involve getting very close with many locals in some very loose queues.
We were in a very cramped room being pushed all around and there was even a fight that broke out. Tensions are very high here so we just recommend remaining calm, despite the fact that people will be pushing you, it will probably be hot and sweaty, and people will definitely be yelling. It is after all, Lebanon.
The chaos though is largely localised on the Syria to Lebanon side. The Lebanese side exiting to Syria is calm and fairly orderly.
What are some tips?
The biggest piece of advice we can give you is don’t put your passport away, until you have made it through both sides. Many tourists have a habit of wanting to keep their passports as secure as possible which is not a bad thing, however at these borders you will need to show several different check points your stamps. Keep them easily accessible and note which page they stamped to make it easier for the guard to check.
Toilets
This is always something that comes up during a border stop. The best places for a toilet on the Syria Lebanese border are on the Syria side when entering Syria. And then on both the Syrian and Lebanese side when exiting Syria to return to Lebanon. We know this information will definitely come in handy.
Money changers
You can find money changers on both sides that sometimes don’t have terrible rates. If you’re exiting from Syria and still have SYP leftover and want to get dollars, then this is a good spot to do so, otherwise you might have to change to Lebanese pounds and then back to dollars again.
Border crossing can honestly suck, however they can also be part of the experience. We also find that once people have gone through a horrific border they forget about it pretty easily because they are too excited about being in a new country, and honestly that’s the way it should be!
If you want to join us on one of our Syrian tours, then send us an email to
[email protected]
or you can check out all our tours on our website
here
.
