It’s 2022, let’s face it, we all need to stay connected. Technology is a blessing and a curse, but it’s made travel a heck of a lot easier that in years past. It’s definitely taken away some of the romanticism of travelling, but it’s also unlocked opportunities and allowed millions more to go on adventures they could have only previously dreamed about.
There are of course some remote parts of the world where being connected is quite difficult. North Korea and Eritrea are two places that immediately come to mind where contacting home and getting on the internet are extremely difficult and simply not worth the hassle.
Most guests we have on tours assume Syria will be the same. After all it’s a country that has been in conflict for a decade and political circumstances most consider to be extremely repressive.
However, staying connected in Syria couldn’t be much easier. For mobile phone providers, there are two main choices – MTN and Syriatel. They are much the same in terms of coverage and price, but we personally choose MTN as we are familiar with their customer service centre. This is a little bit of a hassle, but still part of the Syria experience. You’ll need to make your way to one of their main customer service centres.
Upon arrival you’ll need to take a number and wait your turn, no usual Middle Eastern pushing to the front here, all very orderly and in air-conditioned comfort. Make sure you bring your passport as you’ll need to register the sim card to your name. You can actually register two sim cards per passport, so to save time with registration, if you’re travelling with a friend get them both registered under the one passport. The process takes around 15 minutes and then within 5 minutes of the process being complete your phone will be connected.
For around 12000 Syrian Pounds (USD$3) you can get 40GB of data and unlimited calls and text messages. Talk about good value! Most of the country has 4G connection and using your mobile data is no different from the speeds you’d experience back home. Of course, in some more remote areas, such as driving to Palmyra, your coverage will drop out and only phone calls and SMS are possible. If you need less data, you can get 20GB of data for around 8000 Syrian Pounds (USD$2).
Wi-Fi isn’t as prolific as in many countries, but all hotels have very decent Wi-Fi connections at speeds you’d be pretty happy with in most countries. We’ve always been able to stream television shows as required as well as backing up photos and videos.
But you’re probably thinking that’s all well and good but won’t most of the internet be blocked? Well strangely enough the answer is no, very little is blocked in Syria. All your social media needs such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and YouTube are available. So far we haven’t found a media outlet that is blocked, so you can easily still connect to CNN, BBC, the New York Times, Washington Post, Daily Mail, Der Spiegel or whatever place you feel the need to get your news from. Of course there are websites that are blocked, pornography for example is blocked, as are the websites of extremist organisations such as ISIS (seems pretty reasonable considering the devastation they caused the Syrian people), but unless you’re a very strange individual I’m sure you can go without these for the duration of your stay in Syria.
Long story short, staying connected with the world, family and friends is as easy in Syria as it is in most places in the world. After all it is 2022.