Rich Local Travel Insights from Damascus, Syria

WHL Group
21 July 2010

Ednan Ghamyan has worked for Ghazal Tours, the whl.travel local connection in Damascus, since 2008. His passion for his home country of Syria makes him a great source of local information!

An interview with Ednan Ghamyan of Ghazal Tours in Syria

Every month, we delve into the travel experiences of people in the extended WHL Group network.

This month we talk to Ednan Ghamyan, who works for Ghazal Tours, the whl.travel local connection based in Damascus, Syria.

WHL Group: Which is your favorite WHL Group destination and which would you most like to visit?

Ednan: Georgia – I love remote mountains, greenery and snow.

WHLG: What would you never travel without?

Ednan: My passport! No, actually, someone fun to enjoy the trip with.

WHLG: What do you miss most about home when travelling?

Ednan: My friends and office mates.

WHLG: What’s the most interesting trip you’ve ever taken?

Ednan: Visiting Krak des Chevaliers – an awesome Crusader citadel. I suggest you check it out…

WHLG: What is your funniest travel experience?

Ednan: One time I took a heavy analgesic (on prescription – to quell an agonising pain caused by a heavy injury I had sustained prior to my trip) on a 28-hour bus trip from Riyadh to Damascus. I slept about 14 hours!

WHLG: What is your scariest travel experience?

Ednan: When I travelled on an old airplane (Sama Airlines – a budget carrier), the airplane kept circling and circling before landing. I thought that plane was going to crash-land!

WHLG: If you could go on holiday with anyone famous – living or dead – who would you take?

Ednan: Hmmm… let’s see. I would take Iker Casillas (the 2010 World Cup winning captain of Spain) to a nice unknown landmark in Syria and take a photo of him standing there, so I can promote my destination: ‘Iker was here – why don’t you join him?!’

The Krak des Chevaliers, or Fortress of Knights, is one of the best preserved examples of a Crusader castle and was an important military site during the Crusades. It offers magnificent views of Syria's surrounding Al Nadara Valley.

WHLG: Describe the best and worst accommodation you’ve ever stayed in.

Ednan: The best accommodation I’ve been to was the Hyatt Regency in Mecca, a lovely hotel. The worst accommodation was a motel on the international road between Jordan and Saudi Arabia – it stinks.

WHLG: Describe your earliest travel memory.

Ednan: My earliest was an insignificant, routine trip with my parents, but an early travel experience that I never will forget was DISNEYLAND!

Al-Hamidiyah Souk is one of the highlights of a trip to Damascus. The market is over 200 years old and over half a kilometre long. It offers an extensive array of traditional Damascene goods, from textiles to antiques.

WHLG: Please briefly explain what you think local travel is.

Ednan: Local travel is when one travels to a destination with the aid of a local. This local orients the traveller and uses expert knowledge about the destination to show everything possible.

WHLG: In what ways do you see local travel benefiting the country in which you live

Ednan: In Syria, there are thousands of historic and scenic sites. You can’t just read a flyer about Syria. Put on your hiking boots and get going. Otherwise you will miss a lot and not get rich enough insight into the history of the country.

whl.travel

whl.travel is one of the largest global online travel-booking networks catering to independent travelers headed off the beaten path, often in the developing world. The extensive whl.travel network today taps into the strengths of local tourism experts who, alone, are local leaders, but together have become a forceful planet-wide presence for the right kind of tourism, bringing to major markets all the local opportunities that can have such a positive impact on hosts and visitors. Visit the whl.travel website.