Say tourism in Syria and the coast is usually the first thing that comes to mind — and Tartus, Syria is where most of it happens. The city covers just about every kind of trip you might be after: an island that works as an open-air museum, an old quarter of sandstone lanes, a cathedral turned museum, a busy seafront promenade and a string of swimming beaches.
On the water: what to see in Tartus, Syria
Nothing beats the sea when what you want is a holiday: the endless waves, the warm sand. Thinking about it is calming enough; being there is better.
Arwad island: a living museum
The first place to head for, and one of the more unusual experiences in Syria, is Arwad island — an island-museum with a small fortress, stone alleys and historic buildings.
You will see a great deal of craftwork, all of it tied to the sea: fishing, boats, and shell pieces unlike anything else.
You can also eat seafood of every kind right on the shore, at the simple local restaurants spread along it. Nobody handles fishing, fish and the ways of preparing and serving it better than the people of Arwad — a meal here tends to stay with you.
You reach the island on a short crossing of a few kilometres from the Tartus shore, in plain boats whose design carries experience handed down from the Phoenicians to the present day. What you arrive at is a world guarded by sea on every side: al-Zira, as the islanders call it in their own dialect.
Al-Zira packs the character of the Mediterranean, from Greece to Spain, into a small patch of water, and mixes it with the particular feel of the Syrian coast. You come back from it having tasted the sea and the island’s history at once.
Arwad is steeped in history, close enough to reach whenever you like and separate enough to have kept its own character over the years.
Old Tartus: between the historic and the modern
For something close to the feel of Arwad but with a lighter dose of history and nearer to everyday life, make the old city your next stop.
Walk the old lanes, past the sandstone buildings and their distinctive windows looking out to sea, and that fresh maritime feeling gets to you. You find yourself scanning the windows without quite meaning to, for the beauty the late Nasri Shams al-Din sang about.
Make a short visit to the Tartus Cathedral Museum, well placed on the city’s seafront corniche. For the history and the finds of the region it holds, it feels like a pirate’s treasure chest the sea threw up one day.
Step out of the museum and you have jumped from a Phoenician ship moored permanently off the Tartus shore into the bustle of the modern city, with hundreds of restaurants and cafes and the daily sea-going activity along the tourist corniche.
You can spend an excellent evening right on the shore: the cool breeze off the water, the sound of the waves breaking on the rocks, good service, and the hundreds of other people out on the corniche.
Swimming and the beach resorts
You are in Tartus, so there is nothing better to do than enjoy the sea.
Hundreds of swimming spots are spread along the shoreline. Dreams Beach (Shati al-Ahlam) adjoins the corniche on its southern side, directly opposite Arwad island; this is where most of the city goes to escape the summer heat, onto a sandy beach that is busy at all hours.
Golden Sands beach lies about 10 km north of the city, and the sand is exactly what the name says. The mountains come down close to the water here, as though they wanted a swim too. You can enjoy the sea at this spot cheaply and completely.
In Tartus, dreams really do float on golden sand: hundreds of visitors swim and take to the water here every day, on sunny beaches that only improve with time.
Between the two, hundreds of places at every level are scattered along the shore, to suit every budget.
One last note: the weather in Tartus is mild most of the year, so the right time to come is whenever you are ready for a few good days by the sea. Every season here has something to it, and May to November is when the sea is at its best. Further north along the coast, Latakia and the ruins of Ugarit make an easy next stop.
