Syrian Expats: Renting a Car in Aleppo on a Visit Home

Why rent at all when you are staying with family?

Because the visits add up. A trip home is rarely one journey — it is relatives in different districts, a day to Hama or Homs, errands across the city, an airport run at each end. Borrowing a car for all of that is awkward, and daily taxis stop making sense in the first week.

Auris operates in Aleppo, and pickup or delivery can be arranged to a home, a hotel, an office, another agreed address, the Sheraton Aleppo meeting point, or Aleppo International Airport.

Documents: bring both

The published Auris condition for Syria is a Syrian licence plus ID, or a passport plus a foreign licence. The minimum driver age is 25.

If you hold both a Syrian licence and a licence from where you now live, bring both — it removes any question at the handover. Our documents guide for Syria sets out the detail, and it is worth reading before you fly rather than at the handover.

Two things to check before travelling:

• Your licence is still valid, not expired during years abroad.
• The name on your licence, passport and booking match. A mismatch is the most common avoidable delay.

Delivery to a family address

This is the part most returning visitors care about, and it is straightforward: the car can be brought to a home address.

To make it quick, send more than a street name:

1. The district, then the street.

2. A landmark — a well-known shop, a mosque, a junction.

3. A phone number that will be answered at the delivery time.

4. A time window, not a single time.

5. Where the car can actually stop — a courtyard or a side street rather than a busy avenue.

Full detail in how car delivery works in Aleppo.

The mileage question on a long visit

This is where a visit home differs from a tourist trip. The published allowance is 150 km per day and 3,500 km per month, with extra kilometres at $1 in Syria.

Add it up honestly before you book, then ask the one question that matters: is the allowance counted per day or pooled over the rental? If your usage is three quiet weeks and one heavy one, the answer changes the cost considerably.

For a stay of a month or more, read monthly and long-term rental in Aleppo.

Arrange it before you land

A returning visit usually arrives tired, often late, and with luggage and family. Decide these in advance rather than in arrivals:

• Whether you take the car at the airport or the next morning at the family address. Both work; a late-night landing with children usually argues for the second.
• Who else will drive. Agree additional drivers at booking, not later.
• Where the car goes back, and whether that is the airport before your return flight.
• The deposit. The published Syria figure is $300 or $500.
• The delivery arrangement and any charge. No Aleppo figure is published, so ask.

Our Aleppo airport arrival guide covers the arrival side in detail.

If your family is spread between cities

Many returning families are split between Aleppo and Damascus. Two things to know: the M5 connects them in roughly 350 to 360 kilometres and four and a half to five and a half hours (the M5 guide), and a one-way pickup in one city with a return in the other should not be assumed — ask what is possible first. Aleppo or Damascus pickup compares the two.

For the Damascus version of this guide, see Syrian expats renting a car in Damascus. To start, open the Aleppo car rental page. Confirm the pickup location, the return location and any applicable conditions when booking.