On the 1st of May 2024 Syria started issuing e-visas on condition the application went via a travel agency (otherwise the payment wouldn't go through) and this is how I spent my trip in the country a week later - with a guide/driver that would make sure we passed all the checkpoints.

To complement Triath's review, the citadel was open to visitors and the biggest visible damage was not from the war (those parts had been reconstructed), but from the earthquake that shook the area the previous year (as in the photo). Other than this, Hotel Baron had been recently closed (the guide, who was a local, had not been aware of this).

And last but not least, Aleppo gave probably the most famous kebabs of Syria - the cherry kebab (which I enjoyed at Naranj restaurant in Damascus - it would be a pity to miss it, all the locals know about it) and the kebak khashkhash which I had (luckily) at Aspasia restaurant in Hama.