Syria's Bewitching Boutique Hotels
Syria has long been home to some of the Middle East's most bewitching boutique hotels (the only country that beats it in the beautiful hotel stakes is Morocco) so we're delighting in one of our main tasks over the next two weeks - to review and photograph a handful of the country's most characterful properties in Damascus and Aleppo. The first hotel we checked into last Wednesday was Beit Al Mamlouka, still one of the most romantic and intimate hotels in the Old City of Damascus. Despite what you read in numerous articles, it was not Syria's first boutique hotel - the hotel's first and former owner, May Mamarbachi, painstakingly restored the property over three years, opening it in 2005, but by then several fine little boutique hotels had already been operating since the late 1990s in Aleppo, including Beit Wakil and Dar Zamaria. Diwan Rasmy, which would later become Beit Salahieh, opened soon after, and many more followed. Damascus has witnessed a number of recent openings, which we'll be looking at and reporting back on over the next weeks. Under its 'new' management - Tony, the owner of a silk company, took over two years ago - Beit Al Mamlouka is still a wonderful place to check into and is quite possibly one of the city's most romantic hotels. More to come...Pictured: Beit Al Mamlouka's tranquil courtyard with trickling fountain.
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