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While in Lebanon’s capital, be sure not to miss these essential eats.

Overview

Overview

Overview

One traveler hikes through the haunted beauty of the Balkans to see if a trail can heal the wounds of war.

Overview

AFAR chose a destination at random—by literally spinning a globe—and sent writer Ryan Knighton to Egypt’s sprawling capital with just 24 hours’ notice.

A journey through one of the world’s last, best travel secrets.

Exarcheia is the most unique neighborhood in Athens, by far. It’s not for everyone. It’s gritty, graffiti-laden, and crawling with punk rock kids who are far more harmless than they appear.


But behind its rough exterior you’ll find a dozen bookshops, tiny cafes where old men sit sipping Greek coffee, and an onslaught of art exhibits with political undertones. The neighborhood’s cultural identity is diverse: you can smoke hookah with Syrians or you can dine with the artsy Greeks. Embrace every second of it.

Aroos Damascus (which translates as “the Bride of Damascus”), on Al Muraqqabat Road in Dubai’s old Deira district, is an ode to Syrian cuisine. The lively atmosphere and great food draw a diverse crowd of South Asians, Filipinos, and locals looking for an alternative to enclosed malls and expensive restaurants. Platters of assorted appetizer, and entrees of kebabs, steaks, kibbeh, fatoosh, and flavorful Arabic pizzas (manaeesh) are served all day (and until late in the evening) inside or on the patio.

To get a feel for the real Dubai, there’s no better way than to book a tour with Frying Pan Adventures. Frying Pan was the first culinary tour outfit in Dubai, and their success is well deserved. A day with Frying Pan will get you out of the glitzy hotel scene and into Dubai’s neighborhoods, which can be hard to imagine when you’re sitting in a bar 25 stories above the city. On Arva’s Middle Eastern food tour you’ll try Syrian, Jordanian, Palestinian, Egyptian, Iranian, and Emirati cuisines. Good Emirati food is difficult to find outside of homes, so the tour is worth doing for that chance alone. You’ll get to sample delectable treats: from succulent Persian kebabs and wonderful Egyptian pastries to baklava dripping with honey and piping hot flat bread straight from the oven. Arva’s walking tours (or air-conditioned vans, in the hotter months), will take you from food trucks to tiny Egyptian kitchens, from Iranian saffron rice to Emirati date-scented desserts. Make sure to book well in advance, especially in the winter months.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art—or, commonly, the Met—is one of the world’s great museums, alongside the Louvre, the British Museum, and a handful of others. It would be easy to devote an entire week’s visit to the museum alone, and realistically you probably won’t get far beyond a few exhibitions and galleries at one shot. The Costume Institute’s temporary shows are always popular, while others will (like the museum itself) focus on a range of regions and periods—at any one time there may be temporary exhibitions on an Italian Renaissance painter, miniatures from Mughal India, and Polynesian carvings. The Temple of Dendur, a roughly 43' x 21' x 16' temple that dates to around 15 B.C.E. and was given by the government of Egypt to the United States in 1967, is one of the museum’s most photographed (and Instagrammed) works. The 34 period rooms, including a 12th-century cloister, English parlor and a Shaker “retiring” room, are among the museum’s other highlights. On summer evenings, site-specific installations make the rooftop terrace is a favorite place for drinks. The general admission of $25 for adults, $12 for students, and $17 for seniors is a suggested one for New York residents, as well as students from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Whatever you pay also includes same-day entry to The Met Cloisters.

One of the biggest stars of the five museums on Museum Island, the Pergamon was the last to open, in 1930. Built to resemble a Babylonian temple, it houses a trove of ancient treasures from the Middle East, with highlights that include the enormous Pergamon Altar, dating from around 170 B.C.E. and featuring a dramatic frieze showing a battle between gods and giants; the two-story Market Gate of Miletus, built by the Romans in 120 C.E.; and the equally impressive Ishtar Gate, from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century B.C.E. Another poignant highlight, given the large influx of Syrian refugees into the city since 2015, is the 17th-century Aleppo Room, a reception chamber from a merchant’s house with exquisitely carved wall decorations.

Some Americans may think of Montréal’s anglophone, francophone, and Indigenous communities when they think about the city’s diversity, but it is also remarkably international. Case in point, almost 20,000 Syrians live in Québec, and more than 90 percent of them are in Montréal—a number that will likely increase in coming years given the province’s commitment to resettling refugees from the country. Fuad Alnirabie, the chef and owner of Damas in Outremont, is a Syrian-Canadian who is introducing Montréal to his native country’s cuisine. The best strategy is to order an abundance of hot and cold mezes—hummus, baba ghanoush, octopus salad, fried dumplings—or leave the work of choosing to the kitchen and opt for the five- or six-course tasting menu.

There isn’t a houseware buyer in the world who doesn’t whisper of the treasures that can be unearthed in this Aladdin’s cave of a store spread over several floors and houses in Dar el Bacha. Alas, these days Mustapha Blaoui is probably Marrakech’s worst-kept secret, but it’s no less magical for that. Whether your preference is for a fuchsia-colored juju hat (all the rage for giving a pop of color to a boring old wall), bone-handled cutlery, a silver teapot and engraved glasses, a chrome-plated art deco mirror, giant beaded heads from the Cameroon, or Syrian furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl, chances are Mustapha has it. Even if it doesn’t, you can easily lose yourself in this labyrinth of rooms for several hours, swept up in the magic of the Orient.