I am travelling South to North and would like to take a ferry to Europe from Israel rather than from Egypt. I know that 4x4s are banned from entering to Egypt through Sinai (from Jordan or Israel). Anybody knows how it may work in the opposite direction?

The plan is to take a ferry from Hurgada to Sharm and then drive 200? kilometers to the Israeli boarder. If I manage to reach the boarder would the Egyptians let me cross the boarder? I guess the Israelis do not care whether it is 4x4?

I fear your 4x4 would not be permitted on the Hurghada ferry. The ban for 4x4s is for the Sinai (the twisted logic being that they could be hijacked and then used against security forces), it does not matter from what direction.

Hi Africano

I have also considered this option when we depart from SA beginning Jan

See Mehmet's post on a similar
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...nderum-66987-3

Reg

If you scour around the forum you will find that there was recently a family who went through the Sinai and exited via Taba with a 4x4 into Israel and tried returning that route to no avail. I recall them also trying to return via Nuweiba which was a no-go as well
Also remember them unning out of options, after numerous attempts at the embasy and eventually having to ship their vehicle back to CApe Town from an Israeli port.
Further research will also lead you to an overlander coming across from Aqaba on the ferry and ended up having to pay again to ship his vehicle back to Jordan.
So, it seems like travel through Sinai via Taba and Nuweiba into Israel with 4x4 is no problem but definitely wont allow you to return into Egypt.
My 2c worth!!

That too what I have read at severall travel blogs.

Surfy

__________________
About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

Thanks everybody for the replies. I will try and will let you know if it works or not. What I can hear so far is that the ferry to Sharm is not operating yet, so I may have to drive around. I am not planning to come back to Egypt -I am going HOME.

Hi Africano,

To my knowledge, too, it should be possible to cross the Sinai coming from mainland Egypt. The ban seems to be enforced in the other direction only. The problem is that this regulation can change at any moment and the last reports about this topic are already dating a while back.

There used to be a ferry between Hurghada and Sharm el Sheikh, but this has ceased to operate more than a decade ago. With the little tourism that is left in Egypt I am pretty sure there won't be any new ferry!

Safe travels,
Achim

Heading that way soon but have heard recently that the Sinia Israel border has been closed? Anyone have any info? We're on m/bikes.

Thanks in advance

I have now completed the London to Cape and back to London. My last country was Israel. Some practical information about it.

Nobody in Sinai ever asked any questions about my foreign registered 4x4. There were two roads in Sinai where I was escorted by police/military.

Ferry Hurghada to Sinai. My knowledge is limited to the answer a guard gave me at the Hurghada port - "Kaput". So from Hurghada I drove to Sharm via Suez. Given that fuel is very cheap in Egypt driving around is proably cheaper than taking a ferry. If you start very early it is possible to make it to Sharm in one long day. The road is good all the way.

The Suez canal is crossed via an undergound tunnel for a very small fee. It took me about an hour including waiting time. The first time I was stopped at the crossroad from Suez to St Catherines and Sharm. From there a police pickup truck with several armed soldiers accompanied me until Al Tor (1 hour).

In Sharm I found only one place to camp - in Ras Mohammed National Park.
In Dahab I camped in the Lighthouse guesthouse. Very convinient location. In St. Catherines I camped in Fox Camp (by far the best camp in Egypt - good facilities, friendly owners and good food). In Nuweiba I camped in Helnan Nuweiba Bay Resort for 5$. Every other place in Nuweiba is called a "camp" but they have no clue about camping. Still in this very rundown town with very few tourists it is easy to find a "camp" to camp or even camp wild. Wild camping is easy in Egypt and I wild camped about 30% of my time there.

The only other road with an organised convoy is from St Catherines to the crossroad Sharm to Taba. I suggest that you top up your fuel tanks in Dahab as I could not find any fuel after Dahab- there were fuel station, but no fuel.

Egypt boarder. I arrived at 9am. Very light trafic. The first procedure took about an hour - unloading everything from the car, taking it through Xray and loading it back. The Egyptian customs and immigration were very easy - 30 minutes at the most. I had my carnet stamped within 5 minutes without any problems. So a total of 1.5 hours from start to end.

Israel boarder. This was a nightmare. I made two crossing. On the first day the shift was friendly. Again, I had to unload the car and take everything through Xray. I was lucky that the Israelis were very easy on checking my belongings. For an Israely Arab woman it took more time to go through the Xray with 2-3 suitcases than for me with the whole car load. The customs serched every small piece of her luggage manually. She was very pissed off. Then at the passport control they examined my stamps (including Sudan and Somaliland) and the next several hours I waited for a security clearance. The security office was friendly and did not ask many question but I had to wait hour after hour until I got my 90 day visa on a separate piece of paper. During that time my car was scanned in a separate building.

After going through immigration I bought insurance (approximately $150 for 30 days). If you have green card you do not need to buy insurance. Customs for the car did not take more than 10-20 minutes. The only problem I had is that I could not find my UK photo driving licence and gave them the paper counterpart. I was lucky they accepted it. It was 5pm when I left the boarder, so it took me the whole day to cross the boarder.

The good thing is that the beach wild camping area starts several hundred meters after the boarder. For several days I camped at the end of the "wild" zone by the Migdator beach/bar. The benefit of the Migdator location is 24 hour free access to their bathroom faclities.

As I could not find my driving licence the following morning I decided to cross the boarder back to Egypt to check if I had left my driving licence with the Egyptian customs. I left the Landy on the beach in Israel. I expected it to be an easy crossing. It was easy to leave Israel, it took me 10 minutes on the Egyptian side to ask questions but I failed to find my driving licence. The return to Israel was a nightmare. It was a different shift but they were aware of my situation. I was taken to a parking lot and was interegated in a very agressive military style. Luckily I was able to remain calm and answer all their questions in a friendly manner.

After that, I had to wait several hours for a security clearance going through the same procedure as the day before. By the time I was cleared I was grumpy and ready to go mad. I got my second Israeli visa without a problem.

I spent three weeks in Israel and this was a very interesting but controvercial experience.

I crossed the Taba boarder in December 2014 and it was painful but possible. See my today's post for details.

Thanks folks, just read from Japanese embassy site that one of the terrorist groups up that way are targeting foreigners? So maybe that country is off the table anyway. Thanks for the replies.

Hi, three weeks ago when transiting through saudi arabia to Jordan we had the information that the border was closed for foreigner after the attacks.
But as everything changes...
So we went to Dhiba in SA to take a ferry to Hurghada
Good luck

Arnaud
[url=http://bostrotters.overblog.com]Le Tour du Monde 2014-2017 des Bos'Trotters - Un Tour du monde en Camping-Car d

Dear all and dear Africano,

Africano, thanks a lot for the clarifying information. My brother and I are doing the same trip with our 4x4 only the other way around. We were suppose to take the boat from Aqaba to Port Sudan but suddenly the regulations have changed. This means that we need a letter of permission of the Sudan government. Currently we are stuck in Aqaba and nothing has changed yet. We have tried a lot of things so now we are waiting for good news from our fixer. Without that letter our car cannot go on a boat to Sudan. Our entry visa for Sudan expires on the 3rd of July so we are quite in a rush. Therefor we cannot waste any time and we have to think of a Plan B.

Does anybody know if it is possible to cross the border at Taba and if they allow a 4x4 car (not a pick up) into the Sinai. Even more important, is it safe to travel through Egypt?

We are now thinking of crossing at Taba, through the Sinai to Suez and from Suez to Hurghada, Aswan and then cross the border at Wadi Halfa.

How does it work with a Police convoy?

We have a Carnet but do they force you to get another insurance as well in Egypt?

Does anyone has a number of a fixer in Sinai who can help us out?

Thanks a lot for all the tips! All information is welcome

Best regards,
Daan & Lotte

So ... we crossed the Taba border a few days ago and it was so uneventful that I almost forgot, I promised to post about it ;-)

We left on the last day of our visa and motorcycle registration validity and they did not even bat an eye. not even the slightest remark save for one who checked our passports upon entering the border post.

Entering requires a fee of 2LE pp, nothing for the bikes. There's a huge sign that states all the fees.
Then our bags and boxes got thorougly checked (for free) by two guys (but there's an x-ray machine for the bags).
Customs wanted to charge 51LE per bike but I told him that the sign said 21LE. He was incredulous and showed me receipts of other people who had all paid 51LE - but nonetheless relented and only charged 21LE per bike.
He also discovered that one stamp was missing when they extended our stay on the carnets, but he just called someone in Cairo and everything was fine. I hadn't even realised that this stamp was missing, but Egyptians love their stamps. So better check twice if you got all the stamps on all the papers ;-)
After that we went to the traffic police, they - once more - took our chassis numbers directly off the bikes, filled in a form and we gave back our number plates and the temporary registrations.We were charged 10,-LE for this service, not sure if correctly. (Friends of ours had crossed two weeks earlier and they were also charged 10LE, but they were on one bike - so I did not complain and paid).
Then passport check in the main building and off we went.

To the second very thorough search of our bikes and belongings at the Israeli border. But very professional, friendly and free of charge. Takes some time, though.
Free camping at the beach right after the border. It was evening anyways ;-)

good day all
as it is not clear that if you can enter Sinai with your own Vehicle or cross the Suez Tunnel
spoke with some people i know in ministry of tourism and they suggest me that the ministry of tourism can help to get permits to get into Sinai ,
of course i spoke with those people and told them overlanders and how hard to cross Africa and it is a big dream to many of us and they come to Egypt and then they cant get into Europe and so on bla bla bla and that is not good at all for tourists to come to Egypt specially all those travellers have websites,blogs and many many people follow them and will be great if the respected Egyptian ministry of tourism can help overlanders to get into Sinai
and then they will say the truth how Egypt is great country and many tourists will come to visit Egypt
so if you are coming to Egypt and planning to go to Sinai , contact Egyptian ministry of tourism and tell them about your trip and how 1000s of followers following your blog ,diaries and your website and how is that so good to promote Egypt and ask the ministry to help you to get permits to enter Sinai
here is the link to contact them
Contact Us | Egypt Tourism Authority
of course im doing that cause i know how hard to be travelling to a foreign country and i just want to help our beloved community there is chance there that you will get help
and if you will be in Cairo go give them a visit will be faster than mails of course
here is the address link
Ministry Of Tourism, Abbasseya, Cairo, Egypt | Ministries | Yellow.com.eg |
will be waiting for feed back
travel safe