Oh nice! Looking forward to it. Thanks for sharing

Bonjour!
Friends driving their converted bus just got into Mauritania and drove to the Capital city without trouble!
HOWEVER:
1) they had to do the border formalities trough a "forwarding agent" a local guy, not official nor qualified of course, who charges 50 Euros...without any receipt or ...
Guess where the money ends up?
2) the price for one month visa jumped from 50E to ....120 E
Again no receipt

Now they are confortably resting on the wonderful beach 20k north of Nouackshot

Hi,
Currently in Nouakchott having crossed over from Morocco a few days ago.

Got visa in Rabat 10,000dhm. Stayed in vehicle overnight outside embassy to be first in queue. Chap wanted 10dhm for parking, same again when collecting visa the same day. Negotiate, but many people tip him more in Euros.

Arrived at border late afternoon and waited till it closed before joining queue and again slept in vehicle.

Get immigration form from police just inside gate in the morning rather than paying 10dhm for somebody to fill it out for you. Again parking person will want some money for you staying there (2dhm, asked for 10).

As soon as gates open get non drivers to walk through to first customs shed and put passports outside window.

Driver will get ushered through, join passport with others already in queue.
Ensure you have the green piece of paper from TIP with you.

Various police checks , customs stamps etc before being allowed out but all fairly clear.

Enjoy the drive through no-mans land.....

At Mauritania side drive through gates ignoring touts. Border guards very friendly and attempted to help out by directing to wrong building.

All a little confusing after that. Don't let go off passport etc unless necessary.
Essentially, one building to get visa.
One building for immigration and stamps in passport.
One building to get vehicle paperwork
One building for customs to deal with vehicle paperwork more passport stamps.
One building right at the exit for gendarmes to check again.
Free to walk around area and get money changed etc whilst waiting.

The vehicle paperwork was hardest. A couple of other vehicles there also having issues. Customs refused to deal with vehicle paperwork directly and insisted used an official helper. 40Euros to get piece of paper typed up, this then taken back to customs and entered in book, passport stamped etc.

On leaving carpark, receipt given for 500oug to drop chain and allow out of customs parking, then just a final gendarme check.

Have plenty of fiche ready, used 3 just being down the road to Nouadibhou.

Finally, ensure no alcohol etc in vehicle. A dog was used in vehicle search on Morocco side. Pretty thorough check x2 on Mauritania side, boxes out, bags opened. Bottle of fruit squash queried as being alcohol etc.

Good luck!
Richard

Got insurance in Nouadhibou, 6,988 oug for 10 days.
Only one campsite open in Nouadhibou. Camping Baie Du Levrier. 5,000oug for 2 people and vehicle.
Camping Abba being demolished.

Thanks for border update, Richard. I think you meant 1000 dh for the Rabat visa?
I guess no insurance kiosk at the Mori border anymore?
What was the oog x rate at the border?
Did you try exchange in No Man's Land or NDB?

Thanks for the update! Do you have the coords for the campsite? Couldn't find it on google or Osm. Will be there tomorrow afternoon.


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At the border, a tout makes it easier, sometimes necessary if the lines are long etc.
My fav tout is Hamida +222 47403323
he has a sense of humour and is very efficient
three years ago I had the family in the car and there was a hundred Senegambian car dealers before us, things were getting nasty. But he took us through in 30 minutes. So money well spent!
going rate used to be 20 euros but I think they may be getting greedy at the border now, which may spell trouble if it goes on unchecked
Hamida even helped me hide the whiskey inside the back door in nomansland after I had broken my arm last year. :thumbup1:
Don't exchange more then you need at the border, you can get a much better rate in Nouakchott, esp at the grand marché.
When in Nouakchott why not visit Ahmed Fall's famed record store, le Saphire d'Or Saphire D'Or - sahelsounds
From afrobeat to zouk: the Mauritanian home of rare African sounds | World news | The Guardian
Ahmed Fall was the first rock musician in Maure, long time ago, still a great poet and singer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5c468ibHAg
In Mauretanie there is the division between maures and blacks that goes back a looooooong time, but in later years there is a growing sense of being of one nation. The one thing that unites all Mauretanians is the voice of Dimi (r.i.p.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19aTW5lIygc
Mauretania used to be a godforsaken place that you passed (with difficulty) going to "Africa". It is becoming more and more interesting as its own destination, esp with the troubles now in the rest of the Sahara.

Four of us crossed into Mauritania yesterday (on motorbikes). Two of us used a fixer named Cheik who charged 10 euros a piece. The other two crossed on their own, following our example. We paid 120 euros for visa, 10 for 1 week temp import permit, 15 for one week of insurance. There was no hassle with having someone prepare our TIPs- we filled in the document ourselves and handed it over. The official rate on the mauri side was very close to the xe.com exchange which id checked the night before (for euros). 30 ougs for dirhams (some guy on the street outside offered 34). If alone, I'd recommend using Cheik or another friendly fixer for ten euros, but you could do it yourself too.

Someone came up asking us to pay for parking which we refused to pay on principle since the fixer hadn't mentioned that cost at the outset. It may have been a "real" cost though as the other two were forced to pay and our fixer told us he paid for us (1 Eur).


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Just returned from Mauritania. I can confirm Cheikh is useful, reasonably priced and speaks good(ish) english. Used him on the way in then had a blazing row about how much the temp import cost, then found out if you want more than 2 weeks it goes up a lot! All smoothed over and I suggested he tell clients all the costs beforehand and he seemed to agree this was a good idea. His number is 00222 36189569. He has a shifty eyed buddy who hangs around at the Morocco side but they are legit. I'm not a great fan of using fixers, but there's not a single helpful official on the Mauri side of this border and no signs on any of the offices so they certainly make things simpler.
Chris: Insurance is still available at the border.
Ride/drive safe,
Simon.
(Green Land Rover 110 you may have seen heading north a couple of days ago!)

Sounds like as Rosso on the south side has got better, now the disease has spread up to Mori/Mk border. What a shame. They really are not encouraging tourism. Maybe that's the idea, like Algeria.

I use a fixer too, fot the last 4 years or so. Sometimes it's 10 euros, sometimes it's just a present for him or his family. The rest of expenses (as of 3 weeks ago): 120 eu visa, 50 eu in total customs carpapers filled in by another fixer, police no expenses, insurance 25 eu for a mid sized truck (can be much more, depending on your negotiating capabilities), 2.5 eu for parking :)))))))))). Exchange rate for dirham 34-36. 1 euro 380 ougiyas. You can much better insurance deals in Nouadhibou or Bou Lanouar, but then you have to sneak past a police chekpoint set up especially for smart guys that. Security is very good. My travelling companion got a stone thrown at him driving at night. Luckily he was not hurt. We decided to report the incident anyway. The gendarmes chief called us twice to apologise for the incident in the name of his country, wow, and they actualy caught the four young perpetrators. After many years detesting the country I slowly start to like Mauritania. I aways sleeps in the brousse, never had any probs.

We applied for ours in Rabat on the 10/11/2015. Very easy except were not pleased to see prices have risen from 340 dirham to 1000Dirham for single entry
2x passport sizes photos
1x copy of passport
make sure to have address and contact number for place you will be staying in Maurintania.
Very easy process. Arrived early at 8am and collected same day at 2pm

A recent description
 

Thanks for thir report☺
RR.

We crossed the border into Mauritania 4 days ago ( 20 nov.). We already had a visa but there were many people buying theirs at the border. No problem at all. To be paid in euro's and costs € 120 though.