Possible to go from Egypt to Israel direct to ship to Turkey or Italy?
 

We are stuck in Egypt on our way to Europe. One easier option seems to ship from Israel to Turkey or Italy with Grimaldi ferry. Rather than ship from Port Said to Turkey which according to reports are a horror story.

EGYPT | Tincaninafrica
The Thousand And One Egyptian Sins | Into The World

Hey,

Why are you stocked in Egypt???

A solution could be, enter Israel by the Taba border and heading north to Haifa.
In Haifa there is a shipping company called "Salamis shipping" which is very reliable and not to expensive. The can sent your bike to Cyprus or even better to Athens. It takes only three days. The paperwork for my shipping was done within 15 minutes. If necessary the copy your papers for you. Getting your bike in Greece is piece of cake. The help Salamis shipping offer you is formidable.

For more info please sent me a PM.

Cheers,

Richard

Hi Richard

Thanks for the information, it's a great help. I was under the impression that the road through Sinai is closed and we can not go that route to Taba or Agaba?

I would really hope it is possible as it would be the best option to cross into Europe or Turkey.

If that route is a no-go are there any other border post to between Egypt and Israel that is open which you know of?

We're almost in Egypt, and I DON'T want to take the ferry to Turkey.

So, I investigated a lot of options....
israel seems doable to me, and from Israel you can take the Grimaldi Lines. Not supercheap, but in 6 days orso you'll be in Italy. These standard ferries Haifa-Cyprus.... well, some say they do exist and run, some say they don't.

We want to get to Tunesia, via Libya. 400USD p.p. + embassy fee (will be <100 euro's @ Cairo I reckon) for a business visa... you'll need two weeks to arrange it. Contact 'Jill' at Libya Travel and Tours and day 'Hi' from me :-)
Libya Travel and Tours: Private Libya Tours and Holidays - Travel Libya

Maybe it seems expensive, but hey... once you get to Tunesia, all is simple, plenty of options to get to Italy!

Libya is out, tried the embassy and our embassy in Libya and they do not issue visa's now, not even for business. Also got a letter from Libya Travel and Tours: Private Libya Tours and Holidays - Travel Libya, saying they do not operate now due to visa restrictions.

Seems there are enough ferries and ro-ro's to Turkey and Europe from Israel at not a too bad price.

Just saw this on Lonely Planet. Taba-Aqaba tourist route opens after lengthy closure

Petra | Sep 30, 2012 | 23:46 Updated: Sep 30, 2012 | 23:46
TABA — The Taba-Aqaba route re-opened on Saturday after nearly a year and a half of closure.

During a ceremony in Taba, Egypt, on Saturday, Tourism Minister Nayef Al Fayez said re-operating the route will have a positive impact on Jordan and Egypt’s tourism sectors.

Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil said more than 250,000 tourists use the route annually, generating about $250 million of revenues for both countries.

BTW: Where are you now? If you go into Egypt from Aswan do not use Mohammed Abdou as fixer!

I take it Taba-Aqaba route is a land route via Israel (Eilat), so a way into Israel if land borders further north in the Sinai are closed following the events in August.

May not be much good to you now if Taba has reopened, but if Israel was/is inaccessible from Egypt overland there is always the option of the ferry from Nuweiba across the Gulf of Aqaba to Aqaba in Jordan (an old dodge to get around Israel). And from there overland into Israel.

I know it was a Ramadan summer, but that '1001 Sins...' post sounds like hard work. The Aswan link seemed like business as usual.

Ch

Taba to Aqaba is for foot passengers only! No cars or bikes!!

I am surprised that Salamis takes tourists again. They stopped at one time. In addition, there were some posts suggesting a real rip off, by Salamis and in Cyprus upon immigration as well. Would be great if this would be a new and exiting option.

Greetings,
Achim

Currently it seems shipping from Israel to Italy is the best option. Got a quote from Grimaldi in Israel and it looks like a 120euro's exercise. if not then the only option is shipping to Turkey from Port Said.

Hey guys, all this suggestions like "seems to be", doesn't work. Please comment only if you have it recently experienced yourself.

As told the border is and is been open for the last year between Egypt and Israel and the other way. The only time that this border is closed is during Yom kippur, during this time there is no activity on the roads at all and so also not at border crossings. The customs are friendly and if you ask them not to stamp your passport they will not do it.

Taking the ferry from Haifa-Israel, isn't a ripoff unless you are a miser yourself.

Good luck !!

@Richard-NL:

You MIGHT be right that they don't stamp the passport in Israel if you ask them not to. But there is NO GUARANTEE! They have done it often even though they had promised not to!

And the problem is that even if they do not stamp the passport, the Egyptians will do which means that other Arab countries will see where you crossed the border.

This is no problem on the way north if you ship the car from Israel. But if you are on the way south it is a problem!

Greetings
Achim

What Achim says it true. Even without an Israeli stamp subsequent border posts can 'join the dots' if they really want to, but if heading south this is only likely to be entering Sudan at Wadi Halfa.
Never crossed at Wadi so I could be wrong, but if you give them no reason to play it by the book, it's hard to think they'll closely scrutinise your Egyptian entry point to try and catch you out - or at least I've never heard of this from people taking the Eilat land border short cut. Blatant Israeli entry-exit stamps might be different.
As mentioned earlier, if you feel the need you could muddy the waters a little more by going Israel (no stamps) to Jordan and Nuweiba ferry to Egypt.

Ch

You can always ship from Egypt
 

I did ship my Land Rover from Alexandria this summer as I relocated for work. A colleague did the same last December for approx 1200 USD. Sure it's SH...T dealing with the Egyptian bureaucracy but there are good fixers there, hassle free for not too expensive. Not all of them are good though, the shipping agent from Egypt "United Trans" screwed up right and put someone else vehicle in my container to Europe, and my Defender apparently went to Lebanon. doh Fun fun fun. Still is stuck somewhere, no where near. Should have hired that Capt Hassan my colleague used instead. He shipped straight from Alex to Genova in no time.

Hi Michnus,

Could you please inform me about the info fom LTT? They state today that they can still issue our stuff... and we've paid a shitload of $$ a few days ago!

Also, we just bumped into Mohamed Abouda @ Aswan, what went wrong and what should we look out for?

Daan, as for Mohammed the man is a royal scoundrel! He overcharged us heavily and it was the old story, he start with a decent rate and prices and then all oes wrong and people must be paid and there are no receipt and you do not understand the ones that they do give you.
Then as we were waiting in Aswan another fixer, Kamhal I think or something like that showed me prices he charged and it was half the price. Also Mohammed charged us for stuff we did not had to pay for.
PM send.

Lesson learned.

I think we will stick with going to Agaba or Taba and try and get into either Jordan then Israel ship to Italy. Or if possible go straight to Israel then ship to Italy.

There's too many hassles with the Lybia route and the Port Said ship to Turkey looks like a hellova headache. I will leave that option as plan B :smiliex:

Surely going North is not a problem with Israel passport stamps?

Does anybody have a confirmed price for shipping Israel to Italy ? 120 Euro sounds like a bargain, although I cannot really believe its going to be THAT cheap. Anybody with experiences shipping from there, I would highly appreciate any kind of informations.

greetings from Ethiopia
Chris

Hi Chris, these are the mail I got from Marco who arrange the shipping

Marco Hofmann Marcoh@allalouf.com :

If you are talking about the Grimaldi freighter where you drive on and stay in a cabin last November this cost us just over 1000 euro for 2 people and a car (365 per person and about the same for the car). Of course it will be less for a bike.

On top of that is $200 for forwarding agent and $100 for port agent (again that's for 2 people and 1 car - a is bike probably cheaper). And 50/60 shekels port tax.

Michnus may be talking about putting a bike in a container and flying over? Or maybe he has missed out a zero ...

http://www.grimaldi-freightercruises...medEnglish.pdf

I am obviously not drinking enough beers, sorry it's 1200euros not 120euro's like i said in my previous post. doh:biggrin3:

Michnus,

We dealt will Marco/Allalouf too.

He told us to expect anything up to $400 in port tax for the car. In fact it was much, much less (about $15). I think it is much more if you are exporting a vehicle that has been in Israel some time. So you may well find that the $150 port tax quoted for the bike is not payable.

Itchyfeet

Thanks it makes sense.

Is the Taba Eilat border between Egypt and Israel by road or by ferry?

There is a land border at Taba/Eilat.

We went Nuweiba/Aqaba (ferry). I did hear of a ferry Taba/Aqaba restarting recently too (but not sure it takes vehicles).

If you go via Jordan you get a chance to see Petra and Wadi Rum which are pretty special ..

If you do direct Taba/Eilat fill your tanks - fuel in Israel at least 10X amount as in Egypt.

Thanks Itchy!

We want to try for Jordan first, but from what I have heard that ferry and customs on Egypt side are a pain in the ass.

We got shafted so much in Egypt with petrol I doubt it would make a difference ;)

I guess leaving Egypt anywhere is a hassle (just like entering is).

Nuweiba wasn't bad. Much easier than Aswan. And 100X easier than extending our car papers at Alex. At Nuweiba we paid a guy 100EGP and he did it all for us - took about an hour, trailing from office to office. Friends tried to go it alone but it's next to impossible as forms are all in Arabic.

Ferry to Aqaba is expensive but pretty plush. You get sent to the 1st class lounge (even though you don't have a first class ticket).

Entering Jordan is an amazing contrast to Egypt. Your car is electronically scanned! All very efficient. No "helpers". No question of bribes/tips etc.

Entering Israel is another matter. They will scan ALL your belongings. Not too bad if you're on a bike but with a fully loaded Landy - no fun. It took 8 hours to get every single thing out, then put it all back ...

Well that is a bit of a relief to hear. Thanks for that info

My first problem is our bikes have been in Egypt over their time. Our Carne's are still valid but they wrote some Arabic gibberish on the Carne that the bikes had to be out of Egypt by May this year. We flew back in May for my wife to get a n operation on her knee. Now we are on our way back to get the bikes and go forth on the crusade to Europe :)

Biggest issue is I do not know what exactly they would want or if it is such a n issue for the bikes being there 5 or 6 months.

Hmmm. Tricky.

We wanted to stay over 30 days and so extended our carnet at Alex. It was a nightmare. It took 6 days and cost a fortune. Fixer wanted 200 euro (which he didn't get but it wasn't pleasant). I wouldn't do it again.

I also heard of someone extending at Cairo airport and that didn't sound as bad as we had it in Alex.

I also know someone who left from Alex (on the old Visemar ferry) who was over the limit on the carnet and he paid a "fine" of some kind (but it wasn't too much). But he was there when the Revolution kicked off and there was nowhere open to try and extend it officially anyway.

If it were me I would try to either:

a) get your embassy involved in making enquiries about how to regularise the situation. If all else fails see if you can get a letter from them explaining the "emergency". It doesn't really matter what it says but having an obviously official piece of paper (especially one the person looking at it doesn't really understand) makes it a little less likely you will be shafted.

or

b) chance it at Nuweiba. It seemed relatively laidback there. There is a chance they won't notice and if they do a chance you can pay someone on the spot to overlook it. I'd don't usually advocate bribes but having been down the "official" route I'd do it like a shot.

Good luck anyway.

It is a bit confusing. Our Carne's are still valid on their own. The time they gave us on the Carne has expired. But our local Carne office said, they can not change the dates on a Carne as it goes according to the date issued for the Carne. Basically a vehicle can stay there until the Carne expiries.

I am definitely going to try the airport route tomorrow as we will be there.

The Egypt embassy in South Africa did not offer much and our own embassy in Egypt also do not know much. I did have letters signed by our courts and what not and translated into Arabic to explain the issue and why we had to leave it there.

So it's going to be an interesting few days from now on. ;)

Egypt to Israel
 

Hi all,

A short note that I crossed from Egypt to Israel today, 3 hours total and no hassles anywhere just paperwork - paperwork...

I'll post more info in a few days about shipping but Rosenfeld at Haifa seems the best option to me to Greece from here.

Crossing Sinai not possible, follow the coast-road is OK, escorts are as helpful as possible but took a full day from Cairo to Dahar.

My suggestion is stay away from Tobya Boutique Hotel at Taba- stay an extra say at St Katherine's !! - but otherwise Egypt is a great biker land.

Cheers !!
Frank.

Hey Michnus,

The fact is that a foreigner vehicle can only be in Egypt for 6 months a year. Even if you CdP is valid another how many months. I had to leave Egypt because of my bike was there for six months. I'm not sure about penalties or what they will do if you stay longer than six months.

I will try to reenter Egypt again in 14 days, official I have to wait another 2 months to get in. Try it this time at a different border crossing.

Let you know how it goes.

When are you planning to leave Egypt????

Cheers Richard