| Getting to Ras Mohamed by Land from: |
There is more than one way to get to Ras
Mohamed by land depending on where you are coming from. There is no shortage of Seven-Seater shared Cabs from anywhere on the Eastern Sinai coast and a good haggle would get you there for much less than you would pay for the same distance anywhere in Europe. You really cannot miss these cabs as they are all station wagon Peugeots from the seventies with orange license plates. They can be found all over Egypt (in Cairo they are usually patched black and white like the rest of the cabs). If you are travelling with a group of up to seven people, then you should take one of these cabs. Other than that you should ask to share the cab with other travelers. The cab drivers usually arrange that so you do not have to worry about it. You could also ask your hotel to arrange that for you but be sure to fix a price with the cab driver before you go. If you are not already in Sharm-el-Sheikh, you could alternatively catch one of the many public East Delta Buses that serve the coastal resorts. This will take you as far south as Sharm-el-Sheikh and then you could grab a cab there. Naturally this would cost less than if you took one of the cabs directly from wherever you should be. These buses have terminals in all the coastal towns but they also have stops where there are concentrations of hotels. Tickets can be bought in advance or upon boarding, if there is space left. Our advice to you is to buy it at least a day in advance. There are usually two buses a day from Taba, Nuweiba, and Dahab to Sharm-el-Sheikh but you should also check at your hotel in advance because schedules do change.
Another option you have is to rent a car. There are many car rental agencies in Sharm-el-Sheikh including all the major car rental agencies. The prices, however, are the same as in Europe or North America. Again , you should ask your hotel reception to arrange that for you. If you prefer to do that yourself, then most car rentals have offices in the five star hotels who will order it for you.
There are also different ways to get Ras Mohamed by land assuming you are coming from Cairo. The fastest and most efficient way is to grab one of the public East Delta buses. There are at least four scheduled buses per day, the most expensive trip being the one that leaves at midnight sharp. It costs about L.E 60 pounds which is about 16 U.S dollars. There are three main terminals where you can catch this bus: the Olali terminal which is close to Ramses Square, the Abbasia terminal and the Almaza terminal in Heliopolis. These air conditioned buses are usually quite comfortable but be prepared to watch an unnecessarily loud movie at 2 o'clock in the morning if you are taking the midnight bus. Again you could also hire a car from Cairo which you could leave at Sharm-el-Sheikh or any other town in Sinai if your plans do not include returning to Cairo. This would certainly be a good option if you are planning to tour the Sinai a little bit. The least that could be said about traffic in Cairo is that it is intimidating. However do not let that discourage you as the minute you do leave this beautiful but chaotic city, traffic regains some civility once more! The roads are well paved but our advice to you is that the speed limit of 100 km per hour is strictly enforced so avoid paying the hefty fine and endangering your life and abide by it. You should also never leave the main road when the signs tell you not to as this area is still heavily mined. The trip is about five hundred kilometers and could easily be done in half a day. There are sufficient gas stations and rest houses on the way. Directions are very easy: all you need to do is follow signs from Heliopolis to Suez which should take you to Highway Number 3 (also known as Suez Desert Road). Drive down this road for about 100 km and then follow the signs leading to the Ahmed Hamdy Tunnel which will take you under the Suez Canal and into Sinai and Asia. After you cross the tunnel follow the Signs leading towards Tor and Sharm-el-Sheikh, Which should be the first turn to the right. This is the old coastal road that runs parallel to the Gulf of Suez . After you pass El Tor, which is the capital city of the South Sinai, you will see the signs for Ras Mohamed !
If however you do not want to take the bus or rent a car, there is the cheapest , yet most laborious way to get there. Head towards the Ahmed Hamdy Cab/Minibus Stop (yes, it has the same name as the tunnel ) behind the central train station at Ramses Square. From there grab a cab or minibus to Suez at a much cheaper price. These could either drop you in Suez itself where you can get a local bus or cab, or it can drop you just before the tunnel where there is also a large terminal from which you can grab something to get to Sharm-el-Sheikh or Ras Mohamed. Our advice would be not to attempt this if you are a woman traveling on your own. You can even get the train up to Suez from Ramses Central Station There are three scheduled trains per day which leave at 7:30 am, 8:30 am, and at 2:30pm. The ticket should not cost you more than the equivalent of 2 U.S dollars! In fact you can even get more reductions if you present a student card or a Youth hostel card, If you do not have one then get one in Cairo. It is easy to obtain from the Egyptian Youth Hostel Travel Bureau at 7 Sharia Dr Abdel Hamid Said, Maarouf, Cairo (tel:577 9773, fax: 579 1953).ISIC (International Student Identity Card) works magic in Egypt, as all museums, sites, or train service have 50 % discounts for you when you show this card. Again you can get one in Cairo if you do not have one already. Just ask your hotel and they usually can do it for you. The cost is L.E 35. Rail travel in Egypt is free for children under 4. From the age of 4 till 9, children pay half the fare
You could also get here from Aswan, Luxor, and Hurghada To do so, you need to take the daily bus that leaves from Luxor to Hurghada. It will not cost you more than 7 U.S Dollars. In Hurghada you can take the ferry, but for this you have to check the getting to Ras Mohamed by sea section.
If you want to get to Ras Mohamed by land from Israel or Jordan, here is what you should do. If you are coming from Israel, then the Egged Bus company takes you all the way to Eilat from Jerusalem, Haifa, Be'er Sheva and Tel Aviv. No.
No. 394 bus will take you to Eilat from Tel Aviv While No. 444 will take you from Jerusalem. If you would like, you can catch a Sherutim which is a shared taxi from either the Old central Station in Tel Aviv or the central bus station in Be'er Sheva. Once you are in Eilat, take a cab or public bus to the Taba Crossing. No. 16 is the one to take right up to the border. After you cross the border, you will be met by many seven seater cabs on the Egyptian side which will take you. Again it is important to remember that you need to haggle hard. For more information on crossing the border, you should take a look at passports and visas in the INFO PAC. Be prepared to pay about 70 New Israeli Sheqels at the border as for an exit tax. You could also rent a car from any Israeli city which would take you up to the border but you cannot cross with it. If you are coming with your own car, then you can cross the border but you need to check with MEMSI, the Israeli auto club. The procedures at the border for taking in your car are fairly simple and should not take you too much time. If you are coming from Tel Aviv, then you should take the Ayalon highway heading south in the direction of Ashdod. Keep on that road until you find signs for Be'er Sheva. Once your reach Be'er Sheva, which is about 110 km from Tel Aviv, you have two options: you could take the Arava road (25) which goes through Dimona, or you could take road 4 which goes through Mitzpe Ramon. Either way, the trip should not take more than four hours until the border and another two to get to Ras Mohamed.
Please note that Israel is not a place to be at the moment. If you have to be there then you should probably not be using public transportation. You should also note that according to the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Agreement, 4x4's and SUV's are prohibitted from crossing the border in either direction (a anti-drug smuggling measure).
If you are coming from Jordan, then you could take the bus which is run by the Jett Bus Company from Amman to Aqaba and from there you could take the ferry into Nuweiba. For more detail about this, you should take a look at getting to Ras Mohamed by Sea section. If you do not want to take the ferry, then you could also catch one of the daily direct buses from Aqaba to Eilat in Israel and cross the border at Taba. The journey from Aqaba usually takes less than an hour, most of is spent at the border crossing. Be prepared to pay 6 Jordanian Dinars as an exit tax. There are also many service cabs or minibuses which you can take from Amman or elsewhere in Jordan which would take you to Aqaba for a relatively moderate price.
Similarly, you could also rent a car from Amman or Petra and drive down the Kings' Highway until you reach Aqaba. Here you can leave your rented car to take the ferry. Once you are in Nuweiba, you can take a bus or cab to Ras Mohamed. Jordan has good roads which are well serviced.
If you have a long holiday and are adventurous enough (and we hope you are !) you could do the overland journey from Europe either by car or motorcycles. This has often been done before by many people, so you would not be going in uncharted waters if you attempt this trip. The most important thing to do is to plan and research well in advance for such an expedition. It is usually more fun and safer when there are more people with more than one car in your party. If you are seriously thinking of this, there are many different routes you can take which are what we call the The Long Western route, The Long Eastern route and the Short Central routes
The Long Western Route is the route coming from Spain which takes you to the southern shores of the Mediterranean traveling east through North Africa and entering Egypt through the western border at Salum. Wherever you are in Europe you should get your self to the Costa Blanca and drive down to Almeria on the Costa del Sol. From there keep going west until you reach Tarifa where you can take the ferry to cross to either Tangiers in Morocco or Ceuta. If you do not want to drive through Morocco, there are ferries from Valencia that will take you and your car up to Oran in Algeria. From Ceuta, cross the border back into Morocco and keep driving on the coastal road until you reach Algeria. Although many Westerners would not go to Algeria for holiday due to the political violence in that country, the authorities there are keen to show that they are in command and if you arrange with the nearest Algerian Embassy to you well in advance, you are sure to get police escort from the Western border up until the border with Tunisia. This is a pleasant, tourism oriented country which is fairly easy to cross. Then you are faced with Libya. If you are American, your government warns you not to go there and for right reason too. The fact that your country has bombed there in 1986 and had lead the sanctions since 1992 does not make you Yanks favorites here. Chances are you will be denied entry visas here so you should be considering taking a ferry from Algeria to Alexandria in Egypt. If you are French, British, German, or Italian you can certainly attempt to get the necessary permits but it is uncertain when and if it would be granted to you. Again, you should research all this before you pack your cars ! If you do make it across Libya, then you will be entering Egypt from Salum which is basically just a border town. A pleasant, city is located about an hour's drive from there called Marsa Matruh. This is three hours west of Alexandria which is in turn two and half hours away from Cairo. This trip has been done in eight days but if you go at a leisurely pace, you should be able to do it in less than three weeks.
The Long Eastern Route This is the more plausible route as you drive down from Austria into Hungary, Romania and then Bulgaria which should take you to Turkey. From there you should take the Southern Mediterranean Coastal Road which leads to the Syrian Border. A word of advice is to coordinate that with Turkish Authorities as you will be crossing into Kurd lands. The people themselves are quite friendly so long as you are not Turkish, Iranian, or Iraqi! The problem here is that the Turkish government often has many campaigns against guerrillas in the area and you just need to make sure that you are not caught in the middle of this ! Crossing into Syria is usually not a problem and from there you drive south to cross into Jordan where you can either travel down to Aqaba and take the ferry to Nuweiba or you can cross from the King Hussein bridge into Palestine and then to Israel and from there travel south through Jerusalem to Eilat and then into Egypt. Again, this is highly discouraged as this is a very dangerous area to be in at the moment. You will also not be able to go back the same way you came if you did this as Syria will not allow you back with an Israeli stamp on your passport, or even an exit stamp from Jordan. This trip should not take you more than two weeks to do with a bit of sightseeing on the way as well.
The Short Central Routes These are the easiest way to do this trip and all it requires is that you drive down to either Italy or Greece and take one of the many ferries to Alexandria or Port Said. If you are planning to head directly to Sinai, then Port Said headed ferries is what you should be taking. From there, you can drive down the canal road until you reach the Ferdan bridge across the Suez Canal which will open in October, 2001. Otherwise you can take the free ferry from Antarra Shar' both of which will lead you to the Coastal road which runs parallel to the Suez canal and which ultimately lead you to Ras Mohamed. Our advice to you is that you fill up your gas tank before you cross into the Sinai as there are not that many gas stations for a while after that. This trip should not take you more than a week, depending on where you are coming from in Europe. For ferry details from Europe to Egypt, again you should check the Sea section.
With the Shengen and the EU and all this, you should not have any problems moving your car from one country to another, although you need to validate car, motorcycle and health insurances. The minute you do leave that, you need to find out about all the necessary paperwork and about customs and so on. For Egypt a Carnet de Passage and a suitable deposit is necessary for the temporary import of your vehicle. All vehicles are required by law to carry a fire extinguisher and a red hazard triangle.
The adventurous have done so why shouldn't you ?
The best way to take from South Africa is through Namibia crossing the Namib desert and into Botswana. From there head up the Zambesi in to Zambia, then go through Tanzania . From Dar-es-Salaam, drive north to Arusha and cross into Kenya. Here it is probably wise to catch a boat from Mombasa that would take you to Hurghada, Port Said, or Suez. The reason for this is that the Sudan is going through its second decade of civil war and even if you do not find yourself right in the middle of it ( which is very easy to do) then you will find no services whatsoever. If you do take the chance, the your best bet is to drive by the Nile until you reach Khartoum and from there proceed to Wadi Halfa where you can take the ferry to Aswan in Egypt. This is the only way you can cross from Sudan into Egypt as the land border is closed to the public.
For this trip you will need a lot of patience and some serious mechanical skills as the roads are in extremely bad shape. Having essential spare parts is not a bad idea as it is guaranteed you will need them and will not be able to buy when you do!
