Ferry: Istanbul - Lebanon

[santhasz]

Does anybody know, if are there ferries from Istanbul to Lebanon? Or to Syria?

Thx

[ozhanu]

Unfortunatelly there is no ferry from Istanbul to Syria or Lebanon. However I may help if you want to ship your bikes by road or by plane. I have a very close friend here in ıstanbul who works for a International Transportation company.

Sending my bike to England by truck will cost me about 300 Pounds and plane will cost about 500 pounds.

Good Luck

[santhasz]

Thanks!

And what about Istanbul - Egypt?

[ozhanu]

Hi santhasz,

There is no internationaly operated ferry from Istanbul to any middle east contry. There are three way of taking your bike to ME
1- riding
2- shiping (by truck or plane)
3- You may ride to south of Turkey to Tasucu (close to Mersin) take the ferry there to Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) then passing trough to south of Cyprus. You may find ferry to Israel, Syria or Egypt from there. However, I am not sure if there are still ferries operating to ME.

Good Luck

[santhasz]

Thx!

Maybe we'll have more luck from Greece ...

[flashy_cj]

Cyprus is the connecting point for ferry service from Greece and Turkey to Tel Aviv, not sure about Lebanon. If you are worried about the Israel stamp in your passport, C&I will stamp a separate piece of paper so you can travel to other mideast countries.

We were going to go from Mersin (?) to Cypress but have been advised to ride thru Turkey into Syria. I have followed other posts here and the Syrians seem to be a very welcoming people, esp. when you get away from the big cities. From there its on to Jordan and Egypt.

[Maddougie]

Hi,
I just come back from Chyprus. My aim was to get to Lebanon. Unfortunatly you cannot go from Turkey to Middle East. There is no ferry in Mersin. Don't trust the web page. And if you go to Tasucu and take a ferry to Girne (North Chyprus), you can enter south chyprus. But you will never be able to leave south chyprus to another country than north chyprus. South chyprus does not recognize the republic of north chyprus. And they consider you as illegal on the southern part if you entered by the north.It is a dead end. Syria do not seems so safe at the moment.
Better to take a ferry from Athina to Limassol (straight south chyprus) and then try to get another ferry to Tripoli or Beirut (Lebanon).

Good luck!