Eclipse in Libya
 

A group of fiends and I are planning to travel through Libya to view the March 2006 eclipse. One of the agencies we contacted said the tourism authorities has fixed a special price of EUR300 pp per day for travel during 20-31 March! This did sound 'special' to us!

Other agencies have not mentioned this so we will proceed with them but we don't want to arrive at the border to be told that in fact the 'special' rate was correct.

We also don't want to ask the other agencies about this ahead of time in case we put ideas in thier heads.

Has anyone heard anything about this? I'd be grateful for any 'how to deal with' advice.

Thanks
F

i was at the land rover enthusiast show at billing and was talking to Trek overland and they said they were arranging a trip to see the eclipse in Lybia I dont know what the costs are and they promised to contact me.

All i can say is that unfortunately my enduring memory of my trip to libya last year was of being ripped off by the "guides" for more info have a look on my web site www.gonewandering.co.uk

good luck

Hi
I heard the same. This is pure commercial propaganda. The problem might be that at that specific time no guides, drivers, etc. will be available due to a huge demand. And some clever agents take a chance and put the rumour into the market that the daily rate will be Euro 300. It will calm down and people will get back to reality soon!
Cheers

Thank you both for your replies. Very helpful.

The latest is that having said 'thanks but no thanks, we can't afford it' the agent came back saying that if the situation changed at all he would let us know. I wasn't exactly born yesterday. For a laugh I told him we were students to see how he'd react as he kept e-mailing me and guess what! He has now asked us to let him know what we could afford, perhaps there is something he can do. I'd rather travel through Algeria than use him as our agent. He has already proved himself unreliable and let's face it, dishonest.

I do feel like stringing him along for as long a it amuses me though.

We are now dealing with an agent who replies within the hour to all my e-mails. Which is fine while he doesn't have any of our money. He has asked for 30% up front! Scary. But I guess we have to take the plunge at some point.

Jeff, how far ahead of your trip did you cough up for the arrangement fees?

Thanks again, both, for your advice.

Regards
F