Import fees into Egypt overland
 

I had an email from Yorkshire couple Neil and Julie Bird who have just driven into Egypt from Jordan (via the ferry) They were kind enough to sent me details of the various taxes and under the table payments requires to ship a Land Rover into Egypt on a temporary basis. I am sure they won't mind me sharing this useful information:

[I]'Cost us £850e inc tip to fixer of £70e. (Egyptian Pounds) This include 1month insurance and was additional £340e for three months.
30e photocopying
5e chassi rubbing but free to us
520e tax for import
160e for month insurance / 500e 3 month insurance
20e 4x4 tax
50e licence plates
70e fixer
Someone wanted 10e to leave port And we refused to pay.

Hope that helps. If you come in via same route the local police man was helpfull until we said we didn't need help. He may have been faster and cheaper but who knows as we ended up with a kid/youngman. You cannot do it without help. We took loads of notes and are still baffled. I think our fixer even got confused at times.'

That works out at about UK£90. They have a web site under overlandbirds.

Toby

Sounds like a bargain to me!

Entering Egypt
 

All sounds about right price wise from when we went through in Jan 2010. Lots of small fees. It's not as bad as most people make out

Just make sure you grab hold of a tourist police to get you into all the different offices and translate!

If your in Egypt and have time, make a special trip to Siwa. Great driving and a world away from the Nile and the tourist trap

Yes, it does sound about the same as the land border crossing at Sollum, except I am fairly sure that the insurance was about 500 EP, although maybe that was someting else, I couldnt keep track of all the bits & pieces!!

Hoping to do it again via Sollum in January & this time I will try to keep track of the costs a bit more closely!!!

Yes. I did it via Soloum back in 1999 and seem to remember having at least 15 bits of paper stapled together! Next April we are shipping 2 x WW2 Jeeps in via the Grimaldi RoRo ferry from UK. I was reassured by Nilall's costs and hope ours will be similar. We have Saig Travel, Cairo handling the tricky bits, so, In sh Allah, it should be a smooth process.

Ferry from UK to Alexandria???
 

hi all

"Next April we are shipping 2 x WW2 Jeeps in via the Grimaldi RoRo ferry from UK"

is there a ferry to Egypt also in winter?

bye
Ursula
desperately looking for ferries to egypt

Hi Ursula, The Grimaldi service never went away, but it does not take passengers. Takes about 15 days UK to Alex. I have had an estimate of 'about' £500 per vehicle, per trip, plus handling fees each end. Or, there is the Seago Line. Part of the Mearsk Group who do a container service for not much more.

Hi Toby,

Do you have Emma's cost breakdown from the "Venice to Alex ferry cancelled" thread? I would think they would be more relevant to you.

Nuweiba seems from all reports to be a very easy entry/exit point with limited corruption/extortion. We left that way and it was quite straightforward and relaxed. The police were very friendly and didn't ask for anything in return. We were allocated a "helper" when we arrived and told that it wasn't necessary to pay him - he was employed by the port - but we could tip him if we wanted. It took two hours of running around and we gave him 80EGP which he seemed very pleased with.

We entered at Aswan and paid approx 1,500 EGP in total plus $50 for an fixer. It seemed a lot but he was an older guy who seemed to have a fair bit of authority there and he did get us our car off the barge within a few hours whereas I have heard of people stuck in Aswan for a few days. He was very clear about what the costs would be up front and the figures held good. I no longer have the list unfortunately but can tell you we weren't charged for many of the things Neil and Julie were but obviously the prices were different (and more).

We extended our car's documentation at Alex port and that was a nightmare. We had been assured in Aswan that extending would be free and straightforward (suffice to say it wasn't either). It took 6 days (two of those to get a pass to even enter the port - which in itself involved haring around in a taxi and queueing up in at least three different places. We do have a very nice perspex pass complete with photo id as a souvenir though ...). Friends who did it at Cairo went through a completely different process, set of charges.

In short I think whether these are legitimate or not different ports of entry involve different costs/processes.