Venice-Alexandria ferry cancelled!

[*Touring Ted*]

Originally Posted by Ronnie79

Yes, it's a big headache only two days before departure.

We've tried to get Libyan visas without any luck. Was told they don't issue tourist visas right now and a business visa was not possible for a group(?).
But it's a good idea to contact them again and see if anything changed in the last weeks.

To start from South Africa is sadly not an option because I'm organizing this to a group and each one will participate on different parts of the trip. Not possible to reverse it. But if it were only me it would have been a great idea. Or I would circled Africa anticlockwise instead.

Fly into Khartoum perhaps ??

It certainly isn't easy to get into Africa at the moment. It's crazy how fast things changed. Only a year ago it was all very easy and Africa was calm.

[m2m]

It's almost beyond belief that there was only one car ferry from Europe and Turkey to Egypt.

I'll be heading north by car from South Africa in a few weeks...hope things improve in Syria or that restart the ferry to/from Egypt.

Anyone looked at going by ferry from Israel to Cyprus then to Greece?

[itchyfeet38]

M2M - We arrived in Salerno this morning having taken the Grimaldi freighter from Israel. It was fine. 365 euro each for us, 385 euro for the car. The crossing took 5 days. Ensuite double cabins, ridiculous amounts of free food (3 courses for both lunch and dinner) even free wine (!). Car was fully accessible at all times, crew very pleasant though kept to themselves.

We were on the the Euro Med line, which stops at Turkey, Cyprus and Greece on the way to Israel, not from - the only stop after Israel was Alex but we weren't allowed off.

Having had to renew our car papers at Alex port back in September I wouldn't recommend anyone importing a car there if there is any alternative. Compared to Aswan and Nuweiba (which are the only other borders of Egypt I've crossed in a car) it was horrendous from a corruption point of view.

NB Getting into Israel in a car wasn't much fun - you have to take out everything in the car and have it individually scanned ... took 8 hours.

[biotruck]

Hi Itchyfeet.

Can you tell us more details how you arranged the ferry? Did you need an shipping agent? Did you book it in advance. Was there plenty of room on the freighter?

Any contact details you have would be really helpful

[itchyfeet38]

Sure.

Contact details below (lifted from website)

GRIMALDI LINES Freighter TravelVia M. Campodisola 13
Tel. (+39) 081 496444 Fax (+39) 081 496551
E-mail: gfc@grimaldi.napoli.it
Web site: www.grimaldi-freightercruises.com

We dealt with this guy re initial enquiries - he speaks perfect english.

Carlo Di Falco

GRIMALDI LINES FREIGHTER TRAVEL
13, Via M. Campodisola - 80133 Napoli
Tel. +39 081 496524 (direct), +39 3452503740 (mobile)
Fax +39 081 496551

e-mail: difalco.carlo@grimaldi.napoli.it
http://www.grimaldi-freightercruises.com


We didn't want to book/pay until we were in Israel as we weren't sure of our dates so Grimaldi told us to contact their agents in Tel Aviv when we arrived (Allalouf).

marcoh@allalouf.com
Tel Aviv (Israel)
ALLALOUF AND CO. SHIPPING
Tel: +972 3 5640202

We contacted Grimaldi by email a couple of months beforehand with enquiries and finally booked about 10 days before we sailed. We paid by credit card in Allalouf's office - they had to ring the payment through to Grimaldi.

There are only 6 cabins on the boat - 4 same size as ours and 2 bigger and more expensive. Three cabins were booked on our boat. Plenty of room for the car - in fact almost a deck to ourselves. Car is strapped down.The ship is enormous. I believe it's full capacity is c. 5,000 cars and on our journey it carried boats, cranes all sorts.

On top of the fare you need to pay an arrangement fee to Allalouf ($25pp and $50 per car). You also need a forwarding agent ($200). The port won't deal with you as a private individual - a couple of fellow passengers spent a day trying. Finally about 60/70 shekels port tax.

You have to remember it's a freighter and you are pretty much at the bottom of the pile re their priorities. We left 3 days late and I'd never have known if I hadn't kept ringing Allalouf each day. Also they can't guarantee stops. Others on the boat wanted to get off in Savona and that stop was cancelled en route. This might work to your advantage if they take you further! Or might not.

Thats all I can think of.

[m2m]

Hi itchyfeet38,

Thanks very much for the info.

[roamingyak.org]

Could you kindly detail what needed to be removed to be scanned at the Israeli border?

I have 4 batteries for example, do these need to be removed, or the rooftent etc etc?

Or is it just each box, each item etc?

Thanks!

[motoshaman]

Hello all,

We (2 Amerıcans) have just realized our syrıan vısas have expired and are scrambling to fınd an alternative route to jordan or egypt. We have contact wıth a few freıght companies and ıt looks as though it might be possible. There is also a possibility of sendıng a truck through syrıa , but its hard to send our girls off alone through syria. As we have no option but to find a way to africa somehow as we are going to SA, I will update with our fınal solution.

Rien

[itchyfeet38]

Hi Roaming Yak,

What they said to us is that we had to remove everything not attached to the car. But they didn't apply this very consistently. So we had to unbolt zarges boxes we use for storage and also take out the fridge. However, there was a box bolted onto the roof rack they said we didn't have to take off though they did go through it. We didn't have to take off the sand ladders and they were content with the tent just being opened. We weren't asked to remove the batteries. Every item had to come out of every box or bag and the scan was item by item. They were even leafing through the pages of books. They scared my other half to death by trying to dismantle some very expensive camera lenses (that don't come apart). Unloading and scanning took about 4 hours.

They then inspected the empty car which took them a couple of hours. I guess it would have taken less time if they hadn't broken the key in the door lock. They asked for the keys to the safe, took spare wheels off etc. We weren't allowed to be present when they inspected the car.

It then took us a couple of hours to repack so about 8 hours in all.

Bizarrely we also had to do much the same thing when we were leaving Israel although half way through the scanning our forwarding agent threw a wobbly and said we'd miss the ship. So they just stopped.

We had minimal questioning going in but quite a lengthy interview on leaving. They separated the two of us for questioning and then compared our answers.

In all honesty it was a real pain and though I really enjoyed the country I would would think hard about entering Israel again with a car - or at least one that fully loaded. I should add that the customs staff were all very courteous and polite throughout and we tried to reciprocate. From what I hear our experience matches that of others.

[roamingyak.org]

Thanks again Itchy feet ;-)

I have a quote from Grimaldi, but they say I also have to pay a $400 port charge at Ashdod which you didn't mention - paid directly to the port with a receipt etc. Works out to be

eur 974 for Grimaldi (prices change boat to boat etc) and then + custom formalities use 200, Port taxes use 400, Agency fees use 75

Total - approx 974 Euros + 510 Euros = 1484 Euros ) should be about 200 Euros more normally).


Separately, apparently Haifa is cheaper and a little more relaxed? Have emailed Rosenfeld 4 times now with no answer though....... Will try expensive phoning....

[roamingyak.org]

Looking at any other options - seems their is something going via Triest in Italy as well, and a few reported ships to Cyprus.....

Trieste Port Authority

Boats coming and going that are listed as RORO:
Port Arrivals - ATHLOS, 7521950

Port Arrivals - ALIOS, 7902635

Waiting on emails - long shot, but who knows, worth trying to see what other options exist.....

[itchyfeet38]

Grimaldi sent a pretty impenetrable document to us which mentioned other taxes - worst case scenario on my reading was $400+- when I pushed they said the exact cost depended on various factors such as how long the vehicle had been in the country. The forwarders (Allalouf) just said it didn't apply to us and in the event we were charged 60 odd shekels ($15-20) fully receipted. You could try contacting Allalouf for some comfort?

[roamingyak.org]

One more question ;-) Did you have to get insurance for your landy when you crossed the border? The cost....?

Libya visas available now so trying to price it together but it is a national holiday in Israel yesterday apparently ;-)

[itchyfeet38]

We got it covered on our green card. However, I heard it was $100.

[roamingyak.org]

Sorry, you may have guessed this was coming....... ;-)

I should organise some green card insurance before I get to Italy so I am covered when I drive off the boat, or wait until I get to the UK to buy proper insurance there?

Or was your Green card part of your UK insurance that you organised when still in Israel?

Any recommendations for where to get the green card of course? ;-p