No Syria for us...
 

Hi there,

As you've probably heart, Syria doesn't accept anyone with an Israeli stamp in his pasport. Well, also if you don't have an Israeli stamp: an Egyptian exit stamp from a Egypt-Israel border is enough, even if you only drove for 10 km. in Israel, and the ferry from Nuweiba (Egypt) to Aqaba (Jordan) is fully booked - because of busloads of pilgrims going to Mecca because of the Rammadan - the law is the law, and they won't accept any explanation. We tried everything, but nothing worked, so they kicked us back into Jordan.

It's also not possible to cross with your motorbike from Eilat (South of Israel) to Aqaba (south of Jordan). It's a new law, and only after talking for 2 hours they gave us a 2-day visa to go to Syria.

We're now trying to get a ferry from Israel to Cyprus and then to Turkey.

Cheers,
Corne

Hi cornepol
am in jordan thinking of heading to israel,and back to europe by boat. did you find a ferry running to Limaassol?
thanks

on http://www.ferries.gr/poseidon/ they say "Services have been suspended until further notice" for Haifa-Piraeus... i thought i'd heard this somewhere else too. this is clearly the result of the current political climate in the area.

when i was in jordan in 1999 (a much quieter time in middle eastern relations...) i took a bus amman-jerusalem and back. left the bike in amman. at the time it was possible to get jordan exit, israeli entry and exit and jordan reentry stamps all on separate paper... you had to re-enter jordan during the validity of your jordanian visa. border point both ways was the king hussein/alenby bridge. hence no proof of entry to 'occupied palestine'.

not sure if this is possible now.

why not drive through syria? the people are wonderful, views great, lots of history. clearly security is an issue, but IMHO you're safer in damascus than in london/ berlin/new york etc.
cheers
ChrisB

Hi there,

True, there are no real ferries from Egypt or Israel to Europe. We took a ro-ro (roll-on, roll-off) boat from Haifa.

It goes from Haifa to Limassol on Cyprus and then on to Athens. It costed us U$844,- for 2 bikes and 2 persons in a private cabin with food (which was not reallz good...).

We booked through Rosenfeld Shipping on the mainstreet (I forgot the name) along the harbour, number 104, second floor.

In Greece they told me that from next year on there will be a ferry again.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Corne