Libya
 

We have recently travelled through Libya, November 2005, on 2 motorbikes.We had major problems finding a tour operator to take us through Libya until we found Dr Shelly of Cydamos tours based in London. cydamos@vodafone.net. He then used a company in Libya called Sukra Travel. We had to pay a small amount of money upfront in England and then hand over the rest when we met at the border.The visa was faxed through to us at the last moment when we were 48hours from the border.

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Plum

Did you have to have a guide/escort with you in Libya?

Tim

Yes, you have to. We had a driver in a car ahead of us. He had to go our speed and stop etc when we wanted to. The route has to be government approved apparently. Certainly our progress was noted at the various police checkpoints that you go through. It sounds awful but it was not that bad. We had made the itinery. The 2nd driver was fine. The first driver fell asleep as his wheel and crashed into the desert in front of us!

Was the whole process expensive, it seems prohibitively so for a couple of young chaps.(on bikes too).were you allowed off piste?

I am afraid it was expensive. We wanted to 'go round the Med'.Without Libya we could not get to Tunisia etc. If you could team up with 2 more then it would halve the cost. We paid 800 euro each; but that included hotels and food. Petrol costs 7 english pence per litre. So our extra costs were minimal. Shared amongst 4 it would be better.!!
Its not 'were we allowed ?'...we made up our own itinery and they just chaperon. They will do what you want and go where you want. You just have to have an escort. The drivers were very nice.

I am looking at planning my big trip at present. Libya was part of it, could you elaborate on which route you took through libya and was it worth the cost ? how did you made contact with your guide please.