adampenrith

I have been into the USA and Canada, and the UK and been subjected to a number of questions at Immigration, to assess the purpose of my visit.

I have also been questioned in NZ and Singapore but less so.

Every border has the right to ask a questions or five to assess if you are suitable for the visa you have - even if its a visa on arrival type of entry.

Equally holding a passport and an airline ticket does not give you an automatic right to enter a country.

If you are entering Israel the legitmate reasons, answer the questions truthfully and you will have nothing to worry about

I do not understand the reasoning for your questions

worldiswide

No insult taken, but border control is a serious issue that many countries dont take seriously (and look what has happened in some of those countries). Israel does and needs to take border control seriously, but have been there many times with no issues. The US security theater takes much longer, and is much less effective.

mad_atta

Ditto, from what I've read elsewhere if you cross overland from Jordan to Israel on the King Hussein/Allenby bridge the Jordanians will also stamp you out on a piece of paper rather than onto your passport, provided you are coming back into Jordan (ie so they will be able to stamp you out properly when you leave for the second time). In fact I'm kind of counting on this being the case, as we're planning to do an overland side trip from Jordan to Israel and back on an upcoming trip, and excited as I am about going to Israel I definitely don't want any stamps as evidence of that (whether Israeli or Jordanian from the land border crossing with Israel) that might cause me problems with any future travel in the Middle East.

Your comment now has got me slightly worried. Can anyone else on the board vouch for whether it is or isn't possible to get officials on both sides of the border stamping a piece of paper rather than your actual passport?

Thumper

Through previous posts of mine, you can see that I have personal experience working at the Allenby Crossing (Can't believe I referred to it by the slang name)

As a general rule, the crossing has moved to stamping a piece of paper versus the passport as the default choice. For certain populations, Jordanians flying from Tel Aviv, Palestinians crossing from Jordan to Israel and a few others, there is an additional orange ink on white paper transfer/transport pass that will allow you to go through the crossings.

While I have outstanding relations with our dear allies on the other side of the bridge, I cannot speak to nor vouch how your documents will be handled by the Jordanian authorities.

My advice is be polite, make eye contact, speak slowly and clearly, (so much is done in non-native tongues increasing everyones nerves. and be at peace with your trip and your intentions. It is a beautiful part of the world, and people are incredible on both sides of all the borders.

mad_atta

Thanks, Thumper. That's somewhat reassuring. In our case, after the Israel/Jordan section of this particular trip we're not doing any other travel to any countries where proof of travel to Israel would be a problem (we're heading on to Cairo, Istanbul, Singapore then home to Australasia) so if the worst came to the worst we could replace our passports when we get home. It sounds like that is relatively unlikely however.

Sound advice for any such travel situation! ^ Having crossed my share of somewhat challenging land borders in Africa and Central Asia, I have definitely learned how important your demeanour and approach can be.

joshwex90

The strictest questions I've gotten are always at entry to Schengen countries (specifically BCN, BRU, and ZRH). Traveling on an American passport, always there for less than a week. Maybe it's like this for everyone, maybe I'm flagged, dunno. But they look through my passport (and always ask why one page shows an entry without an exit and I have to convince them that the exit stamp is there if you look close enough but mostly rubbed out at this point).

Ditto

Just happen to stumble open this trip report http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...an-israel.html which seems to support what you read elsewhere.

No personal experience, I only ever crossed in Wadi Araba crossing, and the last time was about 1.5 years ago.

Bakpapier

Yeah I am thinking of going to Petra, which is in Jordan. However it's quite far to the south and I am not sure if it can be done in a day's trip from Jerusalem, or if I'll have to stay the night there?

I know it can be reached easily from Eilat, but I see no reason to go to Eilat, other than to go to Petra if I absolutely must. Because Eilat is mostly a holiday resort for beach and diving, and I won't be doing either of those things in February.

Ditto

A day trip from Jerusalem to Petra make no sense, it would be too long of a drive. (You are looking at ~4 hours Jerusalem to Eilat, and ~2.5 from the border to Petra)
There are day trips from Eilat, so you can either spend 2 nights in Eilat, or possibly just one before the trip and then catch a late bus/flight out of Eilat back to Jerusalem/Tel Aviv, you can also stay those nights in Aqaba instead.

If you ask me February is probably one of the best months to go to the beach or dive in the red sea, the water temperature is around 22-23 degrees, and the outside temperature will probably be about 20-25 degrees during the day.

Bakpapier

Hmm maybe I will visit Eilat, in that case. Although I have never dove (is that even english, diven? dived?), maybe they have one of those little elephant trunk like things to swim with, we call it Snorkel.

I thought it would be much colder there, even in february, so that's a pleasant surprise.

joshwex90

There's tons of snorkeling in Eilat - basically anywhere that has scuba diving has snorkeling. Here's one place: http://snuba.co.il/Snorkeling.htm

Ditto

If you are talking about those operations where you get air via a long hose connected to something on the boat, I don't know if that exists in Eilat, but you can do "normal" snorkeling almost anywhere on the South beach, and there are diving clubs anywhere if you want to rent a snorkel/mask/fins.

Getting to the South beach is as easy as taking a bus from the center of the city, or if you pre-arrange with a diving center they might even be able to pick you up in the morning for free.

joshwex90

There are also some hotels on the souther beach. Is there no snorkeling by the northern beaches?

And what's this thing with a hose attached to a boat?

Ditto

Indeed there are some hotels, but except hotels, restaurants and diving centers nothing else, so I guess it gets boring in the evenings.
I don't know if there is much to see while snorkeling in the North beach, and there are a lot of water sports going around so it might also be dangerous, better stick to the South beach for snorkeling.

http://www.airlinebyjsink.com/the-whys/of-hookah.aspx

joshwex90

Northern beach is certainly more fun. There are quieter areas without the water sports, but I'm trying hard to remember if I've ever seen snorkeling there

Interesting, never seen this before. Thanks