greendx

I've been to Israel a few times, each time while there I wanted to do a side trip to Cairo but never did any planning in advance and each time trying to plan while in Israel I found it difficult. This time I would like to either plan some or all of the things in advance as I am unlikely to have much internet access while in Israel.

I want to be able to visit Cairo for maybe 2 days. Really I just want to see the pyramids and the museum in Cairo. I also want to either do a day trip to Petra or maybe some sort of a 2-3 day quick mini tour of Jordan which in addition to Petra would include Amman and maybe something in between.

I will be based in Ashqelon but can start the side trips from pretty much anywhere in Israel. I was thinking of maybe going down to Eilat first for a couple of days since it might be easier to go to Jordan from there and I've never been to Eilat. Would it make sense to stay in Eilat for a couple of day in late November or will it be too cold to do anything?

In case I can't get to all of them the order of importance to me for these side trips is Cairo, Petra, Amman and Eilat.

Initially I was thinking of flying in to TLV and out of CAI and getting a one way TLV-CAI on ELAL but that flight seems more expensive than the round trip. I know there are ways to get to CAI by bus. Any info? Where to start? Price? Is it safe? Will there be an issue getting a visa at the border if going by bus (US citizen)?

As for the Jordan side trips, I know I can do an organized tour from various cities in Israel though seems a bit pricey for the listed itineraries. If however I wanted to get to Jordan on my own and book the trips there on my own would that make sense or would it be more of a hassle not worth the potential savings over a trip booked through an Israeli company?

Anyway again this would be around thanksgiving time so any and all recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
greendx

matthopp

I travel to Israel very regularly and do a lot of side trips. I have done a Petra day trip out of Eilat and it worked out very well. I used Desert Eco Tours and had a great experience, more on this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/middl...etra-tips.html

I have also taken a day trip from Eilat to climb Mt. Sinai, its probably a little hot for that right now, but the fall should be fine. I want to do Cairo for a weekend as well, just haven’t made it yet. I have thought about flying, but will probably end up booking a tour with Desert Eco for the driving trip and leave out early Friday morning and return Saturday night, just need to avoid paying for 2 person personal trip with just me!

Another thought is to fly to Cyprus for the weekend. Cyprus airways has flights leaving out early Friday morning and returning late Saturday night; I really enjoyed Cyprus. They also have a boat out of Haifa to Cyprus.

I have also done weekend trips to Istanbul, Budapest, etc.

Enjoy and let me know if you have any other questions.

greendx

Thanks a lot. I am going to look up Desert Eco and continue my research. Will report back if/when I figure things out.

Thumper

Petra is a phenomenal side trip.

Egypt, my best advice is to spend the money for the expensive trip if you go.
Treatment varies, but first class in Egypt is the old world kind.

Bibbie

I am a newbie on this site and just sure your email. I recommend that you have a look at Ruth's Jordan Jubilee website for some detail on travelling to Petra. http://www.jordanjubilee.com/:)
Also check out your airline's topeover packages and do the figues on which is better for the time you have: organised tour with the airline OR independently with hired taxis along the way.

greendx

So I finally booked my flight into TLV and out of CAI. Plan is to spend 2 nights in Eilat or Taba and do a day trip to Petra. I'm assuming I should be able to start the tour from Taba too? Then I'll take a bus to Cairo and spend another 2 nights there and explore on my own before flying home.

Wanted to know from you if you booked the desert eco tour in advance or did you do it at the hotel when you got there? I found that a lot of the places I've traveled to I was able to get the same tours either right through the hotel or local travel agent and for example in Jakarta I was able to avoid the 2 person penalty.

That brings me to the next question, did you have to pay extra to desert eco tours since you were traveling on your own?

matthopp

My trips are always last minute due to my unknown schedule. Usually if they had a small group going, I could join in. I would recommend booking in advance (2-3 days) to ensure they have a trip scheduled that day and have availability. I did a private tour to Sinai and I had to pay full price, which included two people, even though it was just me. I probably could have done cheaper if I had the time to research, but I probably booked the Friday morning tour Thursday afternoon when I was in the North.

98103

I've got a day trip to Petra organized from Arkia from SDE to Eliat then to Petra. I'm wondering for spending money in Jordan if merchants prefer Dinars or Dollars. Clearly I can bring dollars, but I also think that only offering dollars is insulting when one is in a country with their own currency.

Any tips/insight??

greendx

So I did this trip and just wanted to update the thread in case someone else is looking for similar information.


To get from to Eilat from Ashqelon I had to take a bus to Be'er Sheva then another bus to Eilat. There are no regularly scheduled direct buses from Ashqelon to Eilat in the winter. I don't recall exactly what I paid for the bus trip but it was something like and 20-25 NIS from Ashqelon to Be'er Sheva for about an hour bus ride and 60-70 NIS from Be'er Sheva to Eilat for about 3 1/2 hour ride or so ride. Tickets to Eilat were assigned seats and even though the bus wasn't ever full some people made a pretty big deal when finding another passenger in their seat.


I stayed at the Hilton Queen of Sheba hotel in Eilat for 2 nights. On my one full day there I took the day trip to Petra which I booked using Holit Desert Tours. The price for 1 person was $239 plus $50 at the border though actually ended up being $45 at the border. The reason was that I was actually taken by a different company who happened to pick up my reservation from Holit as Holit didn't have enough people going that day. The company I ended up with is called Thru Us Travel. They charge $5 less at the border, not sure what they charge for their actual tour.

I was told to expect a pickup from the hotel at 730am but was actually picked up a little before 7am. The only problem with that was that I didn't get a chance to get breakfast and was caught a bit off guard when my phone rang telling me to come down stairs. At this we picked up 2 more people on the way to the border and met the rest of the group there. At the border after paying $45 to the guide we went through passport control and then walked across the border, handed over our passports to the Jordanian authorities and had about 10-15 minutes to kill while they processed my group's passports (there were 7 of us and 4 different nationalities). During this time I was able to exchange some USD for JD. Didn't need to change more than $10 but I changed $20 just to make sure I had some JD left over to take home.

The ride to Petra took a little while, 2 hours or so. The local Jordanian guide that met us at the border spoke perfect English and Italian and seemed knowledgeable. We did make one stop at a rest area gift shop to use a bathroom. Never at any point at this or any of the other stops throughout the day were we taken anywhere to buy souvenirs like you typically get on day trips all over the world.

Petra itself was amazing. Spent 2-3 hours there walking, on the way into Petra part of the tour was explanations regarding what we were seeing. Then we were left to explore on our own and had a time when we were scheduled to meet up at the entrance to the park. After we all got back up to the entrance we were taken to a buffet style restaurant where food was very good for a buffet. Drinks were not included but weren't too expensive.

After the 2 or so hour ride back we were now in Aquaba where per my Holit itinerary we were supposed to have a short city tour. For some reason we didn't get a city tour but at this point it was getting dark and we were all very tired so no one bothered asking the tour guide. Crossing the border back into Israel was fairly painless though a lot more questions than when going from Israel to Jordan.


Next day I was scheduled to leave Eilat and make my way over to Cairo. I took a taxi over to the Taba border. Took about 10-15 minutes and about $15 or so if I remember correctly. Leaving Israel was again fairly painless just as to Jordan. There is an exit tax that one needs to pay, I forget the exact amount but pretty sure it was under 100 NIS and I had just enough NIS left to cover it. Once on the Egyptian side this was where I kind of knew what to do where to go but not really so made sure to get there way early in order not to miss my bus. My plan was to see what a shared taxi would cost if that was an option to get to Cairo, if not to walk to the bus stop.

As soon as I was over on the Egyptian side I walked into the building and started looking around. Two guys standing around next to a table dressed in plain clothes looking kind of shady called me over to check my passport. Still not sure if they work there but pretty sure we were in a secure area so who knows. They made sure to check that I had a visa for Egypt once I said I was heading to Cairo (NOTE: you can't get a visa at the border entry into Taba and anywhere in Sinai and while you don't need one in Sinai you do need one to continue onwards to the rest of Egypt) There are often conflicting reports that one can obtain a visa in Taba and or Sinai and even someone on my bus was talking about it I would not risk it as officially you cannot. So these guys checking my passport, as they examined it they offered to drive me to Cairo for $130. I said no thanks and their counter was $100 to which I also said no thanks. Next I continued walking down through the building towards the exit and showed my passport to a now uniformed Egyptian who said I needed to go back and into some office. The office was opposite where I spoke with the guys offering a ride to Cairo. In that office someone stamped my passport and then I was able to go back to the last guy in the building that checked my passport again and let me go. Outside of the building a soldier asked to see my passport yet again and as he was looking at it he asked where I was heading. Once I said Cairo he signaled to one of the taxi drivers right outside his post. As soon as I started walking leaving the border area of course I was approached by this taxi driver but as I read in multiple places I followed the advice to ignore him and kept walking.


If you are still with me and are wondering how to get to the bus well at this point you basically have a fairly short walk (~10 minutes or so maybe less) just going straight up the road leading away from the border. On your left you will first pass the Hilton Taba and then another Hotel/Resort. Eventually you will reach sort of a strip mall parking lot on your left which is where the bus stop is and the ticket counter as well as a grocery or two. So this was the area where I was expecting to see a shared taxi waiting for people to go to Cairo but there wasn't one and so I purchased a 1 way ticket to Cairo for 60LE (price seems to vary from 60 to 80LE). I later met a couple that was also going to Cairo that told me they did speak with the taxi driver at the border that said he needed 4 people to go to Cairo. I believe that they said he wanted $100 or so total.

Bus ride was interesting. The bus itself (1030am) with another leaving to Cairo at I think 430pm and a couple of other buses going to other locations in Egypt. Luckily the bus was maybe 1/3 full so most people had 2 seats to themselves. We made a few stops shortly after leaving for security checks and there was one where we had to pay a fee of I think 70LE or so.

A few things to note about the bus ride is that A) bring your noise cancelling head phones as they were alternating between blasting an Egyptian comedy and Egyptian music as loud as possible. B) bring something warm to wear as they would alternate between either blasting the AC or turning it off. C) enjoy the weird rest area in the middle of nowhere, where we had a bathroom stop. D) pray that you don't die since the bus driver must get some sort of a bonus if he sets a new speed record of time that it took him to get to Cairo.

The drive to Cairo was much faster than I thought. I think we actually got to Cairo in a little over 4 hours or so with a half an hour stop and another quick stop. That's when the traffic began. It wasn't even that bad but I still think it took us an hour and a half to get deep into the city and to the bus station.

So okay I read various things about the bus station and how it's possible to walk to a local bus or to certain hotels etc but my plan was to take taxis everywhere I go in Cairo. As soon as I got off the bus I was mobbed by a group of taxi drivers in a scenario where you know you are going to get ripped off no matter what. The area around the bus station looked very busy and I think was near an overpass if I remember correctly. I was not planning on walking around looking for a meter taxi. The first guy I asked to take me to Sheraton Cairo said 40LE. So one of the couples on my bus said that I was crazy it was expensive, etc. Of course I know that since I only paid 60LE for the actual Taba-Cairo ride 40LE was too much to go anywhere in Cairo but at the same time it was something like $8 and I just didn't care. I took another hour or so to get to the hotel mostly due to the crazy traffic. The taxi wasn't the most comfortable one, driver was not only smoking but offering cigarettes to me lol. Pretty sure he didn't have an air conditioner. So that's my story of how I got to Cairo from Israel. I stayed at the Sheraton Cairo for 2 nights before heading back home. On my one full day in Cairo I took a taxi early in the morning to Giza to see the Great Pyramid. I paid my driver 100LE to take me to Giza, wait while I spent a couple of hours exploring, including going inside the great pyramid. Then he drove me back. Again not the cheapest deal for a taxi even for such a trip it wasn’t too bad. The other thing I did was in the afternoon I went to the Egyptian museum (60LE entry). Museum is open until 6pm, I think it is either closed or closes early one of the days of the week, I want to say Wednesdays. Taxi driver next to the hotel wanted 40LE for the very short ride so I walked. Hailed a taxi asked how much was asked for 10LE just to give an idea what a local would pay, probably 2LE for the same ride. Same on the way back to the hotel, 10LE. That seems to be the standard fare for short distances even with traffic in Cairo but don’t expect any driver that hangs around the hotels to give you a quote like that.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. I didn't take any notes on this trip but do remember a lot since I only got back a month ago.

chollie

greendx, thanks for the very detailed report!

BTW, also really enjoyed reading your southeast asia trip report from 2009!

joshwex90

greendx, excellent trip report! One question: when the soldiers in Sinai signal taxi drivers, why are you supposed to ignore them?

greendx

Thanks. I was just surprised that there wasn't on this topic as I was hoping to find.

greendx

Ohh sure. I guess I could have explained this better. This is basically like the same thing of coming out of your hotel in Cairo and asking the bell boy for a taxi and being told "yeah I know a guy". Walking down the road and getting your own taxi saves you a lot of money. The guys that are the most easily accessible will most of the time rip you off.

joshwex90

Ah, I gotcha. I thought you meant ignore them as brush them aside or something happens. I read way too much into that!