travelling across libya-tunisia-algeria?

Off the back of the previous post regarding middle east travel....

I am hoping to head from Egypt, across Libya into Tunisia, Algeria and Morrocco before flying back.

Any one done something similar? Is this possible without organised tours packages?

I just am not sure how the travelling situ would be in these countries, i've travelled all over SE Asia for most of a yr, but this time have the gf so am a little more forward planning this time round.... (a sin i know, lol!)

Oh and would it be a problem if you have to organise a tour through libya, to do this in egypt?? And is it possibel to sail from tunisia to morrocco if algeria is as dangerous as it seems from reading other posts on the forum??

Cheers for your insights, as we all know this forum is such a comfort before heading off, as I did last time on my own.

Ta.

[ Edit: Edited on Feb 19, 2008, at 10:01 AM by oj ]

Unless you are really fluent in Arabic (Egyptian and Maghrebi dialect) and have some decent in-depth knowledge of the countries in question you better forget it.

You would need to hire an Arab driver at 50 USD per day and be pretty flexible about visa. The border between Morocco and Algeria is officially closed, you would have to enter Morocco illegally, with the risk of spending a night or two in a Moroccan jail.

I looked into organising a trip to Lybia in Cairo myself. I found that it was easier to go to Sudan than to Lybia, bc the Sudanese embassy was at least issueing visas to applicants.

If you want to travel around the Middle East I suggest you do the classic Cairo-Istanbul overland trip. Completely trouble-free as long as you avoid getting an Israeli passport stamp and almost everybody in the travel industry there speaks English.

If however you are set on Tunisia and Morocco you better travel to Italy and Spain (fly or go overland via Turkey) and go from there to Tunisia and Morocco.

Is it not possible to organize a guided tour in egypt from the libyan border, across libya?

Not that I am aware of. The only tour I ever came across was entering Libya from Tunisia.

Personally I think you don't quite get what you attempt to do. Imagine you are in South Korea and are trying to get to India overland, crossing through North Korea, China and then Myanmar. If you have really travelled around SE Asia that much, I think you'll understand that the visa for such a trip would be a nightmare. Well, Libya and Algeria are the Middle East version of Myanmar and North Korea - very very hard to get a visa and in case of Algeria potentially dangerous to travel in (Not Iraq-dangerous, but Afghanistan-dangerous or at least close).

The first hurdle for getting a Libyan visa is that you need to have your passport translated into Arabic by your embassy. Then you need to get hold of a letter of invitation from a tourist agency in Libya. This is usually the biggest problem. I strongly suggest you head over to the Lonely Planet thorn tree forum, there the topic is discussed in excruciating detail.

[ Edit: Edited on Feb 26, 2008, at 5:14 AM by t_maia ]

ay cheers dude,

been researching quite a bit .. incidentally I was in Myanmar/india/nepal/tibet/china .. and the usual SE Asia bits...

I have the arabic translation, this can be got through the Arab Chamber of commerce in london (for uk), but must then be endorsed by your embassy (just a bit of info)

Algeria was always off the list because of the danger - i mustn't have mentioned at the time my intention to fly over it.

My only real problem is getting into Libya. I spoke to my embassy and they seemed to believe i could get the transit visa across to tunisia, however i havent been able to speak with the Libyan embassy yet as it seems the only way is to organise a tour ... and any tour company I have approached seems to think i'll be doing the driving in my own car - whilst they provide the guide the govt endorses.

Just thought i'd put up what i've researched so far ..... of course if i do this trip and it works out i'll report back on here .. although its becoming a nitemare and i may, as you say t_mana, have to change plans

Thanks.

I had a client that travelled throughout Egypt and organized a trip to Libya while in Egypt. He then got his transit visa at the border of libya. He flew from Libya to Tunis, afterwards. I would recommend flying from Tunis to Morocco.