I have just finished a tour of Libya, including 4 of its 5 WHS and 3 TWHS. Reviews and a blog post will follow in the coming days. Below are the basics of that trip.
Itinerary D1: morning flight with Libyan Wings Tunis-Tripoli (1h). Lunch in Tripoli and then back to the airport for the flight with Buraqair to Benghazi (1h). ON Benghazi D2: drive further east, visit Qasr Libya mosaics, the high bridge over Wadi al Kuf and the first part of Cyrene WHS. ON Shahat D3: another 2h at Cyrene, followed by the FTWHS of Apollonia, Ras al Hillal coastal viewpoint and Latrun, a Byzantine site damaged by ISIS. ON Shahat D4: Giant Sinkhole 20km outside of Shahat, TWHS of Ptolemais and city of Benghazi. Evening flight to Tripoli. ON Tripoli. D5: free morning due to joining a new group; afternoon city tour of Old Tripoli, including the National Museum and TWHS of Sayeda Maryam Square. ON Tripoli. D6: day tour to WHS of Leptis Magna. ON Tripoli. D7: 580km drive to Ghadames, with stops at Qasr al Haj TWHS and Qasr Nalut. ON Ghadames D8: morning visit to Ghadames WHS. Late afternoon dune bashing at the tri-border area with Algeria and Tunisia. ON Ghadames D9: long drive back to Tripoli with stops at the Old Town of Yefren and the Troglodyte house of Omar Bel Haj. ON Tripoli D10: a few more sights in Old Tripoli and visit WHS of Sabratha. ON Tripoli D11: morning flight back to Tunis.
Overall it includes a fair bit of driving through unremarkable landscapes. Bring toilet paper and snacks.
Visa To enter via Tripoli, a visa is needed (63 USD), which the Libyan operator arranged for us. To visit the east (Benghazi etc), a 600 USD 'entrance fee' will be added to your tour cost. On the ground, there's a lot of paperwork being exchanged, but controls were soft.
Money Foreign cards won't work at Libyan ATMs. You won't need much anyway; you can easily exchange cash EUR and USD at the airport. A coffee or a Western soft drink costs about 0.5 USD (5 dinar), dinner 5 USD, and a 3* hotel room 25 USD. Since last year, the currencies of East and West Libya have merged, except for the 1 dinar coin (depicting the Silphium plant), which is only used in the East.
Communication I got a physical sim at Tripoli airport (10gb, 30LD/3 EUR) from Al Madar, which worked well in and around all cities and towns. All hotels had decent wifi as well.
Tour Only organized travel to Libya is possible at the moment, either private or by group. I did the 11-day Libyan Highlights plus East Libya extension with Lupine. They used Sherwes Travel as local ground operator. It was a comfortable trip without any hardships. They had some trouble keeping to the time schedules, but fortunately that did not result in missing out on items or too superficial visits. And as always, Lupine mainly caters to the country collectors, for whom, upon getting into the country, they have already achieved their goal and they seemed as happy with the "I Love Benghazi"-sign as with Leptis Magna. |