LIBYA

February 2010

 

Currency
Pounds, dollars and Euros can be exchanged into Libyan dinars at the border or just use the ATM machine. The rate was the same as in Ben Guerdane (last Tunisian town) so there's no black market to speak of any more.
Exchange rate for £ pounds into Dinars 1.9
Exchange rate for € euros into dinars 1.8
There's an ATM machine at the border and another one in the car park at Sabratha and all surplus currency can be changed back into Euros on leaving at only a very small penalty.

Price of fuel
Petrol is about 0.20D/litre dinars. Diesel 0.17LD/litre.
Fuel in Libya and Egypt and Algeria is about as cheap as it gets in the Sahara.

Costs
With the visa/invite/entry costs Libya is not so cheap. Notes come in 10, 5, 1, half and a quarter with the numbers written in English as well as Arabic.

Useful languages
Arabic and English. Road signs names are in Arabic but the distance numbers are in Roman ('English') script. Nevertheless it helps to learn the ten cardinal Arabic numerals (read from left to right, unlike Arabic script which is read from right to left).

Visas and regs

Here are latest regs from August 2009 (as predicted the draconian demands announced in June have gone by the wayside).

1) Passport with at least 6 months validity after the end of travel.
2) Completed visa application form.
3) 4 passport photos.
4) Proof of travel Insurance.
5) Hotel reservation.
6) Return ticket and copy of Itinerary.
7) Letter from employer.
8) Bank statement for the last 6 months. Some may still ask for this
9) A Invitation letter from Immigration Office in Libya
10) Arabic translation of passport details (see below)
11) You must provide fingerprints at the embassy unless you have a biometric passport which has the following logo on the front:


The visa is authorised between 2 and 4 weeks after submission. These visas are available at the Tunisian/Libyan Ras Adjir border for about €35 euros, though it might be considered more of a 'collection' as you need a agency's letter of invitation, along with all your other paperwork obtained in advance.

Note #8 which is a new requirement. You may still also have to apply in a group of 4 (it was 5) to get a tourist visa, and you need to travel in a group of 4 or more.
The bilingual stamp in your passport, is no longer required but they may change the rules back overnight. In London you can get the official UKPA-approved blank bilingual stamp (pictured right but filled out) for free over the counter from the Passport Office, Clive House, 70 Petty France, London. SW1H 9HD (just inside on the right, no need to queue) and maybe other UK passport offices too. Send your passport with a request for a stamp, and they will stamp and return it by special delivery free of charge within a couple of weeks.
Don't then simply expect matey at the Libyan embassy to fill out your details in Arabic onto the blank stamp for you while processing your visa app, even if it would take him 60 seconds. Once you have the stamp you can meet a guy from the embassy who will do you an 'official' trans for £30-50, although any writer in Arabic could fill in the details. UK visa agencies are now charging an extra £100 for the stamp and trans service.

Getting a visa for UK citizens
In the UK the Libyan Consulate is at 61-62 Ennismore Gardens, SW7 1NH. Telephone 020 7589 6120 Fax 020 7589 6087. Here's the form.
Visa applications are accepted on Mondays and Tuesdays, between 10am and 1pm. The fee is £20. Collections are on Fridays only, between noon and 2pm.
With your translated stamp and invitation organised by a tourist agency, a visa is issued in about 10 days for 30 days (and are valid for 45 days from issue (not three months as some may tell you). Extensions may be possible.

 

They also now insist on you showing $1000 or equivalent on arrival "to encourage tourists to spend money". This is on top of the money you will spend to get the carnet, plates, etc, although you don't have to spend all the $1000 in Libya before you leave. This rule also applies to fly-in package tourists who have just about all their expenses already paid for.

Note that Libyan authorities often impose severe travel or immigration demands without warning, as in the various examples above, but then repeal or lose interest in applying them. It's often hard to keep up with the latest regs, their veracity or whether they will be followed up for long.

Away from the northern coast highway transit (see below) you need to travel with an escort (around €35 in your vehicle - at least twice that in their own car - but see below) and in a group of four or more.

They seem to be impossible to get these days, but a one-week transit visa can get you between Tunisia and Egypt along the north coast highway. Apparently an escort is not required if you don't leave main coastal road (but don't count on it). You have to hand out photocopies of your documents at each checkpoint and officially you can't stop at Leptis, etc.

Don't get your hopes up as an overlander for a "transit visa" if applying in Cairo. I met two guys who have been here waiting on the papers for over a month now. One finally got the visa, but he's traveling via public transportation on a Taiwanese passport (it took him a month of waiting, though). The other fellow is a Brit who, after waiting for over four weeks, has finally decided to hire a guide to take him through. If you want to try your luck without a guide service, it may be better to try somewhere other than in Cairo! Alberta March 08

In other words you may as well get a regular visa which will be quicker, even if it's more expensive.

 

Costs
A quote I heard of recently added up to:
• $50 US visa / person (invitation)
• $150 / car for the plate, insurance, carnet.
• $100 border services per car
• $45 / day for the guide in your car
• $20 / day for the tourist police in your car.

This company also wanted another $45 a day for a guide to Waw Namus and Tazerbu (one presumes guides around the lakes and Akakus are included).

Another quote I got recently for a 5-day transit of 8 cars from Tunisia to Egypt added up to €2900 including the following:
• visas
• 8 cars entrance at the frontier
• tour guide
• two policemen
• transportation and accommodation of the guide and policemen

This lot also quoted me €1800 for a 10-day desert tour (on top of entry fees).

Finding a reliable Libyan tour operator is tricky; they seem more interested in making a quick buck than offering a professional service. www.fessano-w-tours.com have been recommended recently, as has www.almuheettours.net.

What about Americans?
Despite Libya coming in from the cold and the US's long involvement with Libyan oil exploration right through the sanctions era, this is the situation as explained me in 2009 by a travel operator specialising in Libya: For Americans, it's still more complicated than for others, but has become easier the last 12 months or so.

Border formalities
Show green form and passport. Rent number plate (around 100LD with a 50LD refund on return) and buy local carnet (€50 cars, €30 bikes) in the hanger on the left and insurance (about €24 a fortnight) at another hanger further up. Allow at least two hours. You can change money at the kiosk in the hanger or use the ATM. Within 3 days (no great urgency but certainly before you leave) you must get registered and stamped at a police station in any town for around 10-12 dinars. Usually your agency escort or hotel does this for you.

Leaving at Ras Ajdir for Tunisia, get your carnet stamped, fill out a green form again (in Arabic, you may need help), get a passport stamped and return the number plate and receipt for a 50LD refund (which you can change back into whatever). All pretty straightforward, even without a helper.

You need to travel in a group of at least 4, not including your entourage.

Leaving Libya for Egypt
About 100km from Tobruk, the road forks with English-language signposts for the first time. Take the right hand fork, signed Musaad (Ahsaad on the maps). Drive through Musaad (about 130km from Tobruk). Just before you get out of town, look out for a building on the right-hand side of the road with flags flying and several cars parked outside. You MUST stop here to return your Libyan plates and get back 100 Libyan Dinar. When you do this, give them the group of 3 papers that were issued with the plates on entry. They take the top 2 copies and you keep the bottom, larger copy. Nothing is stamped, but it was all accepted by customs at the border. Note that if you miss this, you may end up having to return after already being stamped out of Libya, which is what happened to us and another vehicle we saw.

Outside of the town of Musaad, you have to drive along 2 stretches of ragged road before you reach a checkpoint. Stop before this checkpoint and get your Libyan carnet stamped to export the car.

Go through the checkpoint and the immigration kiosks will be obvious ahead of you (choose any, but it's worth getting out and asking at one of the kiosks in order to avoid getting stuck behind a taxi of numerous people). Get your passports stamped here and then go through the checkpoint where you'll need to produce evidence of your plates being returned (aforementioned slip of paper) and your passport. There is a second checkpoint after the 'Duty Free Shop on the right. Passports again.
Then you're through, into a short stretch of No-Man's Land before the Egyptian checkpoint (Sallum).

For Egypt click here

Desert pistes
The main area of interest is the fabulous Fezzan in the southwest, and particularly the amazing Akakus mountains east of Ghat (rock paintings - sadly nearly all vandalised in 2009). The engravings of the Wadi Mathendous are also worth a visit. The piste over to the mosquito-ridden crater at Waw el Namus is also popular as is a visit to the dune lakes in the Erg between Ubari and Idri.

The piste to Madama in Niger from El Gatrun was closed to tourists in 2006 although tarmacing commenced at this time too.

Eastern Libya is a bit more off the map, less scenically interesting and in places with a risk of landmines. Jebel Uweinat on the Egyptian/Sudanese borders is the focal point here and well worth the visit if it's allowed.