Libya Cruise

[jig]

Has anyonefound out whether you will need an individual visa to Libya latter this year. I am planing one such cruise in 2006. Just wondering. Yhanks.

[Bugeye]

Check with the State Department at state.gov. I know americans are now allowed to travel there but there are still some difficulties. They have the up-to-date info on exactly what you need and also check with the travel warnings. I guess our credit cards (if issued with American Banks) and checks are not accepted. It even sound like you need a license to spend U.S. dollars.

This site is very interesting, I never knew the number of countries in the area that do not allow you to enter if Israel has stamped your passport, at any time! Amazing!

[shmabbies]

The visa issue appears to not be resolved yet but the passport issue sounds definite. I was aware that if your passport had any Israeli stamps, it could not be used in many countries including Libya, but I was not aware that if you had any border crossing stamps from Israel into (for example) Jordan or vice versa, the passport could also not be used, because those stamps (in a circuitous way) indicate you have been to Israel. For example, we did a tour in Israel, crossed into Jordan, came back into Israel from Jordan, crossed into Egypt, and came back into Israel. At each of those border crossings the passport was stamped, so even though we have no Israel stamp per se the passport is still not acceptable.

There is a way to get a 2nd blank passport while the first one is still in effect but these are usually limited to business people who can prove that they frequently travel to one country and in the meantime need their passport to send to a visa service to get a visa for another country while they are still away to the first country. I inquired about this but was told it was frowned upon for a casual one shot deal like this. The passport agent was very nice and helpful but he confirmed what I had deduced which is that we are going to have to bit the bullet and lose the three remaining years on our current passport to get a new one in order to enter Libya. Passport prices, of course, have just gone up as well.

I think this is something that may catch people short because everyone knows that Israel is usually careful not to stamp passports but no one thinks of the border crossings.

See you on the cruise!