Egypt & Israel

[stickey614]

My wife has been wanting to book on the RCL Mariner Of the Seas Oct 9, 2012.

 

I have not done enough research or heard much about these ports and I'm worried about the safety. Ashdod, Israel & Alexandria, Egypt (both overnight).

 

It seems most people here on Cruisecritic have not had any safety concerns or problems while visiting these ports. But the recent US travel Advisory August 10, 2012 issued a warning about Gaza and the West Bank, including the waters off the coast.

 

Am I being overly cautious? ignorant to the proximity to these warnings?

 

If you have experience, please educate me.

[sitraveler]

We were on Riviera to those cities this summer.

There are always security concerns for Israel and Egypt, but we are not in Gaza or the West Bank. Proximity is there, and everything is relatively close but you do not go there.

[Aruba]

In anticipation of a few days in Israel in November, I am looking for a good private guide for my first visit to that country. AEGBRG and jagger16, it sounds as though you had excellent guides in Israel. Would you mind sharing their names and contact info? You can email me privately at sukey2 (at) gmail (dot) com

I sent you an email with the name and contact info for the guide we used. We were very pleased and can recommend her to you.

[Aruba]

I have not done enough research or heard much about these ports and I'm worried about the safety. Ashdod, Israel & Alexandria, Egypt (both overnight).

 

It seems most people here on Cruisecritic have not had any safety concerns or problems while visiting these ports. But the recent US travel Advisory August 10, 2012 issued a warning about Gaza and the West Bank, including the waters off the coast.

 

Am I being overly cautious? ignorant to the proximity to these warnings.

I wouldn't step foot in either Gaza or the West Bank. But as far as the rest of Israel is concerned, I felt a whole lot safer there than I do in many US cities.

[First Time 2008]

We were on the July Lands of Time cruise, and felt very safe everywhere in Egypt, Israel, and the West Bank. We did Alexandria and Israel on our own, and Port Said (Cairo) with a ship excursion. Let me share with you what we did, and perhaps you can get some tips that may be helpful for you.

 

Alexandria: This was our first time in Alexandria, and in Egypt for that matter. We started by taking the O shuttle to the city center. They drop you off at N31.20054 E29.89957. Right there is the Sofitel Cecil Hotel which has, among other 5-star hotel services, an ATM and an Avis desk. We went inside to get Egyptian cash from the ATM and cancel our Avis reservation (after seeing the traffic from the shuttle I did not dare pick up the rental car I had reserved; you'll see what I mean). We then walked along the inner harbor to the new library (Bibliotheca Alexandrina), where we visited (admission 10 EGP per person, Egyptian cash only). The library is amazing and definitely worthy of a visit. We were impressed by the large proportion of women scholars studying and researching in the library. For those who might need, there is also an ATM just outside the library. From the library we took a local taxi to the Roman Theater, which we also visited (admission 20 EGP pp), and found nothing special, certainly not as interesting as other roman sites such as Caesarea (Israel) or Ephesus (Turkey), where your ship will take you later. Outside the Roman Theater there is a vibrant street market for locals, where you can buy the stuff locals would need at low low prices, but not the tourist stuff. This is where you can get clothes, pots and pans, or fruits, but not postcards, guide books, or miniature pyramids. Prices are incredibly cheap. From there we took another local taxi towards Pompei's Pillar (which we viewed only in passing, from the cab) and the Catacombs. Admission here is 35 EGP pp. The catacombs are absolutely amazing, with three levels of graves (only two accessible, the third level is submerged) from Egyptian, Greek and Roman periods. As other have mentioned, no photos allowed, but we found that the restriction can be lifted with a $1 contribution towards the guard's retirement fund. From the Catacombs we took another local taxi to QaitBay Citadel, which we also visited (25 EGP pp). The structure is quite interesting, and the views are amazing, with great photo ops. We then walked to the El-Mursi Abul Abbas Mosque, which we visited and found very beautiful and genuine. Men can enter the main area, women must view from a side entrance (to the right as you face the mosque). Admission is free, but be prepared to tip the shoekeeper, 1 EGP is enough. From there we took a local tram (0.50 EGP pp, pay inside) back to the pickup point of the O shuttle.

 

Helpful tips if doing Alexandria on your own:

• Traffic is horrible. Imagine traffic flowing in both directions around a roundabout. That's a good start. They also honk all the time, and I am sure there is a honking language, each sequence meaning a different infraction you are about to make (three toots: I will pass you on the right; one long+one short toot: I am about to run over a pedestrian, better get out of the way). I don't know the honking code, but I am sure they do. I would not attempt driving. Be very careful crossing the streets.
  
• Trash is everywhere. Watch where you step. When I wanted to get rid of an empty plastic bottle, it took me many blocks before I found a trash can. When I did find one it was totally empty, and I am sure it's not because the city had just cleaned it -- people just don't use them, they dump everything on the ground.
  
• People are friendly and kind, and we never felt unsafe anywhere. Near tourist sites they can hassle you to buy their stuff, but just ignore them and they will leave you alone.
  
• If you are doing on your own, you absolutely need Egyptian pounds cash for museum admissions, and Egyptian pounds cash also helps get better prices for things like taxi rides, water bottles from vendors, etc.
  
• There are black+yellow taxis and there are blue taxis. Black+yellow are for locals, blue are for tourists. Prices on the black+yellow are much cheaper (by a factor of 10 or so), but they are likely to only take Egyptian cash and only speak Arabic. Blue taxis will take any hard currency and speak some English. We only ever took black+yellow taxis, and it was doable. If you want to do this, it helps if you either speak Arabic, or bring in writing (in Arabic) the names of the places you want to visit.
  
• No matter what taxi you use, you will need to agree on the price of each ride before you get in, as they do not use their meters. We bargained every ride down to between 10 and 20 EGP (and once the driver's offer started at 300 EGP, and we bargained him down to 20).
  

 

Port Said: Here we took our only ship's tour, to visit Pyramids, Memphis and Saqqara. We left at 7 am. The 3-hour bus ride was comfortable but long. First stop were the Pyramids, and it is quite a site. There were many O tour buses here, and it seems that every visitor was from O. At the Pyramids we walked around, rode a camel (bargained down to $3, including the photos they took with our cameras). The bus proceeded to the sphinx, where there were great photo ops with the pyramids in the background (very crowded here, again mostly O tourists). They then took us to a "art gallery" and "papyrus institute", which we found to be just a tourist trap for shopping, but others found interesting and bought stuff. Then it was lunch at the Meridien hotel (lunch was OK, but not as good as the ship's food), followed by visits to Memphis and Saqqara. Memphis was very hot and the least interesting of the sites. Saqqara was equally hot but much more interesting, especially the visit to ancient Egyptian tombs that are fairly well preserved/restored. We arrived back at the ship of almost 8 pm, to a great welcoming party.

 

Helpful tips if doing Cairo from Port Said by ship excursion:

• I recommend sitting on the right side of the bus, because the left side gets the sun both going and returning.
  
• Do not get on a camel at the pyramids before you agree on a price. You must bargain before you get on the camel or it will be much more expensive to get down. We met people back at the ship who had gotten up on a camel without first agreeing on a price, and had to pay a lot (they would not disclose how much, only that it was a lot) to get down from the camel.
  
• If you have leftover Egyptian pounds that you want to exchange back to dollars and euros, Saqqara is a great place. There are very few Egyptian vendors here as the place is quite remote, but precisely because it's remote they have trouble getting rid of their euros and dollars. They want Egyptian pounds because they is what the can use in their daily life, and if you have Egyptian pounds they will trade their euros and dollars at a rate very favorable to you. Of course you have to bargain, but you can get better than bank rates here. This may or may not work, though, as there are not that many Egyptian vendors and hasslers here, so it depends on who is around.
  

 

Israel: We did Israel on our own too. Because of the difficulties in arranging transportation on Saturday, we rented a car in Ashdod and returned it 3 days later in Haifa. We used Avis, which worked OK even if not very convenient for the ports. On Friday we took the shuttle to the port entrance, where we picked up a taxi to Avis. Taxi drivers were at first unwilling to take us, because they were hoping to get passengers for $100+ day tours, not short in-town trips. Anyway, we drove to Jerusalem, where we parked and walked to enter at the Jaffa gate. We walked all over the old city, except the muslim quarter which was off-limits to non-muslims. Loved the city, walked a lot, visited a lot. At 4pm we joined the large procession along the via Dolorosa, from the place where Jesus was sentenced to death to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This procession is led by Franciscans, who stop at every station along the Via Dolorasa to pray and describe in multiple languages, including English, what happened to Jesus there. Quite an experience. At the end of the afternoon we left for the Dead Sea, to spend the night at the Crowne Plaza in Ein Bokek. Early Saturday morning, by 6:30 a.m., we were floating in the Dead Sea. Temperature was already in the mid 30s (that's Celsius, folks) and rising rapidly. Floating in the Dead Sea is a lot of fun and the Crowne Plaza has its own beach with good facilities. Then it was breakfast at the hotel, and we were off to Masada. We climbed by cable car, and spent a good couple of hours visiting Masada. Back down by cable car, and we drove back to Jerusalem to view the city from the Mount of Olives. Got our photos, and then went to Bethlehem (in the West Bank) for the Church of Nativity. We were prepared for long lines at the Church of Nativity, but it turns out there were only about 20 people there. While in the grotto, the guard even said could stay as long as we wanted and take as many pictures as we wanted, there was no rush at all. We then walked a bit in the streets in the center of Bethlehem, bought some souvenirs, ate some street food, and found everyone at the West Bank very friendly. Back to Israel, we then drove through Tel Aviv, where we only saw the city from the freeways, and up to Caesarea, where we visited the fantastic National Park, probably one of the mot beautiful sites of Roman ruins anywhere, right on the Mediterranean. We then drove to Haifa to meet our ship. We were able to park the rental car overnight at the port, inside the port gates, right in front of the cruise ship terminal. It doesn't get any more convenient than this. Third day, Sunday, we started by visiting the Baha'i gardens. Unfortunately the inner temple and its gardens were closed for the annual deep cleaning, so we could not visit there, only walked the middle and upper gardens. From there we went to a beach in Haifa, but the sea was too rough. We then drove through the Carmel tunnel (great tunnel, very nice engineering) towards Nazareth, where we walked and visited the Church of the Annunciation. From there it was off to the Sea of Galilee. We started in Tiberias, and drove around the sea counterclockwise, along the way visiting the Ein Gev kibutz, Capernaum, the Bread and Fish Church, and the Church of the Beatitudes. We then drove to Acre for a quick visit, and then it was off to Haifa to return the Avis car and return to the ship.

 

Helpful tips if doing Israel on your own by rental car:

• We rented from Avis because they seemed to be the closest to the port in Ashdod. While that may be true, they are not walking distance, and no other car rental company is. So you might as well rent from whoever you prefer or gives you the best rates. I understand that both Hertz and Sixt also have agencies in Ashdod and Haifa.
  
• Because of the relative difficulty of hiring a taxi for a short trip from the port of Ashdod, it may be better to stay on the shuttle all the way to the city center, and take a taxi from there, even if that takes a little longer. Odds are that the taxis in the city center are not out to pick up tourists for all-day tours.
  
• In Jerusalem it was surprisingly easy to find parking near the King David Hotel, at a street meter that only needed feeding until 1pm (they go free Friday at 1pm). So we fed the meter until 1pm and kept the space for the rest of the day. Easy, safe location, and easy walk to the old city.
  
• In Jerusalem, there is a tourist info office just inside the Jaffa Gate, where you can pick up a good map and get info on what interests you.
  
• The procession along the Via Dolorosa is ONLY on Fridays. Visiting Israel on Friday and Saturday is a bit of a pain because so much is closed, but the opportunity to follow this procession is one good thing to be said about Fridays. We read in different places that the procession would be at 3pm, but the tourist info office said it was at 4 and indeed it was at 4. So check with them, perhaps the time varies with the season.
  
• The view and photo ops of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives are best mornings or mid-day, due to the sun's position.
  
• Bring plenty of water if going to Masada It's hot there, and there is no water at the top. Do not miss climbing down to Herod's Palace on the far northern end of Masada.
  
• Caesarea National Park closes relatively early (6 pm summer, 4 pm winter), and last entry is one hour before closing. We went there at about 4 pm which was enough time to visit and had the place almost to ourselves. Very beautiful.
  
• We regret not having visited the Golan Heights, and we could have, we had time. Based on what other passengers said, it is beautiful. Next time.
  
• You can get rid of your last shekels by paying part of the rental car bill and keeping only enough shekels to get back to the ship.
  

[Jayne E]

Also on 7/19 O cruise. We were a "brave" group of 6 who left the ship in Alexandria and stayed overnight at a beautiful Marriott hotel with a balcony overlooking the Nile. We toured Cairo both days with a wonderful guide. We only drove one way each day and returned to the ship rested and several hours before the buses arrived. We did not have a convoy, no armed guard and we felt safe every moment. We walked the market alone and found the people and shopkeepers friendly and happy to see tourists. I was told that in prior years almost everyone stayed overnight in Cairo due to 3-1/2 hr drive each way. Tourism is down 90% and this is unfortunate. The danger factor has been overblown IMO. We had a great time and didn't find the locals at the pyramids any different or more aggressive than in other tourist areas in poor countries. Actually, the 14 year old who told my husband I was worth 200 camels was quite a charmer:)

If anyone needs a guide (even if returning to ship each day) post your email. Ereen is a young modern energetic educated guide and we all enjoyed seeing Cairo with her.

[Mexfolkart]

Jayne..will be in Cairo in November..would love Ereen's email..

mine is mexfolkart at aol dot com

 

Thanks, Sherry