rossing on foot, land border, Aqaba to Eilat

[John Bull]

Asked this on the Middle East forum, with no luck - so hoping the moderator will take pity on us & allow it to appear here.

 

We have an overnite in Aqaba (arrive lunchtime, depart late next evening) but having been to Petra, Wadi Rum & the Dead Sea we thought we'd head over the border (on foot) to Eilat for a day. Can't find much info, other than that the border is open til 8pm daily & we don't need a pre-arranged visa for Israel. Particularly would like to know whether there's an entry fee (and how much?) for Israel, whether taxis are available on the Israeli side (plus cost/acceptable currencies) & on the Jordanian side for our return.

Also whether we'll need to purchase Jordanian visas to get back - apparently no longer needed when visiting by cruise ship but all a bit vague re crossing from Israel. Kinda important, cos we'd presumably need Jordanian dinar & it's a long swim from Eilat to the ship :rolleyes:.

We think we have to pay a Jordanian departure tax (8JD) but even that is a bit vague.

 

We're UK citizens. Our next ports of call are in Egypt. Will an Israeli passport stamp be problematic? And can we have a separate stamped sheet of paper instead?

 

Sorry for all the questions, any bits of info welcome.

 

JB :)

[SadieN]

Can't help you too much, sorry

 

Have your tried tripadvisor.com?

[gertiesmom]

I have heard that if you have an Israeli stamp on your passport you would be denied entry into Dubai... Don't know if you have plans to go to UAE, but if you do, ask them not to stamp your passport in Israel. If you get it stamped and plan on traveling to UAE on a later trip, just order a replacement passport, then it won't have the stamp on the new one.

[jocap]

JB- have you tried asking on the Thomson page (I presume you're going with them again)? it's just that, when the troubles started, Thomson's weekly trip round the Red Sea was altered a little, and the cruise went from Aqaba to Eilat (now, that was fuel saving!;)), and presumably the passport question was dealt with- so there might be some Red Sea stalwarts who can tell you what happened. I have heard folk say that the Israelis are good at not stamping passports, but things change rapidly in the Middle East.....there was also an answer on another site, in the early days.....:rolleyes:

Have a wonderful time- wish we were repeating this special cruise.

[John Bull]

Thanks, folks.

Gertiesmom - Israeli-stamped passports for Dubai doesn't worry us too much, no plans to go there & if needs be we could get new passports. Egypt is more of a worry, cos we'll be there two days later :eek:

Jo - on my way over to the Thomson board right now.

 

BTW, just realised the day we want to go to Eilat is a saturday - don't want to buy unnecessary shekels & dinars in advance, but don't want to be marooned in Eilat if there's no currency exchange facilities open. Anyone know if that's a problem on a saturday?

 

Happy New Year to all (except QPR, Reading, & Aston Villa ;))

 

JB :)