BootsnAll Travel Community

Hello - Looking to fly to Egypt from Europe in October this year then onto Jordan then back to Europe. When I look at flying this route the ticket price is very expensive. It is cheaper for me to fly in /out Egypt or in/out Jordan. How easy will it be to travel from Egypt to Jordan via land and back? Anyone done this and all hints/suggestions gratefully received. Thanks

How big of a cost difference are we talking about? If it's less than $200, then it's probably not worth backtracking.

Getting between Egypt and Jordan can be a little complicated. The land route takes you through Israel, so it requires 2 border crossings each way. They're high security borders at that, and will also leave you barred from many Islamic countries. I couldn't say how long this'll take or how much it will cost.

The water route takes most of a day, even though the fast boat only takes about 1.5 hours on the water. The Jordanians are fairly efficient at running their port, but the Egyptian port is a bit of a disaster and very confusing. I can't remember the exact price, but I believe it's about $60 each way, on the ferry, plus transit to and from the ports, not to mention your time.

If you are doing a R/T from one location, try to arrange it so that you're not going all the way back in one hop. Flying into Sharm-el-sheikh might be best, since it's nicely in the middle.

Add another day to get from the Nile Delta to the Sinai / Red Sea Coast.

Flying into Sharm is fast, but be prepared to be grossly overcharged to get a ride out of the Sharm airport. I'm almost embarrassed to write what I ended up paying - make sure you arrange a ride beforehand! You might not end up saving any money.

I usually avoid organized tours, but this is one area where it might pay off (i.e. just join a group heading to Petra or Rum, then ditch 'em once in Jordan).

Thanks for the replies - I can see I have a lot more research ahead of me. Thank goodness we are not looking at going until October.

I second 2wanderers, the boat ride from Nuweiba, Egypt to Aqaba, Jordan can be a NIGHTMARE and it is expensive. I would try to find a different way.

I will join the chorus here of shouting AVOID the ferry from Neweba to Aqaba. From recent, personal experience, DO NOT TAKE IT. It has GOT to be the absolutely most unorganized piece of transportation chaos on the planet and will take an entire day--if you're lucky. While yeah, the actual time on the boat is only 1.5 hours, the crazy port is where you'll spend most of your day in disbelief.

The route everyone was telling us to take was the land crossing from Taba thru Eliat to Aqaba. Whatever time involved couldn't be as bad as, say, the Allenby Bridge farther north, and I can guarantee you won't drain your time nor your sanity the way that ferry does.

Huh, that's weird. Apart from being a bit disorganized, and having to repeatedly ask for directions (something we got very used to on our long-term trip), I didn't think the Nuweiba crossing was that bad. We had to figure out where the building was to buy the exit visa (ie, pay the tax), but that wasn't too hard (I believe it's a couple hundred yards to the right of the port entrance). Once in the port, there was confusion, but we found an English tour group that seemed to know what was going on, so we kind of tagged along with them until we were on the boat. True enough, there's little signage and about as much English spoken, but I don't remember it being the nightmare that some people are describing. I personally would rather repeat that than try to go through Israel. Once on the boat it was quite literally smooth sailing. A bit nervous because the Jordanians had taken our passports, but we very quickly learned that Jordanians are far more efficient and trustworthy than some others. We got our passports back at the customs, who were very friendly, barely glanced at our bags and ushered us on our way.