hello
I hope to be travelling from Turkey to Dubai, via Jerusalem, Damascus, Petra, Egypt, and through Saudi Arabia. I plan to do this around October and im giving myself around six weeks for this
At the moment im doing this on my own and im wondering about afew things, im an Irish 22yr old male student
-How safe is this to do alone, if there are places to be avoided where are they and why
-how expensive will it be to do this
-What is the best thing to do about visas
-What other places are worth checking out
-anyother things you might consider useful to know before heading
thanks for your help and time
duncan
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Hi mate,
I'm not actually sure if you can pass through Saudi Arabia without a sponsor which is hard to get unless you get a job there. Check it out because I live in Bahrain and I can't get across the border to see Saudi, as much as I would like to. I hope this is a help to you.
don't go to Israel
you won't get into Syria or Saudi if they suspect you have
been there.
(just by not having an Israel stamp in your passport doesn't
mean they don't know where you have been -- specifically
an entry stamp into jordan/egypt at the israeli borders
shows where you have come frome, even if no israeli stamp.
Also even without those stamps the Syrian embassy in Amman
was not giving visas because they consider you may have been
in israel)
You need a sponsor to get a visa for Saudi and visas are not
issued for tourism. Business or visiting close relatives is
a possibility.
It is possible to get a transit visa for driving through but
I think you have to give a good reason why you need one -
"just to have a look around" probably won't do. Anyway, you
don't get much spare time with one. As for dangers, it's
apparently not the safest drive - dangerous traffic and
getting robbed are experiences to be had.
One chap drove from germany to the UAE with his car via
Turkey and Iran - he put the car on a boat across the water.
Took him nine days. But that misses out most of the
countries you were interested in.
I wouldn't expect Israel to cause a problem if you travel
from Egypt or Jordan to Israel and back to the same place.
As long as you don't get any passport stamps - and avoid
collecting obvious Israeli/Jewish souveniers.
Good luck!