Getting in and visas for Libya

Passports and visas are required for entry into Libya for all nationalities except nationals of Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia. Those who have passports indicating travel to Israel will not be allowed to enter. It is now legal for Americans to travel to Libya and spend money there. Soon US citizens will be able to get visas from the new Libyan Embassy in Washington, DC.

By plane

Map of Libya Tripoli is served by most major European and Arab airlines [2] and of course by Libyan Airlines [3] which uses the airport as its main hub. Essentially one may expect daily flights to/from most major European international airports such as Heathrow, Paris CDG, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Rome and multiple weekly flights to/from Milan, Manchester, Vienna, Alexandria, etc. A new private Libyan airline, Afriqiyah [4], provides daily services to many European (mainly Brussels, Paris CDG, Amsterdam Schipol and London Heathrow, according to their website) and African cities with Tripoli as a hub. It uses new Airbus 320 aircraft and seems to be expanding its 2007 route map rapidly. Another new private Libyan airline, Buraq Air, provides domestic services as well as some flights to several international destinations including Istanbul, Ribat and Aleppo. Buraq Air has been cited several times as a great success story in Libya's effort to privatize its economy and break away from state-driven economic policies. There are also some international routes between Libya's second city Benghazi to destinations such as Alexandria and Cairo (according to the LAA website London and Casablanca are planned from Benghazi). These tend to be more seasonal and one should check schedules ahead of time. Of course there are many direct flights from places such as Amsterdam to small oasis towns in the middle of the Sahara but these are operated by the oil companies for private purposes (i.e. to ferry the foreign oil workers directly to the oil fields).

By train

Libya has no international train connections and no significant domestic train infrastructure.

By car

One may travel to Libya overland. There are bus and "shared taxi" (accommodating 6 people in a station wagon) services from such places as Tunis, Alexandria, Cairo, Djerba, etc. There are many online blogs showing people having done the trip in their own 4x4s or using their own dirt bikes, campervans, etc. It would seem that they encounter quite some difficulty at the border (1-2 days to clear paperwork type problem) but considerable hospitality once in the country.

By bus

There are bus services to Tunisia and Egypt .

By boat

There is no water so no boats.