Overlanding in Egypt without a carnet de passage?

11/21/2011 8:21:59 AM

After some trouble I managed to send someone in Egypt to the auto club and ask about how it’s done. First time they told him that I have to get a CdP from Canada before I travel and this is the only way, but after the information I got from fretje here I asked my friend in Egypt to go again and explain the situation further. After telling them that there is no CdP in Canada “they don’t have it there!!” and assuring them that he has many friends who have done it in the way fretje described. They changed what they had said earlier and explained to him everything about the Egyptian Carnet known as “Triptyque”.

It is a new system, you DO NOT need a CdP any more for Egypt and the actual details are:

  • Documents needed: vehicle registration, international driving license & passport.
  • Issued from: Egyptian auto club offices in most Egyptian ports (land/sea/air).
  • Validity: 3 months, renewable once only.
  • Cost: $550 to $1,000 USD for each 3 month period.

After the expiry of the Carnet the car is not allowed a renewal for 6 months in which case you must either exit the country or place the car in customs storage. Another thing to do is pay 250% of the car’s price and keep it in Egypt forever, but it’s much cheaper to buy another car and drive each one for 6 months.

And I checked this, if you do have a CdP you still have to pay for transfer plates since no one can drive with foreign plates in Egypt except Libyan vehicles. It costs around $500 USD.

11/14/2011 3:29:31 PM

I have done this last year (2010) with a friend of mine. We arrived at the Egyption border in Nuweiba (with the boat from Jordan) without a CdP.

It’s not that you travel through Egypt without a carnet. We had to buy a local one (which is only valid in Egypt itself) on the spot. Actually, we had to get it in town (Nuweiba). So it’s a process of getting yourself (or one of you, like we did) through the border first without the car, but with the papers of the car, get the local CdP in town, then return to get transfer plates for the car and then finally get through the border with everything.

It is not something to be taken lightly though. It took us a whole day to get sorted, and the guys at the border said we were lucky that we were actually able to get a local CdP (although that might have been just to scare us).

I wouldn’t say this is how it is officially done (as officially, you should have a CdP before you arrive at the border), but as far as I know, it is legal and according to laws and regulations. You wouldn’t get far anyways if it wasn’t official, as there are roadblocks almost every 50 miles in Egypt where you have to show your papers (and those of the car) almost every time.

All in all, it cost us a bit more than 600 euros to get our car and ourselves into the country. Which is indeed very cheap if you compare it with the other options.

Afterwards, we heard from other overlanders they also still had to pay almost 400 euros to get their car (and themselves) in the country, even though they had a CdP. So I think we did very well.

As for the validity of that local CdP, it might have been a year, but could also have been six months, I’m really not sure any more about that. We were only there for about a month, before we drove into Sudan, so it didn’t really matter to us.

11/12/2011 10:14:56 PM

MSK
Try asking the same line of questions over at www.expeditionportal.com.
It is a large international group of adventure travelers using 4WD and adventure moto to explore the world. Sure enough someone there will know your solution!

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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