Haifa Travel Forum

IS THERE A WAY TO TRAVEL FROM RHODES TO HAIFA

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I cannot find the answer...how do you find the answers?

There are cruise ships, but they are not likely to accept a passenger for just that portion of their route. Would be expensive.

You might have to go to the mainland and fly from there. :(

I took a ferry from Athens to Haifa. It stopped at Rhodes and Limassol (in Cyprus) on the way.
This was near 20 years ago but I guess it still runs. It was popular with backpackers heading to Eilat etc.

sorry, no. No passenger ferries for some years now maybe 5, 6 years.

Recently there are the Salamis line commercial ferries. According to rumor - no personal experience - they would occassionally agree to take a paying passenger, but the facilites were very poor. Usually they only carried the truck drivers...

When I checked their site for this question I found a big notice:
"Services have been suspended until further notice." - and Israel has been removed altogether from their schedules.
:(
http://www.ferries.gr/salamis/

Varianos is still runnint cruise ships.
I found this on their page:

"All departures are from the port of Limassol unless noted otherwise. Ports of call are Port Said, Beirut, Latakia, Haifa, Piraeus and smaller ones in the Greek islands of the Aegean and Ionian seas."

And this:

"One way or round trip passage by ferry boat service can be arranged between Cyprus (port of Limassol) and:

Haifa in Israel

Port Said in Egypt

Rhodes and Ayios Nicolaos in Greece"

See here: http://www.varianostravel.com/Cruises/cruises.htm

Do you think the reason they stopped the ferries was due to terrorism?
Even 20 years ago I remember the grilling we got getting on at Athens, and again in Haifa. Regarding who packed your bags etc.

Yes it was part of the hijacking business at that time. Come to think of it it must be a lot more than 5 or 66 years, at that. Closer to 8 years, maybe.

Oh dear. Apologies for all of the typos. Past my bedtime ;)

LOL Una, I was hoping to go from Israel to Cyprus by ferry next year, but obviously that is not gonna happen, what would be the best way to get there?

Regretfully afaik, the only way is to fly, or to go to Egypt from Israel and get a boat from there.

Once you have been in Israel you can't go overland because you will be refused entry to Syria.

Thanks, that was a little like I expected.

Steve,
VT Member DAO has a transport tip on his Cyprus page with a link to a ferry company. You could try that or even email him, he might know the latest information.

Thanks Betska. Just checked that out.
DAO mentions the same Varianos Line that I gave the link for above.
He also says that there are no ferries currently running. :(

Sorry una, didn't realise that it was the same link. I just find it so hard to beleive that the transport situation over there is so poor. The ferry that I was on was packed! Cheap & nasty though, the seats looked like they had been pulled out of old Russian airplanes!

You must survive on very little sleep.......

One of the reasons that I have decided to retire this year... ;~>

Not to get political, but yes, flying in and out is the only real solution right now.

There are no longer feerries between Israel and Cyprus/Greece/Italy. Personally I don't think it has to do with security as there are still cruises and cargo ships. I think that as flight became cheaper the ferry option became less popular. When I took a ferry to Cyprus it was half the price of a flight, but a few years later it was almost the same price and most people preferred the much shorter flight.

Anyway, from Rhodes, I would think the easiest way is to take a ferry to Turkey and fly from there. There are a lot of charter flights between Israel and the Maramaris area, which is a few km from Rhodes. This would probably be much faster and cheaper than to go through Athens.