How to get to Syria or Lebanon from Israel?

A good way is to fly into Amman and get your 1st passport stamped (hence getting an entry stamp to Jordan), enter Disneyland on your 2nd passport and cop a proper stamping from the Jordanians and the Mickey Mouse crew, then exit D’land via the same border (Allenby/King Hussein Bridge). You then have the naughty stamps on your 2nd passport, yet have a Jordanian entry visa on your 1st passport… now, the only trick is to make sure the Jordanians don’t stamp that first visa as ‘invalid’. They weren’t doing this in Feb ’06 but this is obviously some time ago now.
Good luck!

perfectly legal and better is to fly or take the boat to Cyprus and use Larnarca as your cut-out to isolate all travel in Dixie from all other travel in the Middle East. From Cyprus you can go to Beirut no problem.

You can ask in Israel not to stamp your passport.
I was in Lebanon in June, Flew to Amman, then to Tel Aviv, back to Amman and back again to Lebanon.
If you are entering Beirut from Amman, your passport(s) are stamped when you are arriving and exiting, so you will have an exit stamp on your second passport regardless of the entry stamp on your other passport that you used for entry from Israel.

Tommy I had a similar problem last summer and I only had the one passport.

The problem is the Jordanian entry visa. I asked them not to stamp my passport and put the visa on a seperate piece of paper when I entered Jordan at the King Hussein Bridge but then you have a problem if the Syrians look for your Jordanian entry visa and it’s not there when you leave Jordan to Syria by road.

I flew from Amman to Beirut because of this. I still had a problem when I left Jordan though. At the airport the immigration officer looked at my passport and asked where my entry stamp and visa was..on the paper. OK He then stamped my passport with an exit stamp. Doh. So I now have an exit stamp with no entry stamp in my passport. I had to kick up a fuss and was taken to see the head immigration officer in the airport who could not believe the chap stamped my passport as it was obvious and not required to do so. I now have an exit stamp but no entry stamp. They just put a cancelled stamp over the top which looked dodgy. I was sweating it at Beirut airport but they did not even look at the passport and gave me my Lebanese visa.

Regarding the Israelis and dont take this as 100% as they change things all the time but they no longer either stamp your passport or issue a visa on the paper. They told me all the information was entered via the biometric reader on the passport. Still got a hard time at Ben Gurion. Where’s your entry visa? Yadda yadda yadda. Now strip!

I would take Alans advice and go via Cyprus. I believe there are now regular services running between Larnaca and Beirut. I think there is also a service to Tripoli from Larnaca and of course a ferry to and from Cyprus to Haifa.

You can fly to Cyprus from London for about $120 US RTN.

Ah yes as Kahtan says you can always fly from Tel Aviv to Amman. Then it’s a not a problem if you have an entry stamp as it will be issued at the airport. If the Syrians ask where you flew to Amman from…well anywhere exotic will do.

This is probably the best option if you want to go by road from Amman to Beirut via Damascus.

If you take a bus or taxi from Damascus to Beirut you arrive in the Charles Helou bus station and there are several decent cheap hotels in walking distance from the bus stand.

Thanks folks, good stuff. I think I’ll go the Cyprus to Beirut route. Is Ben Gurion really that bad? I don’t mind the shakedown but I don’t want my camera gear and laptop confiscated and sent to me in a plastic bag like in the stories I’ve heard here. I’ll be traveling into Israel with my girlfriend who’s Israeli, I’m thinking this would help things?

You can’t go to any arab country, I think, besides Egypt and Jordan with an Israeli stamp in your passport.

tommy,
the best best way is to fly to Amman.
and then by road, to syria ans lebanon. very cheap and comfortable. more expensive via cyprus :2 flights.
in ben gourion, with your girlfriend, it will help, for sure.
forget your laptop if you don’t need it.

Thanks Arnaud, I already did this trip last year. The thread got bumped by that spambot. Thanks for your insight though.