Ferry ride to Egypt: an adventure from Amman to Alexandria
By Zane Wolfang, Jordan News
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When I told my friends about my plan to travel from Amman to
Alexandria by way of the Aqaba-Nuweiba Red Sea ferry for a Frisbee tournament,
most of my Jordanian friends asked me why I would do that to myself.اضافة اعلان
They had a fair point. Fly Egypt offers affordable two-hour direct flights from Amman to Alexandria, and the ferry to Nuweiba is not really for tourists; the trip runs from 10pm to 1am, which limits the potential sightseeing. The ferry is used mostly by Egyptian laborers who work in Jordan for months or years at a time between trips home. Also, after disembarking in the middle of the night at Nuweiba port, it is a long bus ride through the Sinai desert and across the Suez Canal from Egypt’s southern coast to Cairo, and then another three or four hours ride north by bus or train from Cairo to Alexandria, the Bride of the Mediterranean.
Tractor-trailer trucks unloading off of Arab Bridge Maritime ferry the Amman at Nuweiba Port in Egypt.
I did not care. I was in it for adventure rather than convenience, and I was nostalgic for my stint working as a deckhand aboard a small cruise ship back home in the US, which ran out of my hometown in Rhode Island, “the Ocean State”, and traversed the east coast of North America. In the course of a year living and working on the Grande Mariner, we roamed as far north as the Saguenay River in Canada’s Quebec province, as far west as Chicago through the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes, and as far south as the Turks & Caicos Islands in the eastern Caribbean.
After seeing so much of my home continent by boat and feeling how interconnected society is through maritime routes every time I returned from a far-flung destination and stepped onto shore back in my small hometown, I retained a fascination with ferries, ships, and sea travel of all kinds. The fact that my dad is a boatbuilder by trade and my brothers and I have always grown up on boats and around the water is probably also a factor.
Egyptian workers watch the ferry dock at Nuweiba port.
In any case, once I found out about Arab Bridge Maritime, which is headquartered in Aqaba and runs a fleet of ferries between various ports in Asia, Europe, and Africa, I could not resist the urge to book a boat trip out of Jordan and then figure out a cross-country route to reach Alexandria in time for the Egypt Open, the largest Frisbee tournament in the MENA region besides the annual regional championships (which have been held in Amman three times since their inception in 2015).
I left my apartment in Weibdeh at about 6:15am on Wednesday and walked to the Abdali Jett station to catch a 7am bus to Aqaba. I arrived in Alexandria on Thursday night, at about 11, a total of about 40 hours of travel, including a full day in Aqaba with time for a cheap haircut and some refreshments at Rovers Return, some extra time chatting with Egyptian border security at Nuweiba port, a hitch-hike to Sharm el-Sheikh to catch an early bus, a haggle to return a train ticket in Cairo so I could take a mid-afternoon wander through the old souq with teammates from Kuwait, and dinner at the famous Abou Haidar shawarma spot before a road trip to Alexandria’s north coast, where Egypt’s already suspect road system seemed to devolve into complete, unadulterated madness.
Orange Kisbee ring on Arab Bridge Maritime ferry from Aqaba to Nuweiba.
The Jordanian and Egyptian border officers were helpful enough, although all were perplexed by my presence at their respective ports. I am sure I was not the first tourist to have taken the ferry, based on a sparse smattering of blog posts on the matter, but I was certainly the only one that day. My ibuprofen and allergy pills were carefully examined upon arrival at Aqaba port to make sure I was not the world’s dumbest narcotics smuggler, and I was held for an extra security check upon my arrival in Nuweiba. This worked out in my favor, as I made friends with two Palestinian gentlemen who were the only other people being held for extra screening, and they let me hitch a ride to Sharm el-Sheikh with them.
View of the Red Sea from Ghandour Beach, Aqaba, Jordan.
I slept through the Sinai, waking up to clamber out of the bus at the Suez security checkpoint and then again as we reached the cacophony of Cairo. The city was just as chaotic as I remembered, sizzling street food and blaring car horns and motorcycles hopping the sidewalk to beat the traffic.
Abou Haidar was a treat – seemingly the Egyptian equivalent of a sloppy joe – meat shawarma with a lot of cilantro mixed in and served on a hamburger bun. They also serve some sort of mango smoothie, and as far as I could tell, meat and mangos were the only two things on the menu.
Amman’s club ultimate frisbee team citadel poses with their spirit award and the Jordanian flag at the Egypt Open tournament in Alexandria.
Alexandria was a different vibe entirely: a big city, but much more laidback than the capital, with a tram, residents riding their bicycles along the seaside corniche, and an interesting hodge-podge of historical influences. After our frisbee tournament, where my team landed in ninth place and a Jordanian club team called Citadel won an award for having the best spirit in its first ever tournament, a few of us ventured into downtown Alexandria for a day before our flight back to Amman.
Some people visited the 15th century Citadel of Quaitbay, at the mouth of the eastern harbor, and then the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a marvelous place that sits over some interesting museums and pays homage to Alexandria’s ancient library.
Employees at Abu Haidar shawarma restaurant in Cairo.
I opted for a quirkier trip, visiting a small museum in the former apartment of Constantine P. Cavafy, an Alexandria-born Greek poet who apparently is quite acclaimed in the canon of modern Western literature. I was not familiar with his work, but it was an affordable and interesting visit; the museum is tucked into an unassuming side street, close to the city’s bustling downtown. It reminded me of the little museums scattered along the US east coast that I used to visit during my time working on the cruise ship.
I highly recommend a trip to Alexandria, and I would definitely go back. There is so much to see and do there: the Kom el-Dikka Roman theater, the catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, the Alexandria National Museum, scuba diving on underwater ruins, and a fishing village called El-Max which some people call the Venice of Egypt.
Street vendor outside Ramses Station in Cairo.
That being said, I do not know if I would take the same ferry and cross-country bus route, especially after experiencing the convenience of the short flight back home to Amman. However, for a shorter trip to Nueweiba, Taba, or Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai coast, I think the ferry is a great and unique way to travel between Jordan and Egypt and experience the natural beauty of the Red Sea.
Read more Travel
Jordan News
They had a fair point. Fly Egypt offers affordable two-hour direct flights from Amman to Alexandria, and the ferry to Nuweiba is not really for tourists; the trip runs from 10pm to 1am, which limits the potential sightseeing. The ferry is used mostly by Egyptian laborers who work in Jordan for months or years at a time between trips home. Also, after disembarking in the middle of the night at Nuweiba port, it is a long bus ride through the Sinai desert and across the Suez Canal from Egypt’s southern coast to Cairo, and then another three or four hours ride north by bus or train from Cairo to Alexandria, the Bride of the Mediterranean.
Tractor-trailer trucks unloading off of Arab Bridge Maritime ferry the Amman at Nuweiba Port in Egypt.
I did not care. I was in it for adventure rather than convenience, and I was nostalgic for my stint working as a deckhand aboard a small cruise ship back home in the US, which ran out of my hometown in Rhode Island, “the Ocean State”, and traversed the east coast of North America. In the course of a year living and working on the Grande Mariner, we roamed as far north as the Saguenay River in Canada’s Quebec province, as far west as Chicago through the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes, and as far south as the Turks & Caicos Islands in the eastern Caribbean.
After seeing so much of my home continent by boat and feeling how interconnected society is through maritime routes every time I returned from a far-flung destination and stepped onto shore back in my small hometown, I retained a fascination with ferries, ships, and sea travel of all kinds. The fact that my dad is a boatbuilder by trade and my brothers and I have always grown up on boats and around the water is probably also a factor.
Egyptian workers watch the ferry dock at Nuweiba port.
In any case, once I found out about Arab Bridge Maritime, which is headquartered in Aqaba and runs a fleet of ferries between various ports in Asia, Europe, and Africa, I could not resist the urge to book a boat trip out of Jordan and then figure out a cross-country route to reach Alexandria in time for the Egypt Open, the largest Frisbee tournament in the MENA region besides the annual regional championships (which have been held in Amman three times since their inception in 2015).
I left my apartment in Weibdeh at about 6:15am on Wednesday and walked to the Abdali Jett station to catch a 7am bus to Aqaba. I arrived in Alexandria on Thursday night, at about 11, a total of about 40 hours of travel, including a full day in Aqaba with time for a cheap haircut and some refreshments at Rovers Return, some extra time chatting with Egyptian border security at Nuweiba port, a hitch-hike to Sharm el-Sheikh to catch an early bus, a haggle to return a train ticket in Cairo so I could take a mid-afternoon wander through the old souq with teammates from Kuwait, and dinner at the famous Abou Haidar shawarma spot before a road trip to Alexandria’s north coast, where Egypt’s already suspect road system seemed to devolve into complete, unadulterated madness.
Orange Kisbee ring on Arab Bridge Maritime ferry from Aqaba to Nuweiba.
The Jordanian and Egyptian border officers were helpful enough, although all were perplexed by my presence at their respective ports. I am sure I was not the first tourist to have taken the ferry, based on a sparse smattering of blog posts on the matter, but I was certainly the only one that day. My ibuprofen and allergy pills were carefully examined upon arrival at Aqaba port to make sure I was not the world’s dumbest narcotics smuggler, and I was held for an extra security check upon my arrival in Nuweiba. This worked out in my favor, as I made friends with two Palestinian gentlemen who were the only other people being held for extra screening, and they let me hitch a ride to Sharm el-Sheikh with them.
View of the Red Sea from Ghandour Beach, Aqaba, Jordan.
I slept through the Sinai, waking up to clamber out of the bus at the Suez security checkpoint and then again as we reached the cacophony of Cairo. The city was just as chaotic as I remembered, sizzling street food and blaring car horns and motorcycles hopping the sidewalk to beat the traffic.
Abou Haidar was a treat – seemingly the Egyptian equivalent of a sloppy joe – meat shawarma with a lot of cilantro mixed in and served on a hamburger bun. They also serve some sort of mango smoothie, and as far as I could tell, meat and mangos were the only two things on the menu.
Amman’s club ultimate frisbee team citadel poses with their spirit award and the Jordanian flag at the Egypt Open tournament in Alexandria.
Alexandria was a different vibe entirely: a big city, but much more laidback than the capital, with a tram, residents riding their bicycles along the seaside corniche, and an interesting hodge-podge of historical influences. After our frisbee tournament, where my team landed in ninth place and a Jordanian club team called Citadel won an award for having the best spirit in its first ever tournament, a few of us ventured into downtown Alexandria for a day before our flight back to Amman.
Some people visited the 15th century Citadel of Quaitbay, at the mouth of the eastern harbor, and then the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a marvelous place that sits over some interesting museums and pays homage to Alexandria’s ancient library.
Employees at Abu Haidar shawarma restaurant in Cairo.
I opted for a quirkier trip, visiting a small museum in the former apartment of Constantine P. Cavafy, an Alexandria-born Greek poet who apparently is quite acclaimed in the canon of modern Western literature. I was not familiar with his work, but it was an affordable and interesting visit; the museum is tucked into an unassuming side street, close to the city’s bustling downtown. It reminded me of the little museums scattered along the US east coast that I used to visit during my time working on the cruise ship.
I highly recommend a trip to Alexandria, and I would definitely go back. There is so much to see and do there: the Kom el-Dikka Roman theater, the catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, the Alexandria National Museum, scuba diving on underwater ruins, and a fishing village called El-Max which some people call the Venice of Egypt.
Street vendor outside Ramses Station in Cairo.
That being said, I do not know if I would take the same ferry and cross-country bus route, especially after experiencing the convenience of the short flight back home to Amman. However, for a shorter trip to Nueweiba, Taba, or Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai coast, I think the ferry is a great and unique way to travel between Jordan and Egypt and experience the natural beauty of the Red Sea.
Read more Travel
Jordan News
