Siwa Transportation

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The bus company advise you to buy you ticket out at least an hour before the bus goes, and, in the case of the early morning bus, the night before.

Timetable current as of January 2007. Second picture is a detail and is legible.

The man in the photo is the ticket seller and whatever his expression, wanted to be in the photo!

The inhabitants favour donkey-drawn carts for getting about. And there are donkey carts providing a taxi-service, mostly driven by kids. It's not a very comfortable way to travel, even on metalled road. In my opinion best for the trip between hotel and bus-station.

The first time I went to Siwa by bus 1 year ago with 3 friends of mine, it was such a bad experience, to AND from Siwa. The bus was very uncomfortable (a typical bus charactersitic) with all the smells and excessive stops. But this year I decided to go by car, I have a 2001 Nissan Sunny, not even a 4X4..we decided to take the risk..and we were up to the challenge! We reached Siwa (and back) much faster..we didn't want to be under the mercy of the bus and its intelligent driver and his highly esteemed company. But make sure to make a good car-maintenance before you travel (tires, oil, dying spare-parts, etc.). And make sure that someone can take the wheel every once in a while so you can have some rest, it's a long way! So we travelled for 1660 (830X2) Km. and the only bad thing was having to change a flat tire which was already old! Siwa is my secret heaven..It's definitely worth seeing for even once in your lifetime. Have a great journey.
Cherrs!

Buses from Alexandria to Siwa leave from the bus station close to Sidi Gaber. But you can buy tickets from the office downtown (in the south western corner of Midan Saad Zaghloul) and it is good to do so at least a day before. A ticket is 27 pounds (August 2005) and the bus journey takes about 9 hours. There are a few buses going every day. Along the way the bus stops three times. First at a cafeteria, then in Marsa Matruh where it stays a bit longer, and finally at another cafeteria (close to where the road takes off to Qara Oasis).

Going back from Siwa to Alexandria (there are no direct buses to Cairo) it was not possible to buy the ticket until the evening before, after 8 pm. If you are going to go to Cairo it could be quicker to change buses in Marsa Matruh rather than in Alexandria (as those direct buses take the desert road to Cairo and not the agricultural road). But be sure first there are seats available on the buses as many people from Cairo go to Marsa Matruh for holiday. The bus I travelled with left Siwa at 7 in the morning. To change to a train for Cairo in Alexandria was quick and before it got dark I had found a hotel room (after trying two other hotels first). From Siwa there is also a night bus to Alexandria.

A very funny way to see around Siwa is to take a donkey coach. This small coaches can carry up to 4 people. But even that can be too much if the donkey is too weak. In Slovenia, we have proverb: ''the oldest donkey, the hardest work''. And it proved to be right. Ours was quite young and we were always the last.
You never know, how long the tour will last. You neve know when a donkey decides not to move any more.
The coach drivers are always kids. And by looking at them, during the tour, you can learn how to drive a donkey coach. It seemed easy. But I didn't try.

You have two options. The first option is coming to Alexandria by train (ca. 4 hours) and catch a bus to Siwa (7-9 hours). On the way you may like to stay in Alexandria. But remember the buses from Alexandria starts for Siwa either early morning or in the early afternoon. There is no overnight buses. Buses this way makes several rest-stops on the way.

If you want to skip Alexandria, you may take a direct bus to Marsa Matruh (longer distance but faster and more expensive and less frequent daily, makes almost no rest stops out of ca. 5 hours of journey) and then catch a bus to Siwa (4 hours, several services daily).

Try to be at Siwa by the day to check out the hotel room, etc. Late-night arrival is not to say dangerous but perhaps makes it difficult to find a good place to stay and sleep.

When the bus came out the loose sand, after flattening the tyres, it had to keep some speed.
So we had to walk a little, till we could get in again at a place where the bus could stop without any problem.
It was amazing to be in the empty desert all around, with only our bus and jeep.

The track through the desert from Siwa to Bahariya is 380 KM. You need a special permit to take this track.
The track from Siwa to Bahariya was most of the time rather good, but sometimes we had to cross a lot of loose sand.
Then we had to flatten the tyres of our bus by letting escape some air to solve the problem.
We were lucky: most of the time we didn't lose too much time in the sand.