Sinai Shelter to Open

By next spring young travelers will find a new 400-bed youth facility in the Sinai Desert between Egypt and Israel at a key transit point.

The Sinai Desert is a land link between Asia and Africa. The new youth hostel will be at Isma’iliya, near the Suez Canal. Isma’iliya was created beside the canal in 1863 as a market and construction camp when the canal was being built.

The town is on the northwest shore of Lake Timsah. The name means crocodile, but you don’t have to worry about close encounters. None are around; the lake was named for its crocodile-like shape.

Independent travelers can make their own arrangements for transportation, accommodations and sightseeing in Egypt and Israel, or can investigate budget packages offered by student travel services in both Europe and Israel.

The Youth Travel Bureau of the Israel Youth Hostel Assn. has been offering partially guided, five- and eight-day budget tours to Egypt. This year it’s adding a nine-day package for $360 U.S., which includes travel in both countries.

The package offers accommodations with breakfast at youth hostels in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, near the Dead Sea and three nights at tourist-class hotels in Cairo.

If possible, try to get a room that doesn’t face the street; Cairo is one of the noisiest cities in the world. If you are street-side in a busy area in a budget hotel, you may find sleeping difficult.

The trip starts in Tel Aviv and includes a guide during the three days of travel in Israel, plus round-trip bus transportation to Cairo. There will be two departures a month starting in April.

The five-day packages for budget travelers cost $220 U.S. They start in Tel Aviv on Fridays, with two nights’ accommodations at the youth hostel, including breakfast and dinner.

You travel to Cairo by bus on Sunday. Your stay there includes three nights in a tourist-class hotel with breakfast, two days of guided tours and one day to wander on your own. You travel back to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv by bus, and get one more night of accommodations.

Scheduled sights in the Cairo area include the Pyramids, Museum of Antiquities, Memphis, Saqqara and the Old City.

The package price does not include visa expenses, border taxes, lunches, dinners or entrance fees to sights. There is also a $7 kitty for tips.

The eight-day version of the package is similar, but adds visits to Aswan, Luxor, Edfu and Kom Ombo. Both bus and rail transportation is used. You stay in tourist-class hotels in Luxor and Aswan, and two nights are spent on the train in a first-class sleeper.

For more information on budget packages offered by the Youth Travel Bureau, contact the bureau in care of the Israel Youth Hostel Assn., P.O. Box 1075, Jerusalem 91009, or visit the office at 3 Dorot Rishonim St.

Compare opportunities with Israel’s student travel service, ISSTA. It offers budget trips to Egypt, and you don’t have to be a student to use all of its services. ISSTA has offices in Haifa, Jerusalem and Beersheba, and at 109 Ben Yehuda St., Tel Aviv.

If you are a student, carry an International Student Identity Card (ISIC).

In Egypt it is honored for discounts of up to 5% on entrance fees for museums and historic sites, up to 50% off domestic rail travel (first-class services not included) and for reductions on ferry travel from Egypt to other ports around the Mediterranean and Red seas.