How to visit Benghazi and Eastern Libya

Effie Frank

Jan. 13, 2026

As travel in Libya expands, many tourists are curious about the logistics of traveling in Eastern Libya. It is totally possible! But there are some things to keep in mind. Read on to find out the ins and outs of travel in this rarely visited corner of North Africa.

How to get to Eastern Libya from Western Libya

If you plan to visit both Benghazi and Tripoli in one trip, it’s important to note that you must visit western Libya first. Western Libya will not recognize a passport stamp from Eastern Libya and will likely not allow you to enter. However, Eastern Libya will recognize an entry stamp from Western Libya and you will be fine to enter the country.

If visiting from Western Libya, your best bet will be flying from Tripoli. There are daily flights, though times vary. Some days there are only flights after 6pm, so you’ll want to plan accordingly based on the flight schedule. Note there are many Libyan private airlines that don’t publish flight schedules on the usual flight booking websites. If you need any help viewing flight schedules and booking tickets, email us at [email protected] and we can help.

You can also drive from Western Libya to Eastern Libya, however the border between the two sides can be closed sometimes so this can make planning travel by road tricky. If you are driving, you will need to stop in Sirte where you will get a new security escort from the Eastern Libyan government, and likely a new guide as well. Again, because Western Libya will not recognize entry stamps from Eastern Libya, you cannot travel in the other direction.

How to get to Eastern Libya internationally

If you only plan to visit Eastern Libya, there are several international flights into Benina airport in Benghazi. Turkish Airlines has flights to and from Istanbul, and Royal Jordanian has flights to and from Amman. You can also find flights to Casablanca, Tunis, and Cairo from Benghazi.

There is also a land border crossing between Egypt and Eastern Libya near Salloum/Imsaad respectively. However, this crossing is often closed as there is much instability and smuggling in this area, so it is difficult, though not impossible, to plan a trip involving a border crossing.

Are the tourist police still required for travel in Eastern Libya?

As in Western Libya, any foreign tourists must be accompanied by a tourist police escort. Travellers wanting to visit Eastern Libya tend to be independent and adventurous, so this can be a bit annoying for many! Even a quick trip to a corner store from your hotel requires an official escort. Another annoyance is that while the government requires police escorts, they pass the cost onto the tourist, making travel in Libya particularly expensive for solo travellers. In Western Libya, some nationalities (such as UK, USA, and Russia) require two escorts, while others (most European nationalities) require only one. Currently, in Eastern Libya only one escort is required for all nationalities.

If you ask people on the ground, the reasoning for the tourist police requirement is because Libya does not want to risk anything bad happening to a foreigner on their soil. When Libya is mentioned in international news, it tends to be negative. They don’t want to perpetuate a stereotype of Libya being a dangerous place (although the optics of having a security escort perhaps plays into the very thing they are trying to avoid). That being said, there is still instability across Libya, and while it’s unlikely that you’ll be caught up in any skirmishes, your escort will have the best intel on how to avoid it.

The escort is a plain-clothes officer and will likely speak little to no English. They tend to be serious but can easily warm up the longer you spend with them, so don’t be afraid to joke around and ask them questions. This is not the rifle-carrying, uniformed security escort you get in some other countries. Officially, all tourist police in Libya are said to be armed, but it is very unlikely that you will ever see a weapon.

What else is required for travel in Eastern Libya

In addition to having tourist police in place, you will also need to be on an arranged tour with a guide and have a sponsor in order to apply for your evisa. Of course, if you are booking your trip with SAIGA tours, all of this will be taken care of. The evisa process and website is the same for both Western and Eastern Libya and you will use the same document whether you are visiting both places or just one. Typically the turnaround time for the evisa is less than a week. If you’d like to learn more about how to apply for the evisa, check out our handy blog here .

Aside from tourist police, an arranged tour, and the evisa, Eastern Libya also requires a specific permit for travel in this zone. The current cost of this permit is €600 EUR, but we’re hoping that as the area attempts to expand tourism, they will lower the price. Again, if you’re traveling with SAIGA, we will arrange this permit for you. Your police escort will carry the permit in case there are any stops. But there are not nearly as many checkpoints in Eastern Libya as there are in the area surrounding Tripoli.

Is it safe to travel in Eastern Libya?

In our experience, we have never had any brushes with danger in Eastern Libya. Benghazi and the surrounding area tend to be calm with life going on as normal, certainly different from the media images most will associate with the area. Fighting-wise, though Eastern Libya seems to have a worse reputation, there is actually less conflict in this region than there is in the area surrounding Tripoli. If you’d like to read more about our view on the safety of Eastern Libya including Cyrene and Benghazi, you can check out this blog .

How can you visit Eastern Libya?

As I mentioned, visitors to Eastern Libya must be on a guided tour. Even if you only want to fly into Benghazi for a day, everything must be arranged through a tour agency like SAIGA Tours. We help with your evisa documents and arrange your permits and police escorts. If you’d like to visit Eastern Libya for yourself, check out our Benghazi Extension and email us at [email protected] to learn more.