Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting Around
AIR
The national carrier is
Yemenia
(
8001000;
www.yemenia.com
;
usually 8am-1.30pm & 4-7pm Sat-
Thu)
.
It's considerably cheaper to buy Yemenia tickets in Yemen through a Yemenia office
rather than through a travel agency. For the cheapest fares, book flights well in advance.
Yemenia offices can be found in all of Yemen's main towns, and accept Yemeni riyals, US
dollars, euros and usually Amex, MasterCard and Visa credit cards.
Yemenia flights are prone to both delays and cancellations. Always reconfirm flights.
A private, alternative airline is Felix Airways (
Click here
)
. The cheapest tickets are
those bought online but foreigners can only travel on the more expensive H fare. It has a
route network that roughly matches Yemenia, but it seems to be more reliable and a bit
cheaper.
BUS
At the current moment foreign tourists are not allowed to travel by bus across Yemen. If
this changes then buses travel to almost all the larger towns (sometimes several a day),
and services are pretty punctual and safe.
The longest-established bus company is
Yemitco
(Yemen International Transport Company;
8007000;
www.yemitco.com
;
5am-8pm, in the south 9am-1pm & 3-8pm Sat-Thu, 4-8pm Fri)
, which offers
comfortable seats in air-conditioned buses. In the last couple of years it seems to be losing
out to a multitude of newer companies and now generally only runs a reliable service in
the most-populated central areas.
LONG-DISTANCE TAXIS
Shared Taxi
Connecting all the main towns and villages, and operating very much like buses, are the
shared taxis (known as
bijou
). Although rarely more comfortable than buses, they tend to
be faster, and leave at more convenient times and more frequently. However, they only
leave when full, so you can be in for a long wait. When travelling to more remote places,
try and catch the first departure. As with the buses, foreigners are not currently permited
to use these.
LOCAL TRANSPORT
Bus
