The people of Benghazi are incredibly friendly. At no point should you feel unsafe while in the streets during the day or the night, wherever you may go. There is a natural curiosity about the locals, who tend to look after you and help you out.
However, very few people speak any English and, because of the writing style, it is almost impossible to recognize any public signs. Most things can, however, be sorted out with a bit of pointing and hand waving.
The dress code is not as liberal as in Tripoli, and women should keep themselves covered - not because there would be trouble, but just out of respect. As a local explained, the locals know we are westerners and, no matter how much we would try to fit in, we will always be seen as westerners. Therefore, the locals do not expected us to thoroughly comply with their customs.
People appear to be volatile, and they like a good argument. There is a lot of shouting going on between locals, but this is not an indication of any trouble. It just sounds loud and harsh and, when translated, you find out it is generally nothing of any consequence.
If you travel on a tourist visa, you must get the hotel staff to have your passport stamped or visit the local police station to register where you are staying and get a stamp in your passport - otherwise, you will not find it easy to leave the country.
If you wish to drive out of the city and visit the ruins or other sites of interest, you can get a local guide, but you will need a permit from the local tourist office before you may leave the city.
Benina Airport is located 20 km from city center. Planes fly in daily from Tripoli to the airport with Afriqiyah Airways but are almost always full, so early booking is advisable. Seats are on a first come, first served basis, so you'd better get to the front of the queue if your party wants to sit together or sit in the seats with long leg room. The Libyan Arab airlines and Alburaq also run several flights per day, their service is actually much better than the Afriquiya airlines.
While seemingly chaotic, with handwritten boarding passes and luggage tags and very little information available, the check-in and baggage handling do work.
Delays are quite frequent.
Airport security is very tight, and it is worth putting metal items in your hand luggage, as metal detectors seem to be everywhere.
Make sure you use the toilet facilities on the airplane. The airport facilities are not usable, other than by people who have no sense of smell and are accompanied by a nasally challenged guide dog.
There are few, if any, public toilets, and most restaurants do not have them either, so you will have to wait until you get to the hotel. yeaaaaaaaaaaa
240v AC United Kingdom 3 pin square socket or European round pin socket
Most hotels are state-run, and the standards of maintainance are not always perfect. Air conditioners/TVs/toilet fixtures/lamps, etc. can often be easily fixed.
Own towels
At busy times, a towel share system seems to be implemented, so you'd better bring your own and have the hotel staff wash them.
Outgoing calls and texting work on most networks. However, it is worth buying a local sim card from one of the mobile phone shops. These are much cheaper (around 1/5th of the normal roaming charges), and they will accept incoming calls.
There is no GPRS. the 3G service has recently been started so you can send picture messaging.
Libya's phones are all unlocked, so the locals will not understand that the local sims will not work in all phones. Therefore, it is worth taking an unlocked phone or, when asking to buy a phone, hide yours, so they won't try to sell you a sim.
Sim cards are about USD5, and phones around USD50.
There are internet cafes available; however, these are served by dial-up connections and are not really suitable for sending holiday pictures home. If you want to use email, it is worth opening a new web-based account and get people to send you stuff to that account if they want to contact you; otherwise, it can take you forever to download spam.
Shops accept only local currency, which can be exchanged at the larger hotels in the mornings or after 3pm. Ask for Tibesti Hotel, a big hotel, with grass on the slopes around it. It has a ''bureau de change'' and two cashpoint machines, which accept Visa and Maestro/Cirrus.
Credit cards are not generally accepted, so nobody will say 'that will do nicely'. (very limited number of shops accept them)
Taxis in Libya are interesting. They are either minibuses that travel round a predefined route or black and white cars (dead pandas) with taxi signs. Stick with the cars... Taxi travel is very cheap, but the vehicles are generally in a bad state of repair. Try to sit in the back as the journeys can be somewhat exciting when in the passenger seat, when drivers tend to turn across traffic lanes. Judging by the number of dents on the sides of the cars, the drivers do not always make this maneuver successfully.
Taxi vehicles often lack parts that we, in the West, tend to take for granted -- such as indicators, headlights, bumpers, working brakes, and wheel nuts.
The taxi drivers are like most European taxi drivers. They enjoy sharing their opinions with you, even if you can't understand them - but, as with most of the people in Benghazi, they are friendly, and they do try to make you feel welcome.
As there are very few tourists in Benghazi, there is very little to buy other than normal goods. So, it's easy to get a fridge, an aircon unit, a mobile phone, Mars bars, or a Coke, but very little to buy as a souvenir. A sheesh? Pipe is a good bet - these are about 18 Libyan dollars, or USD15, for a 24-inch high pipe. For those who are looking for a proper shopping area I would recommend Dubai Street, where most of the international brands, such as Benetton, Nike, Celio, Addidas, Puma, Max Mara, and many more, are available. For traditional souvenirs, the best place will be Sok el Jered.
Anything. There is nothing that isn't acceptable to the western palate - the food can be quite spicy, although not excessively so.
Traditional Libyan fare appears to be couscous, kebabs, spicey potatoes, salads, and nothing that you wouldn't find in London.
There are a number of good restaurants. Although very basic by western standards, they do produce good meals. Round the back of the Tibesti Hotel there are some good Turkish restaurants; most of their food is very edible, and the prices are very reasonable.
Generally, service is very slow, so leave a good amount of time to have a meal. There are kebab takeaways if you are in a hurry, but in a hotel you can wait 30 minutes to get a waiter to take your order or bring you a menu. To save time it is often easier to pay for your meal/drinks as they are served, before saving the half-hour wait to get a bill.
The food is generally served a little cooler than you expect - it is generally warm rather than hot, and the chips are worth avoiding as they tend to be rubbery.
A smoker's paradise. You can smoke anywhere you like. The "no smoking" signs in airports appear to be a guidance note rather than a command.
Hand-rolling tobacco is not available, but normal cigarettes are widely available and quite cheap, although slightly different than their western counterparts.
Duty free is somewhat limited, so it is best to buy on the way out rather than on the return journey; this, obviously, does not apply to alcohol.
Alcohol is not allowed in Libya. The best things to drink are:
Coffee, although they do seem to want to give you Nescafe, as they think it's pretty cool; but just about everywhere you can get cappuccino or Arabian coffee, which are pretty good.
The mango juice is good and very thick.
Coke, Lilt, and 7Up cans are popular, as well as the lemon and mint teas.
Alcohol-free beer is widely available (Becks), as is 'Spitz', which tastes like campari or cough mixture. If you really want alcohol, wine is available from butcher's shops, but it's expensive (whisky is about USD 100 per bottle). It is said that the penalty for being caught drunk or with alcohol is to be driven back to your hotel room by the police. While this sounds safer than riding the local taxis, such approach is not recommended.
The rating system does not quite correspond to normally accepted guidelines.
The hotels are good, but service is slow, and the equipment in the room will not necessarily work.
However, unless you are fussy and demand western 5* standards, they are very pleasant and friendly places to stay.
There are normally multiple TV channels once you have replaced the batteries in the remote control. They include English-spoken films subtitled in Arabic, BBC World, and football (Soccer) channels.