Seven kilometres north of Ismailiya, a car ferry crosses the canal more or less non-stop during daylight hours. Together with the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel outside Suez, it carries almost all the traffic between mainland Egypt and Sinai. By dint of being the most direct route from Cairo to Israel, the car ferry also takes international and tour buses .

 

The only other crossing point is at QANTARA , 44km from Ismailiya and 80km from Port Said. As its name ("Bridge") suggests, this was the route used by pilgrims and armies to cross the marshy Isthmus of Suez before the canal was built. Since then, it has been spanned by pontoon bridges in wartime, but is now negotiated by a small passenger ferry, carrying locals, bikes and donkeys from one side of Qantara to the other. Most of the town is on the west bank , whose unpaved main drag has a busy souk and lines of service taxis going to Cairo and the Canal cities; the battered, poorly rebuilt houses are a reminder that armies clashed here as recently as 1973. On the east bank of the canal there's a cafeteria and service taxis for El-Arish (2hr 30min; £E5), but it's easier to take one direct from Ismailiya.