By plane

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

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.

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.