Moving / Driving to Italy

Kiith

Has anyone ever moved to another country, and driven themselves with their stuff? We are looking into going to Sicily, after work have just about agreed to let me go and continue my role. We've 3 cats, and a bunch of stuff we'd like to bring with us (bikes, golf clubs, computer and monitors etc...), so trying to figure out the best way at the moment.

We can bring the cats on some flights, but its not cheap, and i'm thinking it might be cheaper to rent a van, drive everything down, and then drive it back. It's a long way, and won't be cheap either with the two ferries (Ireland to France (or to England then France) and Italy to Sicily.

I know we could probably price out a shipping company for the non-cat stuff, but we'd have to pay for the cats on the plane either way.

Maybe i'm mental to even consider it...but anyone tried this before?

lalababa

Kiith wrote: »

Has anyone ever moved to another country, and driven themselves with their stuff? We are looking into going to Sicily, after work have just about agreed to let me go and continue my role. We've 3 cats, and a bunch of stuff we'd like to bring with us (bikes, golf clubs, computer and monitors etc...), so trying to figure out the best way at the moment.

We can bring the cats on some flights, but its not cheap, and i'm thinking it might be cheaper to rent a van, drive everything down, and then drive it back. It's a long way, and won't be cheap either with the two ferries (Ireland to France (or to England then France) and Italy to Sicily.

I know we could probably price out a shipping company for the non-cat stuff, but we'd have to pay for the cats on the plane either way.

Maybe i'm mental to even consider it...but anyone tried this before?

Do you have to drive back? Can you not drop van in Italy. My mate used to drive out for skiing...no bother, but that was Northern Italy. Used the chunnel. Cat passports??

Kiith

Cats are all sorted, have their passports and vaccinations. If i could leave the van there, i'd happily do it, but wasn't sure if that was an option.

Car99

You can do it no problem but renting a van and driving it all the way to Sicily and back again would not be cost effective I would think. Sicily is 5000km round trip . Fuel , van rental , tolls, ferries will quickly add up. And that's if you can find a van rental company in Ireland to rent a van to you that will insure you to go to Europe

fits

Buy a van. You might even get a lhd one if you’re lucky. Sell on in Italy.

Del2005

fits wrote: »

Buy a van. You might even get a lhd one if you’re lucky. Sell on in Italy.

Commercial insurance will be steep and difficult to get for the OPs plan. It'd be cheaper to get a container shipped and fly with the cats than buy and insure a van.

If you drive you'll have the cats in crates in the van for 2 or 3 days, how will they manage that?

Kiith

Yeah, van might not be the best option. Anyone shipped a pallet of stuff over the last few years?

I'd happily fly with the cats if we could ship the other stuff cheap enough. Doesn't matter if it takes a while. Going to try and price the cats out today. Some airlines don't seem to be too expensive.

PhilOssophy

How much would a man and van cost you? I'm sure some of those guys would gladly do it once ferries/tolls/diesel/etc covered. Might not be cheap mind!

From RSA.ie:
A category B driving licence authorises you to drive a car, van or 4 x 4 which has a maximum mass (as specified by the manufacturer) of not more than 3,500kg and is designed and constructed to carry no more than eight passengers in addition to the driver. You may tow a trailer with a maximum mass (again as specified by the manufacturer) not greater than 750kg, or where the maximum mass is more than 750kg, the combined maximum mass of the towing vehicle and the trailer is not greater than 3,500kg.

If your RHD car is expensive then sell it in Ireland. Buy a roadworthy cheap car with tow hitch. Buy a cheap, light trailer, certified to 100kmph.
Your insurance will cover you for your trip and a few months after.
pack up your belongings and move. Sell trailer at local market rate in Italy. Sell banger for whatever you'll get for it. Buy a Panda or 500cc and benvenuto in Italia

KnicksInSix

We have done this twice (moving once to Italy, once to Ireland) but we only needed to go as far as South Tyrol. We have also simply driven to Italy and back on our holidays. Driving is tiring but it is really quite straightforward and the roads across France/Germany/Austria are a breeze from that direction. Moving was quite difficult with the car, not gonna pretend otherwise. Limited room, high stress etc. I would either get rid of most of your excess belongings, ship as much as you can and enjoy the road trip

New Home

I'll post more from my laptop later, but these may help. Also, someone else in the Animals and Pets Issues might have more recent information.

Keep in mind that airlines have a strict size/weight limit for the cabin, that cargo can be stressful (depending on who's handling it) and that usually there's a limit on the number of animals per flight as well as per person (for adult cats, one per human, so 3 cats = 3 people, provided they're all allowed on the flight).

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=113631473&postcount=2
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=110479558&postcount=1

Jim2007

Kiith wrote: »

We can bring the cats on some flights, but its not cheap, and i'm thinking it might be cheaper to rent a van, drive everything down, and then drive it back.

I doubt it will be realistic for sometime to come. I read on a Swiss expat forum of some UK people thinking of doing the same from the UK to Switzerland and in the end all of them seemed to discount the idea.

tfeldi

I have done this twice between Ireland and the UK, but Sicily is obviously much further. One note, no need to do Ireland - Sicily- Ireland. You can also do Nothern Italy - Ireland - Sicily. Italian van rental companies shouldn't have an issue taking the van abroad and you ovoid driving the length of Italy (while still returning the van in the same country, so no one way fees)

CelticRambler

Self-moved wife, four children, two cats, and house and (what was left of) business possessions from southern UK to central France about 15 years ago. It was tedious but perfectly feasible, although we had some advantages that you wouldn't have, particularly the relatively short distance ("only" a 1200km round trip).

First move was family & essential clothes/furniture, moved in our campervan; everything else put into storage and the cats boarded (because we knew we'd be to-ing and fro-ing for a while). Next was a return trip to see the grandparents, towing an empty trailer that we'd just bought (still going strong - great investment), bringing back the cats and clothes/stuff that would be needed for the months ahead. Then I rented a B-licence 20m³ box van for a week (from our local supermarket) and did three round-trips in a week to empty our storage unit. That was hard, hard going - not so much the driving, but the packing and unpacking at each end with little time to recover. A couple of additional trips saw us bring the last of our things from the grandparents' house. Those trips were spread out over about three or four months.

A decade and a half later, some of that stuff is still in the barn from where it hasn't moved since it was unloaded, and occasionally I wonder if it was all a waste of time, money and effort ... and then I'll suddenly need something that I haven't thought about for 15 years, and I know exactly where it'll be!

PhilOssophy

Its a worthwhile question - is everything you own worth hauling all that way? Could you sell it all here and buy it over there, given the cost of bringing it all that way.

howardmarks

Have done Ireland to Germany with a big dog.
Dublin to holyhead, then drove to south of England, overnight in pet friendly hotel.
Channel tunnel early morning then France to Germany.
Expensive to fly with pets. Was costing over 1000 for the dog alone.
My advice is to get rid of everything you don't need. We gave everything away and traveled with a car and a roofbox. Only bulk was a bike and a dog.
One way van can add an additional 1000 or 1500 to the overall rental. Very few companies do it.
Also flights are super cheap so you can always take more stuff later in stages if you can store it in the meantime.

New Home

Travelling through the UK post-Brexit is going to be a minefield, especially if you bring pets.

The alternative, also pricey, but cheaper than with a normal removal company, is to drive down with the essentials and the pets, and hire someone like these guys (provided they agree to do it). I've used them before (in fact someone suggested them to me in Boards) they were excellent, I recommended them to a lot of other people and everyone was very happy with them. Reliable, honest, very reasonably priced and careful with your stuff. In case anyone is wondering, I've absolutely no connection to them, except from being a very satisfied customer, and I'm very picky.

Jim2007

New Home wrote: »

Travelling through the UK post-Brexit is going to be a minefield, especially if you bring pets.

Very true. Because legally you will exporting your stuff out of the EU and back in again. And you'll be doing the same again going via Switzerland, although that is more straight forward as the system to handle it exists.

New Home

Probably via Spain and/or France would be easier. Then there's Covid, of course....

Granadino

Could you get your stuff to France, and get a left hand drive van to bring it the rest of the way?