Shipping our van from the USA to Europe

Shipping our van from the USA to Europe

Good morning it’s very early it’s about 4:00 a.m. now and today is the day that we are bringing our van to port in Brunswick Georgia where it’s going to go on a boat to Z Belgium and then we’re going to pick her up there in the port go on our Yan road Trip day here it’s finally finished we’re going to drop off the van to the board in Brunswick and we’re excited because it’s finally ready and we’re going to drop it off to the port um where they’re going to put it on a boat on May 14th all the way to

Zea Belgium and then we’re going to go pick it up there the beginning of June and then we’re going to take our van to do a road trip through ital France and Spain and then we’re planning on shipping it back to the United States so in this video we’re going to talk a

Little bit more about um what we did and how we did the whole process and how um you know how easy or hard it was um so for starters look for a shipping company that has experience with overlanding vehicles or overlanders or anything like that so we went with ivss UK they’re a

Company based in the United Kingdom there’s other companies like seab bridge out there however they were a lot more expensive and seab Bridge was really pushing for me to shift the van out of Baltimore instead of out of brunwick which brunwick is a lot closer

For us cuz we’re in Florida so it’s only 4 hours away as as opposed to Maryland would have been at least 13 14 hours away so just of you know um just to make it easier for us we we chose brenwick and it goes pretty much straight forward

Directly over there to Belgium it makes one stop I believe in Germany and then it goes straight forward to Belgium what we did is we we contacted all the shipping companies asked them what the prices were what the um possibility was to Ure it and then you know when you

Ensure your van you got to have all the receip seats to make sure that they they you know you can’t just put a value on it of a million dollars and gamble that you know something will happen to and you’ll be you’ll get a million dollars

Um so they got to see all the receipts if something goes wrong and you file a claim um we insured our vanan for $125,000 uh Which is less than what it’s worth but it’s you know you got to you got to make a choice there’s some amer’s Marine insurance is pretty

Expensive so you got to pay for your shipping once The Boat Leaves uh and there’s a bunch of costs that are up front that are get added you know depending from 100 bucks to 200 bucks uh one of them is what we just called for Casey call the port and booked a um

Escort so unless you have a twig card you can go in the port by yourself you got to be escorted by a port escort and these people are um are trained to go in the port so that for you know is $190 for the first 2

Hours so when you’re in the port then you got to take pictures well you’ll see all of that I try I’ll try to film as much as we can um when you’re in the port you got to take pictures do an inventory and then you know you’re leaving the vehicle with

Them and you’ll pick it back up on the other side of the world which is really exciting and then the same happens there so you can’t leave the port of destination before you check everything um you can actually leave but you cannot file a complaint or you cannot file a

Claim anymore if something is wrong once you left the port so it has to happen the moment you’re still in the port you got to do everything and then if if anything is wrong uh damaged or stolen or whatever you just have to file a claim right there so they know that the

Vehicle was still in their possession when something happened other than that it’s pretty all straightforward so ivss they were amazing to deal with they um they were on top of things when as soon as we figured out the date and the way we did it is we’re going over there at the end

At the beginning of June and the van already arrives on May 30th so we have about a week to spare um and between our van arriving and us being there uh so if if the boat has a two or 3 Day delay we’d still be on time to pick up the van

And it wouldn’t affect our trip also in Ze I don’t know any other ports but over there you can keep the van there for about um I I believe they said 2 weeks without any additional fees anything over that after it arrived you got to start paying a daily uh storage

Fee but other than that it’s it’s all all pretty straightforward so we made a choice of traveling with our own van uh in Europe because we looked to rent vans in Europe or or an RV or whatever the problem that we have is in Europe everything is the RVs don’t have

Tanks so it’s all with a cassette toilet Casey doesn’t do cassette toilets at all so from that’s standpoint we had to use our own our own van other than that you get about 100 km a day which equals out to about 70 M and everything else is a dollar

To150 a day in added kilometers if you want to do a whole road trip across Europe through Italy Spain France I mean needless to say that that’ll cost a lot of money um in added fees also they don’t include Ben Bing so if you’re deciding to rent an RV

In Europe you got to make sure that you find bedding somewhere and then what are you going to do with it after your trip I mean bedding takes up a lot of space in a suitcase so we have our own bedding with us the beauty of shipping an RV is

You can have everything in your RV or in your van um as long as it looks empty in other words nothing can be laying around in in in the main area but as as long as everything is put away in the cabinets and where it belongs and all the stuff

Is related to you camping um you can bring sports gear all that yeah as long as it’s related to Camping you can you can bring it pretty much can’t bring any hazardous materials or anything like that obviously also um you can bring any uh weapons of some sort uh

So all of those things you got to be careful with but other than that it’s all it’s all good so we are our boat is going to be the typan it’s um a boat from WWL I believe it’s wenus Williamson is the shipping company or is the the the

Company of the the the boat and um they have a whole list about what you can take and what you can can take so there’s a whole list about our fees or Vans or Campers or and then a whole list of approved items and there’s a whole

List of stuff you absolutely cannot take so again if you if you read up a lot and and and and make sure you do your due diligence is ISS uh ivss ukk was was good for us um out of Brunswick and I’ll let you you know in

Belgium once we pick up the van how good they really were because you know we won’t know until we pick up the van how uh how good it is or how straightforward it is or if you don’t have any damage or nothing got stolen we all know until we’re there

Obviously but we don’t leave any valuables in the van um it’s also not recommended to do so no electronics no valuables uh no laptops cameras anything like that also we are taking our plates out or with off the van and take them with us they said American plates are highly

Collectible and a lot of people in Europe want them so they they’re afraid they would take them off the van and we would be there without any plates so that’s something that you might consider also something I haven’t found any coverage on there’s other YouTube videos about people shipping their FS to Europe

And for some reason they’re all from two plate States like there’s people from California they have two plates there’s people from New York they have two plates there are people from Canada they have two plates Florida is a one plate State I just wanted to make sure that um

It was okay to drive in Europe and um so I called people I know over there um and they informed me that it’s actually not okay to drive at one plate so they recommend to have a second plate so I ordered a Florida lookalike plate and had the same

Combination put on as my official plate and I’m going to put that one on the front of my van that way we don’t have to worry about um you know getting pulled over and and not be able to have a plat we will just put one on just out

Of safety it it takes a lot of planning and a lot of you know cuz we’re going to be gone for about 3 weeks then we’re coming back to the United States then we’re going back for 3 3 weeks and then the plan as it stands now is to ship the

Van back to the US once we completed our second road trip there AR Casey you have anything to add read your paperwork before you head to the court yeah I didn’t read my paperwork Casey read the paperwork so apparently you had to book your escort one day in advance we didn’t

Do that but we got away with it because yesterday was Sunday and the port was closed so we couldn’t call to book our uh escort one day in advance so we just told them that we will be there around 9:50 this morning and then hopefully that’s going to be a smooth process

We’re about 20 minutes 27 minutes away um from the port so we’ll we’ll keep you guys updated on how it goes but so far so good I’m very excited the van is ready again it looks beautiful I’m very happy with it and I after 2 and 1/2 years of

Building it’s finally done we literally did not have a day to spare we had to yesterday um it was actually very funny well funny and not funny cuz I worked until about 12:30 last night to get everything done and ready uh I was building uh drawers yesterday afternoon at like 5:00

P.m. still building drawers painting getting all the all the stuff done that really needed to be done to travel other than that another topic that is very important about taking your van to Europe you have to uh have your van paid off you cannot have a loan on

Your van cuz otherwise you got to ask permission to your uh lender to release the title and they most likely won’t do that I haven’t read any stories about um lenders releasing uh titles uh for people to take the vehicle vle out of the country because if you don’t bring

It back and you don’t pay for it they can’t possibly get that vehicle back so then they’re out their money because the port needs the title they need a copy of it and then they need the official title on date of delivery and then they will

Ship it back to you uh you have to have a label uh shipping label that you uh give them and then they send it back to you together with your uh original registration of the vanan so you really can’t um can’t get around that so the

Vehicle has to be paid off and then um the other thing is Road Insurance that’s one of these other things that is like um a little bit of a search because you don’t want to I mean you have to have insurance to drive around in Europe but you have to

Uh your American Insurance doesn’t work there so you have to have Europe European ins insurance and usually it covers all of the European Union states so we start in Belgium then we’re going through Austria we’re going to uh Italy Switzerland France Spain back into France but I mean

That’s not a problem everything is covered by that insurance um we are only taking liability insurance because the full coverage insurance is crazy expensive and then you have a um a deductible of like €2,500 per event and they only cover up to 75,000 uh EUR so this Van’s worth much

More anyways and I believe it’s like I believe it was more than $22,000 or EUR for one month of full coverage insurance so we didn’t do that we’re just going to do a $200 a month liability insurance so the van’s probably going to be there for

About 3 months so we’re going to be out $600 on insurance that’s something you got to calculate in as well how much that’s going to cost you and how much you know um plus you have to have it it’s not that you can choose am I going

To do the insurance or am I not going to do the insurance you got to have the insurance so those are the things that um I would recommend up to now I will drop a link in the comments of the insurance company that we went to where you can fill out an

Application also camping in Europe is kind of different than camping in the United States none of the campgrounds have uh sewer or have um any hookups the only hookup you have is with electricity and it’s literally with a long extension cord that you go to the nearest electricity box so it’s

Not like in the United United States where you have your site and everything is nice and clean and and uniform and everybody Parks this way in Europe here’s your site and you can park whatever whichever way you want as long as you fit within that site um no water

Hookups no dedicated water hookups there are no picnic tables so you got to have your own camping table so case you went to Target last night and got a camping table because we read about it and you have to you have to have your own camp camping table otherwise you can’t um

There there are none that are um there by the campgrounds so those are little differences I’m sure once we’re starting to camp in Europe in about a month it’s going to be uh it’s going to be different how much more uh we’re going to be able to talk about that the

Differences in in camping in Europe versus camping in the United States I’m looking forward to it I think our Sprinter will be extremely big in Europe um in US everything is Big all the roads are big and in Europe every I mean there’s there’s some narrow historic

Town center city center roads so we’re just going to stay out of the the historic City centers so we parked at the Port uh we put our Jeep here in the visitor parking lot I asked a police officer that I saw here if I could park

Here and he said yes and it’s says visitor parking everywhere so now I have to wait to get in line to go to the port as you can see there is a line and it goes all the way over there into the port so now we wait moving to the front of the

Line Casey’s reading the news and she’s very excited I don’t know that I can film over there I’m going to have to wait here but uh why it says no firearms or weapons oh my God so that went a little bit too smooth uh to uh so we got kicked out of the

Port and we have to wait in the gravel parking lot across the street for our escort to arrive I just sent them a text and hopefully they’ll be here soon but we’re sitting here there some other trucks here and you know some people around I’m not sure for what but this is

Where we’re waiting we’re here still in the parking lot we’re waiting for um the escort to come back they just escorted two big trucks out so we’re going to see when they are back and then uh in the meantime I’ll show you where we are so we’re waiting here

It’s like an overflow lot where we’re waiting and I’m going to walk around it cuz I’m going to use this as proof for a little bit too that everything is good that the van is in the port and it’s um do a quick walk around just to show that

Everything is good the way we delivered it they polished on that thing two people a whole day it looks brand new again it is brand new it only has like 2,800 mil but I mean it’s sitting out that long was okay just do it if I could just get you the initial

Right there and then sign the B say bye to the Van so we got our escort unfortunately Casey’s dropped off back at the car she’s no longer with me here um because apparently only one person is allowed into the port and it has to be the person that is on the documentation which is me um so I’m going to drop it off my

Escort’s right here in front of me in this car so we’re going to drop it off from what I heard it should be very simple from here I should get a signed dock receipt so I think we’re going to drop it off here and you know hopefully in 4

Weeks today is four weeks away from the day we pick it up so I’m looking forward to four weeks from now it’s going to be four weeks of anxiety you know being afraid of you know um not having my van and it just got finished so but I mean I think it it

All will be fine I mean several people have shipped their Vans to Europe without any problems So we’re in our Jeep now and um we’re on our way back home we left the Sprinter in the board took the license plate with us um I was working uh to do the last stuff until like midnight or 12:30 last night on the van case it cleaned until like 11:00 or

11:30 and then we got up at like 3:45 this morning the process was because we didn’t know so we take our vanan and we were like all right let’s drop off the Jeep cuz we were throwing it we were flat throwing our Jeep so we were like yep let’s drop it

Off in the parking lot we drop it off and then like all the big boys we were driving our van straight into the poort but that didn’t last long because they immediately kicked us out he didn’t have a twick card so if you want to drive in the port without an escort you

Need to apply for a twick card so then we went in the board I was the only one that could go uh because I’m on the paperwork casy had to stay behind um so we dropped the van off in the port I followed the escort had to go to like an

Office and she asked for my title and then she asked for um the dock receipt which my shipper was emailed us all the documents at ahead of time so we just had to print everything so they asked us for those documents stamped everything off and then um I had to of course Park

The Sprinter where they told us to SP to park it after it was parked it’s a very fun fact though because you see where the boat is going to be there was currently a different boat there cuz ours doesn’t leave until next Sunday on the 14th so

But there was a ship there and so everything that comes off the boat faces a sparked facing away from the boat everything it’s all on the same parking lot cuz one row could be coming from the boat the next row to the boat the other

Row so in order for them to know what comes off the previous ship and what goes with the next one so everything that is going is parked facing towards the boat everything that is arriving is parked facing away from the boat we dropped it off and then they

Told us to take pictures so we could take all the pictures we wanted to and then um basically you know I uh I checked everything one last time make sure everything was off uh and then the scary moment where you need to leave your van unlocked with all your stuff in it and

Then you need to put your key in the cup holder and leave so we are on our way home now um and uh hopefully the vanan will be reunited with us in 4 weeks fully intact in uh in Zea Belgium I wouldn’t care if you know some minor

Things get stolen cuz I’m I’m already kind of banking on that you know and I think if you do you kind of come to terms with the fact um I just don’t want any damage that’s the only thing I’d rather not have any damage than uh you

Know someone wants to steal my underwear have had it hey guys future stain here so little update when we got the vanent in Belgium all our clothes did get stolen so someone somewhere has a great time in my underwear right now uh but no damage on the van none of our gear got

Stolen like all the hoses the the the stuff we took um the the tools Etc all was still here so that was great but all our clothes unfortunately did get stolen so the moment we arrived in Belgium we had clothes for about 2 days and then we

Had to uh go shopping and get our clothes for the rest of the trip but you know it all worked out like I said it’s better not to have any damage on the van than to end up you know with a bunch of damage that you you then have to fix in

A country that is you know not yours Etc and you have to buy a bunch of tools so all in all it worked out for us great but I would recommend take your clothes in the suitcase do not leave them in the van I’ll buy I’ll gladly buy new

Underwear we didn’t leave any valuables in the van so there’s nothing really there for them to steal or something where they’re going to go like oh my God this is going to be so amazing it’s more so a a thing of you know whatever is there is there garden

Hoses um you know extension gords we didn’t even take our grill with us because it did we it gave us some trouble with the connection so I’m not even going to going to risk it for hund and something dollars you can buy a gas grill with the right fittings in Europe

So we’re going to use that for the 6 weeks that were’re there and then 6 weeks yeah I think it was € 172 um you if you go out once to eat or twice you’re already paying that amount so we’re just going to go ahead and buy

A gas grill um over there in Europe and then put it in the van but all in all the process was really quick really good so then the escort put me in her car escorted me back to the parking lot where Casey was waiting in the Jeep then

You got to have your title work done so then your you got to bring your original title for your vehicle and you have to bring your um what is that called registration your registration we already got the registration back um she didn’t need that um but she just wanted to see it and

Then the dog stamp the dog receipt that was stamped she needed that so all these documents are going to go to customs and then they want to uh they have we have 72 hours to basically inspect the vanent to make sure we’re not smuggling anything or we’re not

Having anything in the van that we shouldn’t or can’t um the guy even asked us when when we dropped it off he goes like do you have any spices in there and like well yeah but they’re sealed they’re new he goes like everybody has spices he goes like that’s why I’m

Asking he goes like technically you’re not allowed but he goes like everybody has spices so uh other than that we didn’t have any food water tanks are empty we went over a whole checklist um of things that we that we needed to do gas was

Just that or diesel was just at at the quarter of a tank which is the maximum that you can have um to go on the ship So within 72 hours she is going to email our shipper and then they will email us and then we’re basically going to have

The you know good to go sign of you know the vanas custom cleared and then uh it’s going to go uh it’s for sure going to be shipped so we’re waiting all on all of that to book our flight I would wait until you get your

Go-ahead of uh when the boat for sure is leaving because then you can you know anticipate your flights and and and anticipate your travel we haven’t booked any campgrounds in Italy yet uh we’re planning to do that kind of on the fly but um you know we were not booking our

Flights until I know for a fact that my one my van is on that boat and two that boat has left the port of Brunswick meaning it’s on its way to uh Z belon and people travel people jump on an airplane but your car usually stays in the same

Continent and this is kind of a special experience because we’re going to drive our V ran over the Alps over the pin mountains um this summer we’re going to take it to the coast in Barcelona we’re going to we’re going to go all over Italy we’re going to be in Venice with

It we’re going to be in Rome with it uh Milan Lake Garda yeah the Amalfi Coast we’re going to drive the Amalfi Coast in our vanent and will document that so later on I mean it’s going to have so many good memories the next step is going going to be basically us

Getting to go ahead on Sunday of hey the boat left and now we’re going to be able to track the boat and at which point we will then I think book our flight tickets and get everything prepared for us to actually travel to Europe um it’s going to be

Fairly easy because we’re staying at my parents’ house the first day um we’re going straight from the airport to the port pick up the Sprinter go to the supermarket fill it up with food and then go to my parents house clean it out and the next day is uh when we’re going

To the next day is when we’re going to leave um towards Austria and then into it

We have always wanted to do an amazing European roadtrip. After 2.5 years of building the van, we decided we were ready to scratch this trip off of our bucket list.
In this video we shipped our van to Europe. We visited Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and France.
Follow along for our amazing European adventures.

European insurance: www.tourinsure.de
Shipping company we used: https://ivssuk.com/