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Taking a leased vehicle on the ferry from Italy to Croatia

We will be leasing a car in Nice, France and driving it through Italy. We plan to take the car on the ferry from Ancona to Split, Croatia. The leasing company has no problem with this, but I can't find much information on the SNAV ferry website about whether we can do this. The website says you must have the original registration for any vehicles. Has anyone done this before? Does the leasing company (Europe by Car) give you the original registration?

Thanks for any input!

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for all the great information! I'll definitely look for dolphins and I'll definitely take photos of all the leasing documents! Great idea :-). I have booked the passage with a company called Directferries.com rather than using the SNAV website. Directferries has an 800 number and they speak English, so I'm a little more comfortable with that. When I booked online though, I did not receive a confirmation and was told to call the 800 number. When I called they said it is considered a provisional booking until they actually book and that I will receive a confirmation tomorrow! Seems odd to me,but I think the company is based out of the U.K. Has anyone had any experience with this company (Directferries)?

Posted by
8201 posts

The leasing company will furnish registration and proof of liability insurance. And if it's okay for the vehicle to go to Croatia according to them, you're good to go.
One of the benefits to leasing on trips of 21 days or longer is that you can take the car anywhere you wish--even over toward the eastern side of Central Europe.

Posted by
703 posts

we picked up our third lease car, yesterday. (in italy) the rego and insurance paperwork is included. make sure it is before you drive off. also make sure it doesn't go missing, as there is a penalty when you hand back the car.
hope this helps

Posted by
1730 posts

Not only do you get the original copy, they also advise keeping it with you and not in the vehicle. After a stolen-purse-containing-registration incident reported on this forum, we now make a copy and keep it separate.

Posted by
487 posts

You were asking about how rough the voyage would be. I have not been on the ferry, but did a cruise on the Adriatic that left/returned to Venice and then went south and back up the Croatian coast. We went in mid-September and had very calm seas. However the week before there were storms in the area and the cruise ship was dodging water spouts and rain all week so they had a rougher journey. How rough your voyage is really dependent on the weather when you travel. We had a great pod of dolphins playing near the boat, and the water is really clear, so make sure to watch for them!

Posted by
27348 posts

Several decades ago I took an overnight ferry from Croatia to either Italy or Greece. It was a very smooth voyage. I have no idea how the size of my ferry compared to what they're using today, but I assume the stabilizers have improved, if anything.

Posted by
2829 posts

European cars almost always carry original registration papers (unlike rental agencies in US). First thing I do when picking up a car is snapping some pictures of the docs and saving them to the cloud.