Shipping vehicle to Europe

Also you cannot legally drive RV over certain size with just car drivers license in Europe. Big truck or bus drivers license would be required.

If you have any large cities on your itinerary, you'll find an RV extremely cumbersome. The Dutch seem to love caravaning in RVs, but they're mostly headed to rural areas of Germany, Austria and Switzerland to camp.

Why not just rent one? Also, and I know a freighter captain, freighters do not always follow a strict schedule. They sometimes get detoured.

The Dutch and their RVs are often on the French autoroutes, too, but their caravans are much smaller than the ones we see in N. America. I hope the OP's is not one of those enormous mansions on wheels .... it just will not be feasible on the smaller by-ways and in small towns of Europe.

My German neighbors have a small RV, but they don't use it to travel around from place to place to place the way many North Americans do. They drive to a camping spot on a lake within 100 kilometers of home and stay put there for a few weeks for a "getaway". From what I hear, this is fairly common here. I'm not saying you couldn't rent one and travel around with it, as I haven't researched that, but just wanted to point out that it may not be quite as common to do that here as in the US. When we moved to Germany from the US years ago, we shipped a personal vehicle here and it took many many weeks to arrive. Ours was shipped at government expense--shipping one privately is quite costly.

While no expert so someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe EU regulations would prohibit driving an non-EU-approved vehicle. Besides, I don't think Europe has RV parks in the way we think of them here. Where would you plug in or empty the toilet?

"but I believe EU regulations would prohibit driving an non-EU-approved vehicle." Correct, it has to be registered in the EU or certain authorized countries, and the US isn't one of those. I couldn't even drive my car off the shipping lot until I registered it and attached a temporary set of plates. So basically, Shelli, what the chorus is singing is that your idea isn't feasible.

Shelli, As the others have pointed out, this is really not a good idea. In addition to the costs of shipping the RV to Europe and back, you'll also have to consider: > Costs of insurance > Cost of fuel, which is VERY expensive > Cost of tolls (which are frequent, and add up quickly in some cases) > Depending on the size of the RV, it may or not "fit" well into some of the narrow streets in many European towns. Euro RV's are somewhat "narrow" and small for that reason. > Vehicle licensing for the various Euro countries. As I understand the regulations, residents of Europe can choose to get licensing only for their country of residence, or for all the E.U. countries (costs will vary). > Highway Tax Permits for Switzerland (EXPENSIVE fines if caught without the sticker) > I.D.P. required for driving in Italy and some other countries. Failure to produce an IDP if requested will result in fine on the spot! Failure to pay fine may result in vehicle being impounded (with resultant fees). > ZTL tickets if you drive in certain locations in Italy. These are €100+ for EACH pass through one of the automated Cameras! > Parking (which can be expensive). If you misunderstand the signs and park in the wrong locations in some countries, you may find "The Boot" applied when you return. Removal will be expensive! > Risk of vandalism / theft of belongings / MVI's or whatever. > RV parks may be some distance outside cities. If you're not towing a small car for local transport, you'll need to allow extra time and money to get back & forth to the sites you've come to see. It's certainly your choice, but definitely not something I'd ever consider!

Awesome! Thank you all for your responses. I'd hoped shipping via freighter and riding along would be cheaper than airfare and hotels. Our 'RV' is a Ford pickup with an 8' camper so is smaller than a standard RV, but still, it's good to know that even that might be too big to get around towns, and I hadn't even thought about licensing the vehicle or myself. So your info was VERY helpful. I'd love to hear from anyone who might have advice about getting around and staying very cheaply for a few weeks. For instance, bikes, scooters (rented), hostels etc. We are not very picky and like to ride and stay cheap so we can spend our money on sites instead.

Just to add in my 2 cents. We paid to ship a car here this summer. Because of our jobs here, we are allowed to do so. That said, it was $1500 from the mid-west, and a minimum 8 weeks over. Also, we had special paperwork done to get it out of customs, but as someone else said, we couldn't drive it until it was legally registered/plated within Germany. So, even if you pay to get it over here, you'll never get it out of customs.

Shelli, The best and most efficient method for "getting around" is usually by train, however that's somewhat dependent on which places you're going to be visiting. One thing to keep in mind regarding transportation is that "cheap" usually means "slow", which will use more of your very limited travel time just getting from one place to another. If this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend pre-reading Europe Through The Back Door, as that will provide LOTS of information on how to travel well in Europe. The country-specific Guidebooks provide lots of listings for budget Hotels and B&B's in many cities in Europe. If you want to primarily stay in Hostels, you might have a look at the HI Hostels website. They have properties all over Europe and they tend to be fairly consistent from one location to another. Having an inexpensive HI membership will provide slightly better rates. There are also independent Hostels (not affiliated with HI) in many locations. It would be easier to offer more specific information if you could provide some details on which locations you want to visit during your 17-day trip? Cheers!

Thanks again for great advice! We are going on a 17 day tour through Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Israel this fall (assuming things settle down and it will be somewhat safe)! What we'd like to do, since we'll be there anyways is spend an extra few weeks just going where ever our attention takes us, whenever we feel like it. I assume we could rent a car most of the time that we needed one, but if there's a pretty good bus system that would be good to know too. I've looked briefly at the Europass but that's pretty steep for my budget right now. I'll check the Hostels too. Thanks!

My advice is to do some serious studying up on travelling in the European/African/Middle East regions. Egypt and half of Turkey are not in Europe.

"I started some research..." "I'd hoped..." "I hadn't even thought about..." "I assume..." "We are going on a 17 day tour through Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Israel this fall..." Is THAT what you wanted to ship your pickup/camper for? Looks like you'd better add Syria, Jordan, ......

Shelli, where did you want to go in Europe? This is a fairly large continent and if you give folks some specifics, we can tell you whether it is cost effective to take a train, or fly. There isn't a bus system here like Greyhound, and often the trains can be a real bargain. Discount airlines can take you long distances for a really cheap price too. Hostels are not always your best bet either. Sometimes it is cheaper to rent an apt. in a base city and travel from there. Cities such as Berlin, and from here you can go to Dresden, Hamburg, Potsdam, etc. If you were looking to have a private room to yourselves in a hostel, then often a pension or budget hotel will be cheaper than a hostel. It just depends where you are going.