Canadian wants to drive from China (or alternative) to Norway
 

I have 3 months this year - beginning of June to end of August - of complete freedom and I want to try and take a road trip of a lifetime before I begin a new job.

Where should I ship a car or try and buy one? I do want to end up (or start) in Norway, but the other start/end is up in the air. I've read that driving in China as a foreigner isn't realistic or maybe not possible (?) but can't seem to find a straight answer.

That said, can anyone suggest an alternative start/end to still make the trip a cross-europe/asia adventure from Pacific to Atlantic oceans (or vice versa)?

I am currently living in Toronto, Canada. I have a Canadian (Ontario) driver's licence and a passport, but no international driver's licence.

Its almost always best to buy and sell a vehicle in the same country due to different rules about tax, customs, road legality etc. So maybe consider try to make your route a loop and come back to the place you bought the vehicle.

Its certainly possible to take a foreign vehicle into and through China but that requires mandatory guides and heaps of permits and most important - its very expensive. And what are you gonna do with the vehicle on the other side? It will have minimal or no value there so shipping back might be the better option although that is also very expensive. Wether it is possible to buy a chinese plated vehicle in China as a foreigner Im not the right person to answer, but if its possible I dont think its easy.

Start in Vladivostok and end in western Europe or the opposite way if you ship your own vehicle both ways could always be an option.

It is possible and easy.
But to get the car out of China you need an ATA Carnet and in which case, if the car does not return to China you lose your deposit left for the Carnet.

What can you do in three months??? How to dispose of vehicle at the end???

Maybe start over and re-think your options. I have been traveling the world for eleven years on what I call the "installment plan". Go a ways, find storage place then come back the next year and go some more. This has worked for me with motorcycle, would be more difficult with a car.
This year I will leave Italy in July 20th and end in Indonesian three months later where I have a place to store the bike.
Just something to think about.
The other recommendation I would have is to make a loop as mentioned above. Maybe start in Greece to Turkey, up into the Stans and Russia then back by a northern route.
:scooter:

Seems to me that you're starting off with stringent requirements before you even know what's possible or practical. If "Pacific to Atlantic" with Asia involved is your baseline requirement, you're basically crippling yourself.

Yes, China will be expensive and difficult to plan, while Russia will be boring and loooooonnng. Southeast Asian possibilities are awkward, with certain countries welcoming your vehicle and others not so much. Shipping your car by air, train, truck or sea might turn out to be an essential part of making it possible...depending.

Why not start over again by asking where on the earth's surface you could take the trip of a lifetime without too many paperwork hassles during the Northern Hemisphere summer? You might easily end up in the Americas, Africa, or New Zealand/Australia, depending on what you'd like to do and see.

Hell, three months isn't very long if you just stick to Eastern and Western Europe, maybe including bits of the Caucasus, Iceland, or other less-commonly visited places if determined to make something exotic of it.

Just my idea: discard if it's not helpful.

Mark

China is indeed quite difficult with your own vehicle, but you can travel around China using public transport to get your fix, and then go up to Mongolia by train, for the full overland experience. Or there is a ferry between Japan, South Korea and Vladivostok.

Overland from the Pacific coast, you can start in Vladivostok and go all the way to Murmansk, cross into Kirkenes and you're basically a day's slow drive from Nordkapp, then make your way down as much of the Norwegian coast as you care.

Is your new job in Norway? Note that Norway is VERY strict about long-term residents with foreign-plated vehicles - there is a locally famous case of a business owner who used an Estonian-plated van for her Norwegian business, and the tax authorities went after her, ended up bankrupting her company. So if you're staying, anything you bring in will likely need to be put on Norwegian plates, with Norwegian taxes, which can be multiples of the car's market value.

Even shipping your car to the Asian coast will be expensive (let's assume you are shipping to Japan/Korea and taking the DBS ferry). But in theory you could buy something like a Land Cruiser in Japan, take it over on the ferry, drive it to Europe, essentially sell it for parts. Paperwork would be a bit complicated.

All that said, the others are right - this is an uncommon direction, and a lot of that is because there's not much support for it. You could come to Europe, buy a bike locally (several countries, including my own, don't require you to be a resident), and spend a very happy three months riding around this continent. Hell, a month in Norway alone is easy to fill up if you're going all the way up the coast.

Thank-you all for your advice and guidance - I'm surely in need of it at this point.

Road hog, this is such an inspirational idea and one that I never thought of! Unfortunately, I know for sure I won't be able to make any extended trips for at least 2 years to come (if my upcoming school and training go as planned). This is something I would love to pursue in the future and thank-you for the concept!


Thanks Mark. The idea of "cost to coast" is coming from my last summer trip where I drove from ocean to ocean across Canada and then up to the arctic ocean as well. So I wanted to do something similar on another continent and I want to visit Norway, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia.

I'm not particularly interested in seeing cities or civilization or Mediterranean coastline - I want wilderness.

Note this is what I "want" do to... perhaps not the most logical or ideal... but I haven't gotten any other ideas in my head yet that I'm motivated to pursue.

Ah, I didn't know this wasn't a common route. I know for sure I don't want to spend much time in Europe itself. But I do want to spend time in Norway either at the beginning or end of the trip.

Is there a sensible route that includes Norway, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia?

In terms of a car, I'm currently at the end of the road with my 1998 Toyota 4 Runner and I'm torn between spending the 2-3 grande needed to fix it and then try and ship it wherever I plan on starting this trip - or to try and buy a car locally where I end up :(. Quite overwhelmed by these decisions and I'm also quickly running out of planning time.

I think what I need immediate counselling/advice on is whether I should fix up my current ride and ship it over or look to buy a car in either Vladivostok or Oslow.

Sure. As a Canadian you probably don't need a Mongolian or Kazakhstan visa (just get it on the border), so all you need is a dual- or multiple-entry Russian visa. Start in Mongolia, do as much of it as you want, go up to Lake Baikal, then down to Kazakhstan, then your choice is either back into Russia and up via St Petersburg into Norway (always an option to go via the Baltics and Finland if you are sick of Russia and want civilization), or maybe via the Stans, across the Caspian into the South Caucasus, again back into Russia or via the North Turkey coast and Istanbul into Bulgaria, from where you can go anywhere you want in Europe. The problem is finding a vehicle in Mongolia that you would like to drive all the way.

Shipping your vehicle to Vladivostok from Canada could be awkward (and air shipping is not an option, you'd have to do it by sea, and you're probably running into big time constraints there already). Buying something like a used Japanese SUV in Vladivostok is possible - it is, or was at least, a big import hub for cars - but doing it in Russia as a foreigner means tricky paperwork. And it will not be expedition-prepped, just a road SUV off the boat from Japan.

Your best bet is to scour the vehicle sales ads here and in similar forums for somebody driving a vehicle to Mongolia and flying back. Something that can be fairly easily put in your name. Not impossible, but requires a bit of luck and, again, figuring out the paperwork.

I think three months is enough to have some fun in the Stans and Mongolia (and perhaps Russian Altai anyway)
I'm not sure how it is to buy a vehicle as a foreigner in any of these countries. I think in Mongolia you can buy one but not register it. Those kind of issues.
To be honest I think it is easier to find a Western European country where you can register a vehicle, and drive it from there. Or ship your own Canadian car to Hamburg, Germany, and go from there.
It does mean a bit of extra driving when starting in Europe.

We are in the same time frame on our way in the same area. We intend to go (from Europe) to Uzbekistan first, because it will be so hot in July and August. Then continue into Kirgistan (maybe Tadjikistan) and Kazakhstan in July, Russian Altai, and Mongolia in August. This should hopefully come out nicely with the weather.

If you checkout caravanistan website, for some countries there is some info on selling your car.