From UAE to Western Europe
 

Hi Hubbers,

We want to travel UAE - UK this summer 2012 by motorcycle. Which route is recommended? Via Caucasus (Georgia - Russia - Poland etc....) or via the Mediterranean coast (Greece - Italy etc....).
We would eventually ship the bike to Tbilisi or Istanbul or Moscow or..... to avoid the hassle of the carnet in Iran.
Many thanks for your assistance.

Sorry, but shipping the bike is altogether probably a far bigger pain in the proverbial behind, than getting a carnet will ever be... :rofl:

Plus travelling overland is way cooler than shipping & flying, or whatever! And besides, Iran is really a great country to travel, unless international politics now really mess things up! And I´ve read somewhere here at the HUBB, that it could be possible to pass through Iran even without a carnet... of this I have no personal info, because I had the carnet, when I went there – but if it´s the only carnet country on your way, then that option could be worth investigating further.

Road borders between Georgia/Russia (with and without breakaway states in between) are shrouded in uncertainty and possible false or confused reporting.

As I understand it to be right now they are only open to their own citzens or possibly also passport holders of CIS states (a collection of, but not all, ex-USSR countries).

Sea and air borders between the two are no problem - subject to appropriate visas.

Options ?
 

I'm looking at doing the similar ride from Oman - it does now seem that the border between Georgia/Russia is ine one place open.

I've also tracked down a ferry from Georgia/Ukraine - which I will probably use if the border is not open.

Apart from the Iran option.... there is one other route - now please do not laugh ....

Oman - Yemen - Dijbouti - Sudan - Egypt - Cyprus - Greece :helpsmilie: ?

I had some RTW bikers staying with me 19 months ago who went this way - getting the Yemeni visa was a little tricky - and they were escorted by the police for over half their trip.

Regards

Tim

nomore ferries available between Egypt and Greece or Turkey..
Some more current inf.under this thread.
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...pt-any-62770-2

I appreciate the correction :thumbup1:

Georgia is not worth missing - this said Iran is great aswell and the carnet is not that much hasstle!!

I would strongly advise against shipping, esp to countries where brides happen as getting stuff out from ports is not easy so many people involved - it will work out alot cheaper to crate the bike up and fly it in as the process is much more simple to get things out the airport!!

We flew from Dubai with Alta Cargo - go see Jeewan and have a chat he is a really really nice guy and they went there way to do my bike for the budget we had.

We came from Iran to Dubai on the ferry it took us ages to clear customs on both sides (we went to like 12 + offices and took 7 hours) when we flew out it took about 2 hours to do the paper work and on the other side in Nepal it took 40 mins!! A freind of ours shipped from Iran to India - it showed up 4 weeks late and took him 7 days to clear it with over $400 in bribes!!!

Just food for thought!! Good luck!!!