Iran carnet qualms. Options?
 

Hi all,
I’ve been in the process of planning a year long continent spanning ride from London to London by way of Russia and Central Asia for over 6 months now with the intention of leaving early next year.
While investigating the necessary paperwork required I did a little more digging into the Carnet de Passage rules, due to my route passing through Iran (which looks amazing).

Now the Carnet cost looks to be a bit beyond my means, and I’m worried about buying one in the UK since I’ll be flying directly in from New Zealand, buying a motorcycle and looking to leave ASAP. It looks like I have a few options, each with their own challenges.
1. Buy the Carnet in the UK (if possible, quick and cheap enough).
2. Bypass Iran entirely and take a freighter from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan with a Turkmenistan transit visa (anyone have any experience with this – seems like I would have a very short window).
3. Ship the bike from Turkmenistan and hopefully be able to pick it up somewhere in Azerbaijan, Turkey or Armenia while experiencing Iran via public transport (my concerns here revolve around having the bike out of my sight as well as the language barrier).
4. I’ve read about a character by the name of Hossein that may be able to provide informal Carnets, however some of the reviews detail scams and extremely short timeframes as well as there being two Hosseins which is adding to my confusion. I really don’t want to be trapped in Turkmenistan on a transit visa if I try wing it with Hossein.

Does anyone have experience with any of the above or any alternative suggestions on how I could continue my ride from Central Asia into the Caucasus in a way that won’t cost me thousands of dollars? Hoping I’ve posted this in the right place.
Cheers,

Get the carnet, but I'm not sure UK is the cheapest and fastest place to get it.

Regarding Hosseins. There's the old one and the young one. I think the old Hossein is considered to be better but they really seem to be the middle men between the traveller and the fixers at the border. For the sake of less hassle, get the carnet even if it is a bit more expensive.

Cheers for the advice, looking at the ADAC website indicates you can get a carnet for a $3000 deposit which looks more reasonable than what I'd seen elsewhere.

Hi M,

Could you give more details of your plans and where are you from (kiwi?).

Plan is to get to UK and buy a bike there, ride it rtw in 6 months and get back to London?

We as a business that caters motorcycle community (Lobagola B&B | design bed & breakfast in the center of Zagreb) are working in Iran with:

Iran Overland :: Travel to Iran Tabriz

We can provide EU border insurance and soon we'll be covering Balkans and Turkey too.

If you need support in the area of Stans' and further, we can also direct you to our partners that are tried and trusted.

PM me for additional info or questions.

Cheers
Dooby

Thanks mate, still in the early planning phase right now but i'll be sure to note down your details for further on down the track.

Problem with carnets is it seems as if provider-shopping is no longer possible and ADAC will just tell you to go to the one in your own country - which in this case might be complicated further by it being a British bike so maybe the UK provider will be the only choice

I could only get a carnet in the country my bike was registered in (Belgium).

They stated on their website that the deposit amount should be 100% of the value of the bike but after mailing a bit back and forth they were ok with only 50%

RACB lets you specify the value of your vehicle yourself. If I recall correctly they only set a minimum deposit of 3000€ for motorcycles and 5000€ for cars.

I rode from Ireland across Iran and Turnmenistan last year. It would be a true shame to miss out on Iran - world champions of hospitality.

I mulled over the carnet thing for months. My problem was that the bike was never going to come back home to Ireland. Right now it's in Kyrgyzstan. But to recover the carnet bond you need a certificate of location and I couldn't imagine the Kyrgyz authorities assisting me with this.

So I bit the bullet and went with Hossein at overlandtoiran.com. I think I paid a flat fee of €400. The service was efficient and I had no problem. I'm not endorsing the service but simply relating my own personal experience.

Turkmenistan is worth a visit if only to see an unusual and quirky country. But its a reallt lotto to get granted a transit visa - I got it through their London embassy and was lucky. For what its worth don't give overload information on your planned route - better to mention just the entry town and the exit town.

As I understood it the RAC weren't offering carnets anymore, meaning that ADAC can't make me get one from them? But I could be wrong, I'm new to all this bureaucracy.

On a side-note Declan how long did you get in Iran from Hossein? I've read people say up to 10 days or sometimes less whereas I'm keen for a month.

I needed 8 days and thats what I got. I think more time will be more expensive but I get the impression that if you held tough that the price can become favorable. Initially I displayed disinterest and that too reduced the price.
Funnily enough after crossing into Iran and having the carnet processed I felt that even if I turned up with no pre-arranged plans that I'd be taken care of anyway by the customs guys who themselves were so sound.

As of last October (when I rode to Iran) ADAC were no longer willing to provide a carnet as there IS a uk provider (not RAC). However the uk provider is outrageously expensive (I seem to remember a £600-900 fee!!- not deposit, that was on top, FEE!) and a very long wait of 3 weeks.

So eventually after refusals in France I found the Swiss equivalent, the Touring Club de Suisse, would provide it which they did very efficiently and quickly for a fee of 330CHF (plus a deposit of course, returnable).

And getting into and out of Iran was a breeze, not the case for a friend of mine who used Hossein.

Hope this helps - my bike is uk registered btw.

Hi Simon,

Just for the sakes of providing fully correct info, please be more precise which Hossein did provide service to your friend?

There are two persons with same name, and very similar websites. One started before the other, the younger one started the business later.

Cheers
Dooby

Carnet de Passage for Iran
 

I don't know if this topic is still "active", but I just came back from 10 weeks driving (mobilehome) in Iran. When entering Iran at Bazargan (Turkish-Iran border) we met up with an Italian motorbike-driver who had arrange everything EXCEPT a Carnet de Passage, (nobody had told him he needed one) and had tremendous difficulties. We had to leave him behind, but the "fixer" Hossein (who also helped us speed along procedures) told him that without a CdP it would cost hundreds of euro's and a tremendously long time. As we had to get a licenseplate, insurance etc. we had to move on and left him behind, not knowing what happened. My advice therefore is to always get a CdP. The only place to get that is the ADAC in Munich. Our experience was that they do not check the value of your vehicle, so you could always get a bank guarantee for (a little) less money than it is really worth.
Iran is a most wonderful country to travel round in by yourself, so do not miss out on it!