This thread is meant to share an experience of shipping a container with bikes from Portugal to Argentina.

Costs :
Shipping : 1200 Euros
Port taxes, papers, and handling in Buenos Aires : 700 Euros

Total cost : 1900 Euros

Cost per motorcyle
For 2 : 850 Euros For 6 : 320 Euros

Time frame :

Bike shipping : about one month
Taking the motorcycles out of Buenos Aires Harbour : 6 days of intense work and walk around the city center, lots of waiting and misinformed lowly cooperative civil servants.

Place to organise it all : Dakar Motos
Dakar motos is conveniently located not far from the train station (half an hour ride), with a super market in the surroundings a fairly safe surrounding and an ISDN (128 kbs) wifi internet connection. They have 4 bunk beds in the garage and a small garden to socialise. Javier and Sandra offer very convenient services like bike storage (70 to 120 pesos a month), shipping assistance (150 USD) and accomodation (25 pesos a night). If there is no bed left, they can lend you a tent for camping. The living space is still quite limited tho so if you need some privacy, it s better for you to go to an hotel in the surroundings and visit during day time.

For shipping back, from Sandra s point of view, selling the bike is not an option since a foreign registration makes it very difficult to find a buyer, unless you have a very specific bike (like an Enfield for example). The easiest but more expensive option is to use an air cargo : fast shipping, no administrative hassle, no need to take care of the crating and you can keep one liter petrol in the tank. The cost for Europe is around 1200 dollars per bike (a bike will be quoted automaticly 500 kg)

Feel free to add your comments if you did the same experience, it would be nice to have one common thread to share our experiences so that travellers get the most complete feedback for them to make a choice.

Hasta Luego

Philippe