Fly in to country - possible enter with no return ticket?
 

Gday all,

I've been booking tickets for my trip around the world and at the moment have been sorting out the details of my Australia (Brisbane) - Chile (Santiago) ticket. Several people have commented to me that you need a return ticket to gain entry or just in general.

How is this overcome when travelling with a bike? I will be leave Chile and heading for Ushuaia pretty soon after flying in and then heading back north to Canada from there.

Cheers,
Rossy.

Hi,

In some countrys i showed my carned and told them my vehicle is allready there or i booked a cheap bus ticked to another country so they let me in :)

Travel save, Tobi

Brian

In instances where I've had to do this I booked a full fare, fully flexible ticket as the "return or onward" leg. Soon as i had arrived I cancelled that flight and got a full refund.

Simon

Is there any way of knowing if it is required by which countries though? So you don't have to do either of those? Or something which makes it OK not to have one...like a bike perhaps?!

Brian we had exactly that problem when flying to Bogota from London. I booked tickets (1 way only) from the Avianca website and got no issues in London. But when changing plane in Madrid, we were turned down at the boarding gate by Avianca staff, without a plane ticket to leave the country we could not get in the plane. No arguing that our motorbikes were in Bogota already. No exit ticket, no entry. There was nothing in their website that said you needed a return ticket by teh wya.

We had to fork out EUR500 for 2 cancellable plane tickets from Bogota to Ecuador there and then. In cash! After much difficulty we managed to cancel them in Colombia, and get a refund.

Ask the air company you are using. But the best thing as advised above, get a return ticket that is cancellable and refundable.

OK. Thanks heaps for that.

Is it the same when you're travelling through countries by bike. Ie. by plane in you say you need a ticket to show you're leaving, but if you enter by bike, would i be correct to assume you don't need to organise a ticket for every country. I've read a little bit about this but not much addresses this issue directly. Cheers!

List the countries you are looking at visiting and I (and doubtless other people) can say whether or not a return/onward flight is required

Fly into Santiago Chile first. Then ride to Ushuaia and back up north. So:

Chile > Argentina > Uruguay > Brazil > Bolivia (maybe Paraguay) > Peru > Ecuador > Columbia >

Panama > Costa Rica > Nicaragua > Honduras > El Sal > Guatemala > Mexico

Cheers for that!

No, actually it doesn't matter one bit what countries you list. When you enter by moto you don't need an onward ticket. If someone asks you for one, they're angling for a bribe and can be joshed and grinned out of it because they know perfectly well they're being ridiculous.

Brazil required a handwritten note promising I'd leave with the bike. So did Guyana. No other country in South or Central America betrayed any interest at all.

enjoy,

mark

Hmm - what you say (markharf) is of course logical, and when overlanding I never had an issue with this in the non-South American countries I visited - overlandcruiser.net

But I did come across a couple (Home) who - believe it or not - WERE told to provide evidence of onward travel in the form of a flight ticket when they tried to get a visa for Kazakhstan from the Kazakh consulate in Bishkek. They had a dreadful experience!

Sorry, let me clarify. I was addressing only countries in the Americas, where I've got the most experience on bikes. If the OP (or anyone) is asking about Central Asia, my answer is "I don't know."

enjoy,

Mark