Oops, their rate has gone up 400%!!!

__________________
Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

Hi all,

1st post !

I am travelling through non EU countries in the summer (Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Hungary) and am not getting much help from my current insurers that are strictly EU only.

Can one get a hold of suitable cover for the short term crossing through the above countries

Paul.

Assuming your bike is UK-reg, and your current insurer is "strictly EU only."

Croatia & Bosnia in theory require & offer short term TP insurance at any border crossing, BUT the "required" insurance is in fact not offered/ available at all their border crossings (perhaps at the larger motorway crossings only).
If you cross into either at a border where insurance is not offered,
simply consider yourself "lucky" for not having to pay and "unlucky" for not
being covered. Simply ride on and take your chances.
Serbia is more strict. They will not allow your vehicle to enter the country
without paying for Serbian-only coverage, minimum 60 Euros for 30 days TP cover (as of 2010).
Hungary is part of the EU

Thanks

Thus with a UK bike and usual insurance giving 90 days cover to EU countries I can just turn up at Croatia / Bosnia border and then Bosnia / Serbia border and take pot luck at that point. If I don't get in it is not too bad to re route and go back to Croatia (trip is from Dubrovnick to Budapest)

Paul.

Paul:

Croatia is well on the way to joining the EU in the summer of 2013, so, I think it is probable that you should be able to get insurance cover for Croatia without too much trouble - either at the border, or perhaps just before the border (i.e. on the Slovenian side, if you are entering through Slovenia).

Don't know anything about Serbia, sorry.

Michael

Serbia's expensive. Bosnia less so, and enforcement varies at different crossings. I paid a total of about 120 euros for the two a couple of years ago, so do your comparison shopping on that basis. Both are interesting countries for moto travel, but there are limits to how many places you can go on a single journey.

Also worth thinking about in that area: Macedonia, Albania.

enjoy,

Mark

That's true..."in general" you could re-route back from Bosnia-Serbia border crossing, to head north thru Bosnia across Croatia into Hungary/ Budapest.

From Dubrovnik, I assume you will want to ride via Mostar & Sarajevo.
In that case, if you still want to "try" Serbia border crossing, I suggest you use Bosnia Rte #M19 north from Sarajevo in direction of Serbia border at Mali Zvornik, rather than Bosnia Rte E762 east from Sarajevo in direction of Serbia border at Dobrun.

If you're then denied/ turned away at Serbia/ Mali Zvornik, it's relatively easy to get back on main Bosnia Rte #18 north toward Croatia border. Although the Rte E762 Serbia border is a "major" crossing, in 2010 that crossing did not even sell the required Serbia insurance, and I had to re-route South to get into Serbia at what was then the only crossing selling the required insurance. Further, at any Serbia border other than major motorway, you may have to wait/ delay for a local insurance agent to be called to come sell you Serbia insurance, before Serbia will allow you to enter. Not a problem if you're just ambling along, but a hassle if you're on any kind of "schedule".

Of course, that was 2010, and conditions change all the time.

Michael,

Thanks for all your great information above. I decided again for this trip to go with Mototouring (didn't see Doug's offer in time ) and will pick up additional insurance at specific borders as needed along the way. The main reason for doing it this way is that I am not totally convinced that familiarity with the Green Card as an insurance document is universal (by road police especially) ... even if in fact the coverage is valid.

You mentioned that most countries issue a similar-looking green form, even for country-specific coverage. Hopefully that practice will continue to become more widespread. In 2010, the supplemental insurance I bought at the border going into Turkey was issued on something quite different. If the Green Card becomes universally issued, then it will make matters much simpler... just buy the coverage you need for the countries you need.

We can dream at least.

__________________
Samuel Longiaru
Kamloops, BC Canada
1975 BMW R60/6
http://thetwilightproject.net

I had already put Mali Zvornik in as crossing point heading towards Novi Sad after Mostar / Sarajevo so will go with your route advice.

Have almost booked a ferry from Bari to Dubrovnik - no reefs on that route.

This is a great site by the way !

Paul.

Headed off recently with 2 UK reg bikes to cross Bosnia and Serbia - did not bother with green card and no real issues. Leaving Croatia to Bosnia was asked for a green card but guy on border happy to issue insurance for 40 euros / bike. Going from Bosnia to Serbia nobody asked for anything so no problems.

Trip was June 2012 and all pretty good except for heatwave of 35-40 degrees all the time. Bosnia was a great country to bike in !

Paul.

Hi there.

We are three Bikres planning to start our trip on the beginning of June 2013. From Muscat - UAE - Iran - Turkey - Greece - Italy - France and finaly to UK. (Up and down).

We need some advices of the foolowing:
1 - What type of papres required to cross boarders.
2 - Route prefared.
3 - Is is a good time and weather during this time (June).
4 - Interesting area and places to visit.

and anu other advices.

Regards
Hamood
Muscat - Oman

Hello Hamood,

1. UAE: you probably know more about that than I do. Insurance at the border.
Iran: better check with the embassy. You probably need a Carnet de Passages from your auto club. Try to get insurance on arrival, but I doubt you will be successful in Bandar Abbas.
Turkey: insurance at the border, unless you arrange Green Card in advance, which will cover you for EU. Use your CdP, if you have one, otherwise pay a fee. I don't know whether you need a visa.
EU: you must have GC, probably available at the border with TR. Check visa requirements. No border crossings until UK, for which you will need a separate visa.
Original bike registration. If it's in Arabic script only you need an official translation. Your auto club should be able to help you.

2. Ferry Sharjah - Bandar Abbas, but check that it's running.
Cross Iran-TR at Orumyieh/Sero. This crossing is easy and quick. In Italy motorways are very expensive for bikes. I would stick to the small roads in the centre, if you have time. France: the SE corner, but stay away from the coast.

3. Starting in June is probably ideal. But: how long have you got? To really enjoy this trip you will need at least 10 weeks.

4. Depends very much on what you are interested in and how much time you have. You will need to do a little thinking and research, then post questions in the trip planning forum. This will be an awesome trip if you have 3 months, it will be hard to do in 2 months and trying to do this in one month will be a record-breaking attempt that may well fail.

__________________
Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

Hi Hamood:

You have asked a number of questions that address different topics. Only for the sake of housekeeping here in the forum (by that I mean trying to keep discussion threads confined to a single topic within each thread), I think it would be best if we only deal with the "insurance" portion of your questions here in this discussion.

Concerning your question 1, "What type of papers are required to cross borders", there is an entire sub-forum here on HUBB dedicated to that topic, it is the Trip Paperwork forum. If you take a careful look through the various questions that have been posed in that forum over the past 2 or 3 years, I think you will probably find the answer to that question. If you don't, I suggest you create a new discussion thread (new topic) with a more specific question, for example, "What kind of papers are required to get from UAE to the Eastern border of Iran" or similar.

Concerning your question 2, "What route to take from the UAE to Europe", there is a forum dedicated to exactly those type of questions, it is the Route Planning forum - perhaps post that question as a new topic in that forum. That might also be a place to gather info about your question 3, weather, and question 4, interesting things to see.

With respect to insurance coverage that you will need for the trip, I don't have a lot to add to what Beddhist wrote above, but I can confirm the accuracy of the advice he has given you:

1) For Turkey, you just buy it at the border. Read through earlier posts in this discussion and you will find more detail about how to do that.

2) For the EC countries, buy it in advance from either Arisa (see post #48 in this discussion) or MotoTouring (see post #98 in this thread). You can deal with either of these two companies by email or postal mail, and do the transaction ahead of time, so you will have the documents before you leave the UAE.

3) For the UAE to the Turkish border, God only knows. This discussion (all 184 posts so far) deals with insurance for EUROPE (check the title of the discussion). I suggest you create a new discussion in this forum with the question "How to I get insurance for a trip from the UAE to Turkey?" But, before you do that, perhaps check with an insurance company in Muscat, they might have the answer you seek.

Finally - you indicate that you plan to begin your trip in June 2013 - isn't it awfully fuggin' hot in the Middle East during June and July? Do you think that it is wise to attempt to traverse the (very thinly populated) Arabian peninsula from south to north on motorcycles when the average daily temperature constantly exceeds 40°C? I mean, Jaysus, not even the Bedoun would try to do such a trip on camels at that time of year.

Michael

To add another 2c: if you do get your GC in advance it may include Turkey. It's worth asking about it before handing over $$.

__________________
Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

I have below the contacts from previous posts from this thread for ARISA contacts:

E-Mail: w.plunien@arisa.lu
He did however ask to contact the following email rather for correspondence.
kraftfahrt@arisa.lu
Or
Jessica Ries

Tel : 00352 262940-56
Fax : 00352 262940-40
E-Mail : j.ries@arisa.lu


Does any one have any more recent up to date contacts at ARISA?