Insurance USA/ central / south america..
 

Hellow, i'm a Belgium guy and planning a trip with my motorcycle Honda Transalp 600, fabricationdate 1993 around central and south america. Starting beginning of November. I have the intention to ship my motorcycle to HoustonUSA.. And driving to Mexico and further to south America. I thought i could drive with my Belgium registrated licenseplate into the USA/ and all country"s of central and south america, Is this correct? A lot of people tell me that a foreigner can not take a locale insurance on the motorcycle in the USA? Anyone tips about this country"s? Also heard that the border with Panama to Colombia only can be passes by airplaine? Hoping on a answer... Best regards and safe driving.. . Tim..

Hi Transalp600,

we travelled around the world with two Transalps - including two years in North-, Central- and South America.
Border crossing with German number plates where no problem - as they are with Belgium ones, too!

For motorcycle insurance in the US and Canada as a foreigner I can recommend this one: http://www.motorcycleexpress.com/

For the full story in English check our page: Motorcycle Vagabonds

If you speak German, you might prefer our German homepage, which has loads of informations on border crossings, insurances and simular stuff, that are not included in the English page: Krad-Vagabunden.de

Cheers

Panny

Panama to Colombia
 

You can take a ship, but many are not great. I have taken the Stahlratte several times, including a trip from Colombia to Cuba to Mexico. On their trips from Panama to Colombia, you will make a delightful stop in the San Blas islands.
I highly recommend the Stahlratte at Stahlratte It will cost about the same as flying, which I have also done twice, but is much more enjoyable. The captain is a crazy, fun-loving German, who has his own bike on board.

Lulu
 

If you go on the Stahlratte, say hi to the captain, Lulu from me.

Chris

Hi Panny,

I'm currently busy with planning a trip to US and Canada in 2018. We would lik to start on February 2018, if everything goes well. I took a look at your website, :thumbup1:. Very useful information although my German is limited. I was looking for information on issurance (found it) and on the VISA or ESTA.
Can ask you, did you request a Visa or an ESTA (we are planning to stay more than 90 days in North-America).

Kr,

David

Hi David, we had only a 90-day-visa, because we where afraid to fail the requirements for a longer visa because of too low income / funds.
Ex post this was a mistake, because the 90 days counted for Alaska the way through Canada and through the lower 48. 90 days was too short.
Next time we will apply for a longer visa.

In contrary to other countries you can´t get a new 90 day visa by just leaving the country and re-entering, like you can do in S-E-Asia or South America. I think the rule is, that you have to go to a country, that has no land border with the US and return to get a new 90-days-visa. Thereby you can´t do border runs to Canada or Mexico to get a new one.

Does that help?

Cheers

Panny

Hi Panny,

thanks for the information and this confirms what I thought. So we will apply for a Visa, this will be the best solution since we want travel without the "time pressure" as much as possible and we will need all the time we can get.

Best regards,

David

You will need to get an EPA exemption letter to import your bike from
hurlin.david@epa.gov. If you send him ( David Hurlin) an Email he will let you know what is required. The application takes about 1 month.

We bought insurance online before arriving in the USA from Fernet insurance brokers. They covered USA and Canada with the one policy.

Overseas Visitors

Simon

B1/B2 visa will give you 5 or 10 years of being able to stay in N America for up to 180 days at a time instead of the etsa 90 days. Requires an online application folowed by a personal interview at a US embassy/consulate. Can take some weeks for the whole process