Travelling to Malta in a camper van??

"And once we are in Malta and have found a place to live could we declare the campervan off the road or would we have to keep paying for it?" - only Malta registered vehicles can be declared off the road in Malta - if its in Malta it needs to be registered even if its sitting in a garage on bricks

Ok thanks for your comment
So how would you register a new vehicle? Unfortuantly we wont of owned it for long so I think that will come against us?

Or we could sell it once we have found a place to live do you think that would be possible?

No,you can't sell the van before first paying the registration tax. Even to scrap it in Malta you have to pay the tax.

Check out the registration tax for the vehicle that you intend to bring over. You might be in for a bad surprise.

Insurance and road tax will be 'minor' expenses.

Cheers
Ricky

A few things to think about if you are going to drive to Malta.
Fuel costs - its along way and a camper van will not be very economical.
Make sure that you have safety equipment when in France, ie yellow jackets for all passengers, triangle, spare bulbs plus from this year 2 x disposable breatherlisers.
Over night stops - campsites in France are a plenty but not sure about Italy and in Malta you will probably have to use car parks!

Ferry crossing - Dover to calais is OK but not sure about Italy/ Scicily to Malta as some ferry companies stop in the winter.
Dog - You will need an import licence and have to meet a vet when you land in Malta to get the dog checked.
Remember that you are planning to travel in the winter and on some roads (over the alps etc) you will require snow chains or snow tyres before you will be allowed to use them.
You will have register the van over here and I am not sure what sort of market there is for camper vans in Malta when you come to sell it.
These are just a few things there will be others that I have forgoten about.
Have you really costed this out?
Winter flights would be a lot cheaper even with the dog.

We drove from France with our dog when we moved to Malta and it took a lot of planning.

Terry

Thanks for the advice. Looking into all options to sort out budgets for next year.
Also looking at flying the 3 of us over there with our belongings getting settled and getting a place to live then sending for our dog via pet courier.
Any advise on this or anything else would be great just trying to think of the best option

Dover to Calais - about £30.00 one way
Tolls in France about £80.00
Tolls in Italy depends if you drive all the way £70 - 130
Ferry from Genoa to Palermo about £180
Ferry from Pozallo to Malta about £170

These are all approximate as i havent checked on it for about 2 months.

I would suggest that if your car is owned over 2 years that maybe you look at bringing a Horse box over with all your stuff in it (By horsebox I mean the one that you tow), that way you can sell the horsebox in Malta and you have a car that you do not need to pay importation duty on .... just a thought

Julian

Well we are now having to get a new car because someone smashed into ours so it will be newly owned to us
I have heard the registration fees are very high for a newly owned car plus theres fuel costs stopovers insurance etc etc.
Thinking might be better to fly. We only have our clothes and personal belongings look likes its going to be better to pay for extra baggage then to drive the whole way there and be stuck with an uninsured car or campervan.
I just thought it would be easier with us having the dog but looking into getting her flown over a few weeks later.

Could I ask how did you guys get yourselves and personal belongings there? x

I drove... and bought a new car in the January but check the valuation site and made sure its a diesel as Diesel is cheaper in Malta.

My Wife Flew

Well we already have a new car its an old 1.1 fiesta.
Going to weigh up all the fees between us flying and paying extra for our things and getting the dog pet corrierd over....or us keeping our car and driving us all to malta from the UK and just keep the car insurred when we get there.
Just cant wait till the day when are plans are done and were all packed up and on our way planning to come in january when its quieter and the weathers cooler

Hi Helz,

we came from the US and Germany with cat and furniture for around 10.000 $.

But I would not recommend bringing furniture unless you really love it and need it .

What you bring will have to go back if things don't work out.

Cheers
Ricky

Hi helz,

it's not the insurance. It's the registration tax that causes problems ..... but with the car you just bought it is probably worthwhile to bring it, pay the tax, register it and drive it here in Malta.

Cheers
Ricky

Ok thanks guys will defianlty look into driving over. Did anyone travel from the UK via the Eurostar? There is an option of driving from london-paris on the eurostar, then paris to milan on high speed train, sleep hotel in milan then take eurostar from milan to rome, then rome to sicily on overnight train, then then drive to pozallo and get a ferry to malta.

I know thats a lot to read but has anyone done this journey before?

one way ticket and three suitcases - thats it.....

This link seat61.com/Motorail.htm#Italy )
will help with planning if going by car but there are no car trains running from UK to Paris. Eurotunnel runs from Folkestone to calais then you would need to drive to Germany or Belgium to catch a car train to Italy and drive down to the ferries.

Terry

Hey guys, I have been doing more research and found a quote of £590 incl crate to send the dog via airmalta as cargo. £284 total to fly the 3 of us one way in feb and £674 for 20 boxes 48x48x54 shipped to malta by dynamic-frieght-shipping.co.uk which we probably wouldnt even need all of them coz they are huge! Plus they give you free storage in the UK for 4weeks and if we sell our car in the UK that will cover all costs with money to spare! Result

come through via siciliy on the ferry simplest option.
The one through rome or genoa is terrible.

Eagle: Please explain - how did you get down to Sicily without taking the ferry from Genoa to Palermo. Did you drive, that's a very long way to drive - what was the problem with the ferry?

Yes I drove down to Sicily, its not that far from Port Civitavechia in Rome. Where Grimaldi Departs from.
I wouldnt take Grimaldi ships, terrible. Also its a 3 day Journey via the ship in a tiny cabin, no wifi, entertainment etc, bad food and service. Virtu ferry is better, smoother and shorter. Depends what you prefer

realistically you can do the journey from Genoa to Palermo overnight leaves at 11pm arrives in Palermo at 6pm the next day... then stay overnight in Sicily and take the Virtu Ferry in the Morning from Pozallo to Valletta... saves the stress of driving through Italy and the expense of tolls, Petrol and Ferry charge... but its upto the individual.

Julian

Scuba's route is the one we are planning to take - once one wakes up the following morning after leaving Genoa at 11pm, then it's only about 12 hours in daylight time to Palermo arriving at 6pm. A leisurely drive down to Pazollo and then the Virtu ferry to Valletta. What route did you take that took three days by ferry Eagle?

At the time I took it they offered the route, Genoa to Valetta Direct. But the ship stops in Palermo for 6 hours to refuel or pick up passengers or something. And they didnt allow us to get out.
The total was 3 days by ferry for this option. Its faster driving it and only taking the Virtu Ferry. This was my experience in any event. I did several attempts at this, depends on the queues etc all in all driving it and then with Virtu was quicker, could also be the seasonality effect of time of year.

Thanks for the info Eagle;)

i am also looking into this way of getting to malta. and i have come up with following research.

virtu ferries seems the best route it only takes 90 mins and children and dogs are free if 2 paying adults on board.

pets dont need import licence if the dog has a eu passport but there is the vet check.

italy to sicily best way is by ferry.
stopovers in france are easy stay in municipal campsites really clean and cheap but italy need to be a bit more careful, i found supermarkets car parks or industrial estates the safest and easiest.

hope this helps.

Is selling a horsebox in Malta a realistic option? Where would i start researching this?

thanks

scubaboy wrote:

I would suggest that if your car is owned over 2 years that maybe you look at bringing a Horse box over with all your stuff in it (By horsebox I mean the one that you tow), that way you can sell the horsebox in Malta and you have a car that you do not need to pay importation duty on .... just a thought

Julian