Ferry and road crossings

Welcome on Expat.com kelldenn

I hope that other members will contribute to your queries soon. Best of luck with your move.

Regards

Hi

there are several issues you bring up which have been answered before,so worth doing a search

importing an animal
importing a car
ferries
customs

thanks for that,it just get realy confusing all the diffrent places i have to drive through,i am sure i will be fine.

Hiya,

We did this just over a week ago.

Due to limited ferry routes available, probably due to the time of year, and the fact we were coming from Spain.... the route we took was.
Barcelona to Genoa
drive to Livorno
Livorno to Malta (with a short stop in Palermo).

We did the trip with 2 vans, a car, a trailer, 3 dogs and 2 cats.

My main concern was the animals, but apart from one dog barking all the way from Alicante to Malta, no problems.  The ferry company we used was Grand Navi, they have 'pet cabins' available on board 'some' of their ferries, but kennel facilities available on all.  The pet cabins are very small, and you would struggle to fit 4 dogs in, unless they are VERY small dogs.  The kennels are VERY basic, and not particularly nice but functional.  Be sure to take them some bedding, and some spare bedding.  On the Livorno to Malta ferry the kennels are outside and although covered on three sides, the front is very exposed to the elements.  We put a spare blanket inside a very large bin bag and trapped it in the door covering 3/4 of the door.  This allowed air in but pretty much kept the elements out.  And believe me, its damned windy up there.

When we got to Malta, I was in the car with all 5 animals, all of our passports at the ready.....   I didn't even get stopped.  I suspect it may have been the very large (still barking) dog in the back that put them off but after all my preparation I was almost disappointed...grin.

We carried plenty of water in the car and pre-measured into plastic bags, dry dog food.  If you are anything like us, we were loaded up to the hilt so only carrying as much food as you will need for the trip, plus one day extra made good sense.

Be sure when you book your ferries, if you have to do a change, that you give yourself enough time to get off of one and make it to the other, within the check it time. 

Hope that helps.

J

hi ,thanks for all that ,i feel loads better.hope you enjoy your stay in malta .

If you can manage it and drive via Sicily the crossing from Pozallo is only 1.5 hours. I'ved done this one twice and Virtu ferries ships are quite pleasant.

I wouldnt recommend the Grimaldi lines as their ships are horrible and the journey crossings are long with terrible food, if you can handle the isolation with only Italian TV in the main lobby for 48 hours which doesnt work.....