The motorhome & pet exporter
Lisa and Nick Hudson export their vehicle (and their cat) to Canada for a long tour of North America
It’s been a long-held dream to motorhome across Canada and the USA and, having looked at rentals, it made more sense to ship our own. Aside from the high cost of rental, we’d have our own vehicle and all our own stuff.
Even though there were some large initial outlays, the cost per week of the journey was incredibly favourable! Initially overwhelming at times, on reflection, most of our time was researching so we hope this article helps. The reality is that it’s quite straightforward!
Shipping the ’van was the most straightforward part of it. We used Seabridge seabridge-tours.de which has a shipping agent in the UK. Our contact was fabulous and patient with our questions.
In terms of insurance required, there’s the marine side, arranged with Seabridge, which covers from dock drop-off to collection. Seabridge also recommended an agent in the US for vehicle insurance in North America: Thum. It was also very easy to deal with, but you do need an International Driving Permit for this. We used
Avanti for personal health insurance and arranged cover for the entire length of our trip.
There’s a basic set of requirements ahead of taking your motorhome to the docks, primarily around it being very clean so as not to transport invasive species. This meant a good wash of the underside, but also walking boots, bike tyres, etc.
LPG tanks need to show empty (just called propane in North America), but the ‘myLPG’ app covers availability here. There’s no shortage of places either.
A big plus for shipping your own vehicle is that you can ship it with a lot of your own belongings: bedding, clothes, toiletries. No foodstuffs
whatsoever, including pet foods, can be shipped and, of course, no alcohol or prescribed medicines.
The vehicle must look empty, so everything should be stored in cupboards and secured (the shower classes as a cupboard).
Dropping it at Royal Portbury Dock for shipping to Halifax, Nova Scotia, was easy and we watched it via the tracker, being loaded. We then tracked the boat itself across the Atlantic. We felt remarkably calm as, through our experiences, we knew we were dealing with professionals.
The process in Canada was equally straightforward: the agents notify you of its arrival (if you haven’t already watched the ship sail past into the docks). It will also advise you of your slot at the Canadian Customs Office, where you are met beforehand and given paperwork to process officially.
You then head to the docks to collect your ’van. When we collected, there were at least 30 others, from selfconverted campervans to overlanders and everything in between.
Most of our preparation came, however, in the practical aspects, such as the 110V supply and hence our EU cables, if we ever hook up, being useless. Research told us there are generally two electrical supplies – 30A and 50A – so we made new cables in addition to a step-up converter.
The key is ensuring the step-up converter has enough capacity (5kW) for your needs and that the cable and connectors are heavy duty enough for the load versus the EU cables.
Connectors can be sourced online via Amazon US, which ships to the UK.
Mobile data is a different matter. Canada is behind when it comes to providers and data tariffs. None have a data SIM for travellers, pay-as-you go-style that can be used in a MiFi, so we had to purchase a phone SIM for an old iPhone we had, and tether to it. Provider, Rogers, seems to be the best option (I use the term lightly), considering coverage and cost. The deal was a six-month fixed-term deal at C$225, plus tax for 30GB per month. The other providers were similar prices for 8GB.
There is a lot of free WiFi in urban areas, though, if you fancy hanging around entrances to coffee shops and hotels! Within the parks, we found it to be patchy at best. If you have contacts in Canada, take advantage of their residency for a data SIM.
Also check out, if you have one, your tracker solution. Having been assured by our provider, Global Telemetrics, that we’d have tracking, we didn’t. Apparently, it doesn’t have a solution to the Canadian 2G/3G switch off, so we’ve resorted to an Apple AirTag.
We always travel with our cat. We are not sure what was more stressful, shipping her or our motorhome. However, again, trust the professionals.
We used Transfur Animals and our cat flew on the same flight as us.
Remarkably adaptable, she was over the experience pretty quickly.
We recommend companies such as these and also strongly recommend having the airport vet do the ‘fit to fly’ part of the process, not your own vet, as every country (and each US state) has different rules and paperwork needs. The reality was that it’s no different to the EU for us, ensuring the rabies vaccination is up to date. Flying into Halifax was great as there’s no quarantine requirement and it’s the shortest flight across the pond.