Anyone done this!?

A small group (8-10) are planning an alps trip next year, mostly road bikes but a few will be keen to take road and MTB.

One option is to hire a van and load it up with bikes allowing the majority of the group to fly without a bike.

Is it worth the hassle? Do rental companies let you take a van abroad!?
One hurdle of I’ve already thought of is booking the Chunnel crossing for a vehicle you don’t know the details of.

Cheers,

Is it worth the hassle?

Yes.

Do rental companies let you take a van abroad!?

Not always, some charge extra.

One hurdle of I’ve already thought of is booking the Chunnel crossing for a vehicle you don’t know the details of.

Some companies will tell you the registration if they know it. Other times i’ve just paid an extra 10 pounds to change the details. (Ferries usually)

I’ve done this a few times when going to europe to race.

I think I’ve booked a crossing without the reg before just confirm before leaving. The cost is probably the bigger issue for the hire, also most won’t do a full hire in UK/Mainland. There was a bike courier service people were using that basically took bike bags/boxes down.

Biggest issue for the hire company is if you breakdown, as not only will they need European cover there is also the amount of time to recover the van.

Worth ringing around, and don’t just try a wing it – it could cost you bigtime.

thekingisdead – Member 
One option is to hire a van and load it up with bikes allowing the majority of the group to fly without a bike.

Hope that lazy bunch are paying for the van and compensating the driver well for doing it 😉

Door to door the van may not take much longer (well, not from the South East. I appreciate many don’t live in the SE 😀 , but then I wouldn’t even consider a van drive to the alps if it was going to take 15 – 20 hours!).

Though can’t cram 8 to 10 people in there along with bikes 😀 (or maybe you can. Migrants seem to do it 😉 )

Two or three people sharing the van drive would be economical and same or less price each than flying. Though check the seating in the front before hiring. Some vans take three in the front but can be a tight squeeze for 10+ hours! (speaking from experience on last trip I did).

b r – Member 
Biggest issue for the hire company is if you breakdown, as not only will they need European cover there is also the amount of time to recover the van.

Eurotunnel do a good price on EU breakdown cover when you buy the ticket and I think it includes recovery back to UK if necessary. Had no issue with the hire company and not sure there was even any extra charge for wanting to drive it in Europe.

I’ve hired a van and taken it over to europe before. Long time ago though, you just pay an extra charge for driving in europe.

I think with the tunnel you just state it’s a hire car and you don;t know the reg, then when you get to the gate you just enter your details manually rather than the barrier reading your reg. There must be thousands of people taking hire cars/vans/campers through the tunnel each year.

never done it but researched it a bit. Local hire company were much more flexible than national chains.

You’ll almost certainly pay extra for additional drivers too, hired a lwb transit from enterprise this summer was still very cheap even with two drivers

Friends have done this the last few years for a Basque trip (ferry to Bilbao).

Assuming you go that way, don’t forget to register the van to your DART account before you travel or pay within whatever the number of hours are that you have.

Yep, I’ve done it many years ago. We hired from a local company and made sure they were ok with taking it abroad and that it was in the T’s+C’s. Cant remember how we got around the booking with no reg plate though……

It was back in our younger more stupid days, trying to do it on a shoestring, there were, ahem, more of us in the van than there were seated belts put it that way (yes, stupid I know)….. we had it all planned to a tee, booked 2 guys onto the ferry as passengers in the van, the rest of us dived out of the side door in Dover on the road to the ferry and walked on as foot passengers, just in case we got pulled over going through. Reversed it at Calais and hightailed it to the alps.

All seemed to be going so well till we got pulled over, by an armed and uniformed officer as we were going through a toll road booth / gate thing soon after leaving the alps on the return journey. I was driving, I sh@t a brick I tell you. He asked to look in the back of the van. We opened to door and he eyed up our suspiciously ‘stereotypical illegal immigrant’ look a like friends in the back of the van sat on a mattress behind all our bags and bikes. After checking all our passports, he turned to me and said “it is lucky we are not the police”, before waving us away…… relieved is not the word. Made it home without issues, including going through the jumping out, foot passengering it, jumping back in rigmarole on the way back. Nowadays, I’d fly……

Do you need additional insurance ? 10+ bikes would be a pretty penny to replace if the van was nicked / burst into flames / etc.

Booking tunnel without knowing the reg is no problem. You just drive up and enter details.

You’ll probably have to go in the big vehicle carriages. You’ll probably have a check in the back of the van when you come back also.

And get a toll tag if doing the toll roads.