Is it possible?

Our starting plan is to drive a van with 4 or 5 people and lots of provisions (including video cameras, musical instruments, 1 or 2 computers, food, cloths, camping tents, etc...) trough Spain, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Nepal. And come back trough a similar route (tough stoping at different places).

I think such trip is possible, but many things remain unclear and I don't even know where to start...

I know we need passports, but what about other documentation, vaccines, visas, etc...? Is our drivers license even valid in China or Kazakhstan? And about car insurance? Do we need to take different insurances for different countries? Is it safe to make such trip with video cameras, computers, etc...? Where can i find more info to help me plan such trip?

Any pointers would be much appreciated.
Thanks

In 1970 it was possible. Don't think so now.

Why?

What are the limitations now?

For vaccines (yes, you would need them), you have to go to your doctor and get a referral to a medical travel outfit (and, if you're American, pay a LOT).

For visa info, you'd have to contact the consulate of each country. If you're American you have 90 days to spend in the Schengen Zone before you have to leave for at least 90 days.

For car insurance, again you'd need to check with each country's consulate. If you're renting a car, you're going to have some huge hassles with crossing certain borders without setting up new rentals.

No one can say whether it will be safe or not - depends on where you are when. But camping all over the world with all your worldly possessions, including some expensive ones, certainly would require a great deal of vigilance. I'd definitely be planning to buy heaps of travel insurance for a trip like this, if such a trip is even possible.

plan you route. then get in contact with each counties embassy to find out what you need.

I wish I could applaud and say it's easy but no - unless you use the Trans-Siberian. Check that and its requirements.

Yes it is possible. Difficult, but possible. For China you need a Chinese driving licence and to temporarily register you vehicle with a Chinese plate. You need lots of visas, lots of patience, loots of spare parts and the ability to cope with breakdowns, flat tyres (the roads aren't that great) and the like.
You will need to extend your normal European vehicle insurance to cover you.
There are companies, mainly in Germany though they operate internationally who can assist you in getting the necessary visa and documentation, and advise you on dealing with border crossings and so on.

There are people who do this trip in motorhomes, usually as a small group to provide extra assistance and support.
It isn't a cheap trip, and certainly isn't an easy one. You need enough money to support yourselves for a good six to eight months too.

This website has a bit about the documentations etc for driving in China http://www.china-driving.com/en/itineraries/driving/

First of all, super-long overland travel through Eurasia is not as uncommon as it sounds.
A colleague of mine spent her sabbatical year driving all across Asia (from Europe) and parts of Africa (again, driving from Europe).

There are things you can prepare for, and many you can't plan.

Insurances
That's a no brainer, and pretty easy to find out which plans cover territories you want to go.
Mandatory 3rd party car insurance is usually covered thru the Green Card - when you insure the car in Portugal. Again, check all territories. Some may require you to get a national car insurance at the border crossing.

Vehicle
Check if the routes you plan to travel East of Ukraine can be handled by a "van". And if those routes are accessible during the times of the year you plan to use them. Even important national highways can turn into mud pools in many places. Fuel is also an issue, diesel may be less readily available than regular in many parts of the world.
Availability of spare parts is also an issue. East of Ukraine it will be easier to get spare parts for an older, robust, less hightech VW or Mitsubishi than the latest model of Renault.

Immigration / Customs
Obviously check each country's embassy website. For Russia, you an "invitation". Maybe there are transit visa available. Also check for duties for electronic goods. Some territories may require you to go through a rather bureaucratic act of declaring even personal goods (when entering and exiting).
When you take video cameras, also inform yourself if you must not film certain objects (some countries even regard a regular train station as a 'military object').

Safety
Depends on the route. Check the web for forums dedicated to overland travel between Europe and Asia. Expect to take a longer route than planned - and stay informed on current political developments which make you want to take an alternative route.
When traveling through Russia, you may have several encounters with the police or milizia. The way you wish to discuss (or rather not discuss) some traffic violation you have not committed with a cop East of Moscow may be different than how you handle a cop in the US or Western Europe.

You can certainly do it.

Good advice from hetsmilj2 writing above.

Look at the Expedition Portal website for accounts of people who have done it and are doing it even as we write.

Seconding Cowboy. Your choice of vehicle is critical since spares are not available for certain makes, and this varies depending on the country. Ergo, you ought to carry spares for the vehicle you drive and ought to have some idea how to replace things like brake lines and fuel pumps. Can you clean injectors? My sense is that the further east you go, the happier you will be with a Mitsubishi Fuso diesel or a Toyota Land Cruiser, which is a far cry from the luxury cocoons such vehicles have become in the west.

If you bring the kinds of a Western World goodies you list above, someone in your party will need to stay with the vehicle EVERY SINGLE MINUTE or computers, guitars, etc will disappear as, in some places, will anything stowed on the roof. The wheels should have locks.

My impression is that rough camping -- pulling into a scenic grove for the night -- is a lot less doable than you would expect and that many nights will be spent in the back of truck stops, though they might be caravanserais.


At the same time, some of the main routes you will be driving have all the charm of a motorway in North Dakota. Everybody who can is building superhighways as fast as they can.

Go for it.

I wish I had done it in the 1970's when Americans could still pass through Persia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in safety, though you have huge advantages by being able to plot out your routes on Google satellite view and Bing and Michelin maps online.

Your plan is very possible (not sure about the final leg to Tibet though) because hundreds of people drive from London to Ulaanbaatar every Summer, i.e., The Mongol Rally. I recall a thread on Lonely Planet Thorntree of a group from The Netherlands driving to Aralsk and their Land Rover breaking down -- we stayed at the same guest house, albeit at different times.

Your DL will be valid in Kazakhstan but be sure to get an International Drivers License.

The best place to get information on an epic road trip like this is from folks that actually do this. There are dedicated forums to trips like this, and even though most of them are rallys, the information pertinent to you is the same.

The Adventurists publish a guide for those wanting to do The Mongol Rally and it is a good place to being your research. Also use Google to search for Mongol Rally team blogs to see what lessons can be learned from past trips across Europe and Asia.

Good luck, it sounds like an amazing adventure.

Regarding car insurance, you can buy a worldwide policy. Google should turn up several companies that do this.

The most problematic leg may be China. At least it sounds more doable than in the past, but the site hetismij2 linked says you still have to have a tour guide with you, so it will be expensive, and you have to stick to a pre-arranged itinerary. Having that itinerary include Tibet will be difficult at best, impossible at certain times of the year, and may become impossible with no warning. Notice that the Mongol Rally doesn't go to China.

Besides looking on the net for sites dedicated to this kind of trip, you might post on the Asia board here for the Asian leg.

The bit from Spain to the Russia/Chinese border is just about organisation and, once you leave Poland (surely you go through Belarus, not Ukraine?), understanding how to deal with rules (mostly: expect them where you wouldn't at home and obey them). Thousands of people do it all the time.

The Chinese, though, simply have no interest in allowing foreigners to import their own cars and drive them round China. They - quite separately - have little interest in encouraging tourists into Tibet, except under meticulous scrutiny, and Nepal's not that iterested in foreign vehicles either.

On the absolutely trickiest bit: from non-Tibet China into Nepal: http://www.thelongestwayhome.com/res...Tibet.html#The Nepal Tibet Route

Further to my point above about Tibet, I went to the Dragoman site (long time provider of overland trips) to see what routes they were currently using, and found this on the Kathmandu to Xi'an trip:

"IMPORTANT NOTE - Please note that our July 2016 departure (and likely future departures in 2016) has been re-routed between Xi'an and Xi'an due to the temporary closure of the border between Tibet and Nepal. Please contact the Dragoman Sales Team for more information and details of our alternative itinerary before booking any departures in 2016 - the notes below still describe our regular itinerary."

And that's just about the border.

Intrepid is still running a couple of trips that include Kathmandu as well as Tibet, but they fly the Lhasa-Kathmandu leg.

Many thanks for all the tips.

I will investigate more about this trip. I'm planning to make this happen in 2018, so hopefully i'll have time to sort all this out.

I'll post news soon.
Thanks again

I'm also pondering a route trough Iran, Pakistan, India and then Nepal. Though I'm a bit uneasy about crossing pakistan driving my own car... It all depends of the stability of the region by the time the trip comes to fruition. Lets hope for better times to come.


Thanks again for all the info, i'm writing it all down and in the end I'll sort the pros and cons out and decide the best option for me.

Well, I hate to be a downer, but there are problems with that route, too.

Iran, maybe it will change by the time you want to go, but right now US citizens have to have a tour guide. And that's assuming you can get the visa in the first place.

Pakistan, the Karakorum Highway is stunning, but I would be very leary of parts of Pakistan right now. Again, it may improve. Or it may get worse. Pakistan has been dancing with the devil when it comes to the Taliban, and they're paying for it.

India, you do not, repeat not, want to drive yourself in India. The roads are crazy enough with a local driver.

Have you considered taking the train instead? (In 2004 I did Scotland to Saigon by train. More difficult today as some of the routes have gone, but should still be doable.)

Things worth doing are never easy

Yeah I pondered a train but the ideal of driving the car yourself is far more appealing.

Regarding driving in India, I would think that an attentive pilot would manage to get trough. But yeah... I know it will be difficult. But since there is no option to secure the care elsewhere, we are kinda stuck with it if we want to proceed to india.

Well... it will take some time until all requirements are met and all the research done. A lot of thing can still happen.

When the time comes, hopefully better options will arise.

<i>Iran, maybe it will change by the time you want to go, but right now US citizens have to have a tour guide. And that's assuming you can get the visa in the first place.</i>

This should not be a game stopper. Would you be willing to pay an extra $100-200/day for 2-5 days for an amazing once in a lifetime experience?

As already noted by Bedar, this would have been better during the 70s, but even then, a friend who was an Iranian, only made it as far as Turkey (from southern Spain) before the old VW microbus ended up as a chicken coope in a farmers field.

The limitations, and dangers, are many, just follow the news concerning your proposed route, including the Ukraine. Finding insurance coverage in an active 'war zone' might be difficult at best.