Greetings,

Moving home, I need to transport personal effects plus 2 dogs from CH to UK in July.

Plan A: Fly Zurich to Gatwick, rent a LWB Transit van, plus diesel plus tunnel plus return flight (necessary) would cost around £1,000 and 5 days of my life.

Plan B: Rent a self-drive van in CH for a return trip to UK, which would save the return air fare and 1 day. Is this feasible?

Any other suggestions?



Grateful for any help and advice.

where do you want to be at the end of it all? Here, or back in the U.K?

sorry, how does plan A work?

I guess he cannot fly one way?

I would try europcar. they got some pretty big vans and (im not sure tho) maybe you can leave the van in an eurorent office in England?

I just saw the ad to this site pop up, while I was checking out EF today.
http://www.franceremovals.com/

Perhaps they may help.

Good luck!

I think with option A he is flying to London then renting a van in the UK and going back to Switzerland to get his stuff then driving back to the UK.

I'm not sure why he HAS to have a return flight though. Easyjet let you get single flights. It's very unlikely you will be allowed to do a one way rental outside of mainland Europe.

I think the one-way rental can cost a lot, as I recall when I rented one-way Zurich-Lugano 21 years ago, the one-way was an extra CHF 300.

Tom

Much obliged to you all. Sorry, got sidetracked by visitors etc in the last week or so.

Porsch1909 has it right, I'm driving both to and from and also flying to and from (I have to fly back to CH because wife and car will still be there and we will drive own car back to UK via Germany).

The question is really whether there is a van-hire firm in Switzerland who will let me take a LWB van to England over 4 days at a total cost (excluding fuel) of around CHF1,300 or less.

Any suggestions welcome - I promise to pay attention this time!

How much would it cost to have your things shipped?

Is selling them an option?

Can your wife not drive the car while you drive the van?

Sell the car and both go back in the van.

Where in the UK have you got to get to, how much would it cost to pay someone you know from the UK to rent a van, drive it over and back for you?

If you do it yourself, the easiest option would be to rent a van in CH and not do the flying, maybe renting a van from Germany might be cheaper?

im in the opposite situation. going from England to Switzerland and need van to move my staff from England. now searching over internet for renting self drive car. prices around £1500.

Self-drive sounds dangerous, but it would save a lot of time. I believe that they are still working on the technology...

Try local van hire companies they might be cheaper, when my GF moved to Basel we got a weekend van hire (Friday to Monday).

Came to £800 all in. Might be a little bit more now, as this was 2 years ago.

LWB Van rental (including mileage and Euro paperwork/insurance) £286
Fuel £320
Tolls £75 (don't need to use toll roads but we didn't know the way then)
Channel Tunnel £120

Make sure you tell them you are going to Switzerland so they provide the vehicle documents and european insurance and breakdown cover and reflective jackets etc.

or rent van drive it to UK. agree with someone doing the opposite move and have them drive it back.

How do you think you will manage to drop off a van driving on the right side of the street, in a country driving on the left???? somehow, I don't think option B is feasible.

Ship it. Unless you have a huge household, just pack it in boxes and ship it.

Here we have the ideal solution.....Leyla76 rents a van in England, comes over with HER stuff, and then the OP drives it back with HIS stuff in it. (Or is that too sensible.....?)

I believe the rental companies need to physically see the licences of all drivers - so they would somehow have to get together at time of renting.

New scenario....Ebertswil flies back to England and hooks up with Leyla. They BOTH go to van rental place and show BOTH their licences. They then share the driving and Leyla pays for the costs going to CH.
Ebertswil then fills van with his things and drives back, paying all the costs in that direction.
This should work out slightly cheaper than both of them paying both costs in each direction. (I think.....)

But I don't think the fox and the hen can be in the van at same time...

.... what would Mrs. Fox think? ..... especially if the hen turned out to be a fluffy young chick.

Thanks for yr thought-provoking ideas. Leyla76 plse send a photo

OK I just put the phone down and think I've cracked it - self drive LWB Ford Transit from Sixt in Zug. Will cost £110 more than renting in England, but saves 1 day and 1 return air fare.

Shipping is not feasible/ way too expensive (dogs), and wife is not available as co-driver (work).

Dates NYF but I should be driving an empty 10 cu m van Sussex-Zug via tunnel and Basel one day late July.