moving to England

annasean · Post by **annasean** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 6:28 pm

We are moving to Brighton in England at the end of February/early March. The quotes we have reveived from the removal companies were surprisingly expensive. We wondered if anyone here has made such a move. We have a one-bedroom apartment in Helsinki, a bit of furniture and quite a lot of boxes. Does anyone know of the cheapest method of transfering it to England?

Can anyone recommend what is likely to be the cheapest removal company? Or has anyone made the move themselves? Is it possible to save money by hiring a van and then driving it to England? If so by which route?

Or does anybody know somebody already living in England who would be prepared to give us some advice?

many thanks in advance

yours

Anna and Sean

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sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:16 pm

SaxonMan made the move not so long ago ... take a look at this thread ...

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20484

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:23 pm

With respect, unless your one bedroom flat is filled with gold bars, I would just dump it and buy new furniture in the UK. You can always move anything particularly sentimental or valuable in a box through DHL.

bevanrl · Post by **bevanrl** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:27 pm

driving it yourself will be much cheaper - but you should check how much it costs to buy stuff new in uk. ikea.co.uk have their catalog online (although it's not as cheap as in finland) but the GBP-EUR exchange rate makes things in UK cheaper if you have euros to spend.
I would take the hanko-germany route and then drive from there.
my parents did the reverse once. harwich-esbjerg, then drive through denmark/sweden, then stockholm-helsinki. two nights on boats and one full day driving across sweden.
good luck with english houses, it's like traveling back to victorian times

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 6:18 pm

And I'd get the van in the UK, (as theres always some idiot wanting to move here), because then you need to think wanting to return the van... yup... exactly.

Post by **neil** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 6:55 pm

Hank W. wrote:And I'd get the van in the UK, (as theres always some idiot wanting to move here), because then you need to think wanting to return the van... yup... exactly.

Buy an old right hand drive Finnish Posti Van. You can pick 'em up really cheap and most have only been around the clock 4 times. And you can sell it for around the same price as you paid for it when you've finished with it.

ad · Post by ad » Wed Jan 16, 2008 5:04 pm

I moved to Finland from London in september. The costs(approx € from memory) were:
Channel ferry - 150 - cos one way trip
Night's accomodation in Eindhoven - 75 - Friday night stay at conference centre hotel, so included food (dinner and breakfast) and "welcome drink"
Ferry from Travemunde to Helsinki - 450 - finnlines worked out cheaper than superfast because on superfast if you go over 7m length you have to pay for 12, on finnlines the limit is 8m. My car and trailer was 7.5m. I also got a cabin for myself on finnlines whereas I would have got a chair on superfast.
+petrol depending on what you drive.
I checked out all the ways (e.g. via sweden and denmark etc) did the maths and it's the cheapest, quickest and least amount of driving (about 1000km total) way to do it.

And if you want to buy a cheap box trailer, pm me.

DMC · Post by **DMC** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 6:35 pm

I checked out all the ways (e.g. via sweden and denmark etc) did the maths and it's the cheapest, quickest and least amount of driving (about 1000km total) way to do it.

I always go via Sweden. The newer ships on the Travemunde to Helsinki route are faster than the old ones, so they take about the same time as driving through Sweden & Denmark, but cost significantly more. The older ships also cost more, and take longer as well. The older ships can be quite pleasant though.

I think the route with the least amount of driving is Helsinki-Traavemunde, drive to Hamburg, then a ferry from there to UK (e.g. Harwich). I only did that route once because it is quite slow, but it is only about 100 km driving between leaving Finland and arriving in the UK.

SaxonManFinland · Post by **SaxonManFinland** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:15 pm

Cheapest way for me.

Hired a Luton Van with tail lift in UK

Ferry to holland, drove 8 hours to Germany (all motorway in the evening and night)
Ferry to Helsinki (did NOT take a cabin, bloody expensive)
Collected stuff
Return trip same way.

Total cost around 1000 Pounds.

No way could we sell and then replace the private personal stuff.

If you are over 25, then its a simple thing to do, and with some planning you can make some money by bringing stuff to Finland. Sadly, my plans were so rushed I couldn't get that organised. Just bringing the dinning table and chairs plus piano made it a break even trip, so everything else was free.

PM me if you need help or advice.

ad · Post by ad » Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:21 pm

[quote="DMC] The newer ships on the Travemunde to Helsinki route are faster than the old ones, so they take about the same time as driving through Sweden & Denmark, but cost significantly more. [/quote]

That's the one I went on. With the time(27 hours) it depends how many km you want to do in a day, and how fast you drive. I was by myself and didn't want to do too many kms, and couldn't go flat out because of the trailer. Also I was tossing up cost of accomodation/meals along the way and petrol (my car has a 5.8l engine!) vs ferry price which includes meals, cabin and car/trailer. The only problem with the ferry was boredom. The most exciting thing that happened was we overtook a cruise ship. That took three hours.

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