Moving to Finland with car and dog

[juliacsd]

Hello!

I'm going to study and work in Finland for 3 or 5 years (maybe more and I'm thinking about coming by car from Spain. In Google maps it appears to be 17 hours driving to some harbor in Germany and then about 30 hours by ferry to Helsinki. And my dog will come by plane some months later.

Now, my doubts about the car are which paperwork, payments and requirements (taxes, insurance, maintenance, modifications for winter) do I have to do to be able to bring my car and more or less how much would each of them cost?
It's a year 2001 BMW Compact 320D with 180.000 Km (I put this info because may be anyone who is capable of guessing how this could affect the prices)

And about the dog, I heard that in Finland there is not leishmaniasis, but I was wondering if instead of this they have other fatal diseases I should be aware of. Any information or experience you have about veterinarians, food brands, hospitals for animals, register by chip, taxes (if any), risks, etc. Would be really useful for me.

Also, it's important to know experiences about travel companies: which ones are worse and which ones are better for traveling by plane with your dog. It is 70 cm and weighs 35 kg, so it will have to travel in the cargo. That reminds me about the carrier, in google there're a lot of information about carriers for small dogs but not for big ones. Which companies lend it to the customer, which ones sell it or where to buy it, etc...

Well... That's a lot of questions '^^
Thank you very much for your time!

Julia

[moske[FIN]]

Finland wants from your dog this:
http://www.evira.fi/portal/en/animals/i ... l_movement

i will choose Finnair. who wants from you:
the dog box... http://www.finnair.com/filecontent/com/ ... ments.html
for more info check Finnair oficial site.

i will soon travel with my dog to Finland so i will see soon what it is like to do that.

good luck

[Upphew]

http://www.tulli.fi/en/finnish_customs/ ... /index.jsp

Dunno what modifications the car would need, but if any, do them in Germany. Winter tires sure, but on top of them... btw -20 and one glow plug working... will start, but won't do any good to starter motor. New battery definitely if you are going to use webasto.

[dave071061]

Finland wants from your dog this:
http://www.evira.fi/portal/en/animals/i ... l_movement

Note that these requirements are for Non-commercial movement, If you are not traveling with the dog when it comes over then you need to follow the commerical movemement rules which have some more requirements.

http://www.evira.fi/portal/en/animals/i ... d_ferrets/

[juliacsd]

Thank you very much for the information!
Dave, I wasn't accurate enough, the dog won't fly alone. We don't want it to travel by car because it is a very long distance in a very small space (and the dog is not used to travel longer than 5 hours or so -all stops included-), so when someone visit us from Spain they will bring the dog, or I'll do it in my first visit to Spain. Planes are tough for some dogs but mine is strong and calm

Does anyone know where to buy one of those boxes?

[tjawatts]

My inlaws travelled every year from Madrid to Helsinki via Travemunde. They brought the dog with them in the car. I would say the dog would prefer coming in the car than going in the plane...

You dont have to drive it all in one go.

T

[Biskit]

We've just driven up from Manilva, Malaga with 2 medium sized dogs in a Ford Focus and they were fine all the way, they had never travelled more than 2 hours in the car before. We made sure they had all the needles etc as advised by our vet, it seemed a bit unnecessary as they were never checked by anyone, but it's good that they're all up to date. As for the car, we did an ITV before we left Spain, but were still forced to pay for the equivalent here. As far as we know, we don't need to make any modifications to the car. If you've owned the car less than six months you will be required to pay import duties, which are about 25-30% of the cars value in Finland, regardless of what you payed or it's value in Spain. This could be costly. I'd check it out first if I were you.

The ferry from Travemünde takes approx. 27hrs. There is a special deck for dogs if you should decide to take yours with you (a lot easier in my opinion). We hit a hurricane off the coast of Sweden, well it hit us haha! Apparently this is rare, so nothing to worry about.

¡Buen viaje!

[jeff1960]

Julia,
You should be able to find a carrier at Eroski or Hipercor your equivalent of walmart. Good luck on your trip.

[juliacsd]

Hi! Thank you all, but this post was last summer. Now, we're already in Finland safe and sound

Now we're thinking about how to get finnish plates for the car and where to pass the technical inspection.