Taking a car into Armenia

[danielsprague]

Hi All

I'm planning on taking my 4x4 into Armenia next year. I know there are some things to pay at the border for bringing the car in, can anyone tell me from experience what these are, and how much they paid? I also heard that one must pay when leaving the country? Is there a time limit?

Has anyone taken their car into Nagorno Karabagh? Any requirements beyond the usual Karabagh 'visa'?

Thanks

Daniel

[estebangc]

Hi Daniel,

Entering from Georgia via Goganavan border: 22700 Drams (=48€ by mid august 2010) for the car, which included ecological tax and other stupid concepts, but no brokerage, after I got too stubborn (the guy shouted and blamed my poor Russian when asked for the details, so I asked for receipt, stamps everywhere, signatures, names, talked to the chief, etc; took 3 hours the whole process).

If I tried again, I would take the Bagratashen border, which may have more traffic. We did not cross a single vehicle for 45 min going to Goganavan, so the guys in the border seemed just too pissed to be there for nothing.

21 day visa on arrival with no problem (issued by soldiers, nicer) for 3000AMD for Spaniards.

Leaving to Iran: 6600AMD for the car (again). Bring maaaany photocopies of everything, they'll charge you a lot to make them if you have one missing.

We had a pretty small car, but I don't think it makes any difference the engine size for the pollution tax.

No experience with Nagorno Karabach.

Have fun,

Esteban

[danielsprague]

Thanks for the information, just what i was looking for. I have a couple of questions though:

1- Did you use your carnet de passage? I won't have one at this point, but it's not necessary for Armenia as far as I know??

2- You mention brokerage fees... was that more than the 22,700 drams? I speak Russian; would that make it cheaper? Were all these fees official?

Thanks again

Daniel

[estebangc]

Welcome. You are right: No Carnet necessary; we had it, but were not asked for it at all (1 year ago though).

All fees were official, I confirmed it at the moment (big boss, stamps, etc) and later. "Brokerage fee" was maybe 1000-2000 AMD, so very little, but I cannot exactly recall now. It's only I got ungry because they were too stupid, so I said "I am not paying that" since it looked it was a fee for their nice and kind service. Otherwise I wouldn't have discussed the brokerage fee and had paid it.

Russian will be useful (especially for swearing!), but wouldn't make it cheaper, I guess.

Your trip and photos are amazing, btw.

Esteban

[danielsprague]

Hi Esteban

Thank you for your kind comments, and information

My post was written 15 days after I got back to the UK, and was planning a little extension to the odyssey... Well it didn't happen!

Instead I began preparing for a masters degree, and stripped the car to pieces for a MAJOR overhaul!

The masters degree is almost finished now... But the rebuild......

I'm still hoping to visit next year let's see what happens! I'm also planning on finishing the blog later in the year when I have some free time again.

Daniel