Just reinvented: the wheel!
 

The last half year I have spent a lot of time researching entry and driving requirements for many countries in preparation of an overland trip from Australia to the Netherlands. It felt a lot like reinventing the wheel: all travellers going off the beaten track go through the same process as for most areas there is no single information source.

To make life a little easier for others I have set up a simple tool at


to find and share information about travel paperwork and filled it with the results of my research of Australia, Asia, Africa and South America.

You can use the information already present and, but also use it as a tool for yourself to collect additional information for a trip you prepare! Enjoy!

Nice looking site, with a logical layout and easy access to a variety of information. I'm wondering about a couple of things:

What about the missing countries? I gather you've not been to, for example, Ghana, Egypt, Algeria, Eritrea, or various others. Can other users fill in the blanks?

Will there be ongoing updating or moderation? It appears that I could post updated information and identify previous entries as "not current," but there are often disagreements about entry requirements--sometimes based in countries of origin, sometimes apparently based in dumb luck, bribes, special connections, persistence...

In any case, good luck with your project!

Mark

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your reply.

Missing countries: below the list of countries that have entries already is a drop down box with all countries. (I added a remark in the description now). If you want to enter information about a new country just select it in the box. Once the database has content for most countries the table with countries can disappear. You will then only see the drop down box. I put the list in to give people an idea what to expect. I wanted to avoid that you are led to empty placeholders only.

Updating or moderation: Some ongoing moderation will be needed, but the basis should be in the structure. I have an approach in mind similar to iOverlander (of which I am a moderator)

• Description: a summary of the topic. Users can correct the description as new information comes in;
• Document: more detailed, formal information about documents;
• Note link: link to an "official" party. This can be a government site, but als an insurance company or a site of standing like Caravanistan;
• Comment link: this can be a user experience. The distinction between a note link and a comment link is important to show what is official and what is anecdotal

For example entry with a vehicle in Thailand:
Note link: you need a guide
Comment link: we have entered without a guide at border crossing ... We had papers ... and the help of ...

De description would get something like: a guide is officially required but travelers have managed to cross ...

Users cannot delete records and I store per record the email address of the last editor. This should help to correct vandalism.

Hi Jan

Great website thanks. A little more information would be helpful as in the post on Cameroon. The nationality of the person obtaining the visa would be helpful or "all nationalities" if not relevant.

Thanks again it's already helped me re the VTE for West Africa :thumbup1:

Cameroon
 

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. It shows that some clarification is needed.

The concept of the website is that you find four types of topics (to be honest the concept is still evolving a little):

• Description: summary of information available. If you have read it you have a good impression of the situation;
• Document: more detailed description of a document, for example for a visa all relevant times. Multiple documents if more (visa) options are available;
• Note link: link to an official site with background information. If relevant a summary of the website can be given, but often it is better not to do so, because the info has to stay up-to-date if the situation changes;
• Comment link: also a link, but traveler info: not official, but an experience or a discussion between travelers. I added links to a number of Facebook decisions which are notoriously difficult to summarize.

The links help you to find relevant information, but is not always information itself. In retrospect the Cameroon link should have been a Comment Link rather than a Note Link (I changed that now). If you click the link you can read that the travelers have Turkish and Dutch passports.

I started the site during my research for an overland trip from Australia to the Netherlands. Therefore the information on the site is presently the most extensive for Asia and Australia. I added other parts of the world, mainly in areas where I traveled before to create a starting point.

The objective is not to share information that I collected, but to create a platform for travelers to find and share (= add) information about entering countries and bringing vehicles in. This means that you are very much welcome to add new information you collect from other sources.

In summary my objective is:

Create a place for travelers to share information about entering and driving their own vehicles in countries that meets the following requirements:

• Cover the whole world;
• Easy to get and add information, both on a computer and on a smartphone;
• Allow for formal information and user experiences in a way that clearly shows the difference;
• Offer a summary per country that gives a quick overview of the situation
• Offer a framework to provide all relevant information for travel documents such as time per entry and validity, but also the exact way times are calculated;
• Trigger users to provide and get all relevant information about driving a vehicle such as import document, insurance, drivers license.

I hope this makes sense.