Which USA ports to ship to from Europe?

[Bento]

I'm looking into shipping my R1200GS to the USA for an upcoming trip down to Argentina and I was wondering what ports most people ship to?

I am not too hellbent on East or West coast although I would prefer the east coast as it takes less flying to get there :-)

LA and NYC seemingly are the biggest ports but are they also the "best" to ship to?

[mark manley]

As far as I know any port in Canada is better than one in the US, it is apparently easier to get through customs and I can say having shipped a bike to Halifax NS and flown one to Vancouver Canada is very easy, I would advise Halifax if that is an option.

[Bento]

Thanks. Will have a look. Kinda anxious about shipping my bike someplace where the borders can be closed at a moments notice though.

[markharf]

You're planning a trip to Argentina, which involves a minimum of eleven (and a maximum of infinite) border crossings. Any of them are subject to moments-notice closures. I'm not going to try to tell you what to worry about or not, but organizing shipping around the possibility that the US/Canada border will shut down seems a bit disproportionate. Canadian ports are typically far less hassle, so if all else is comparable I'd go with Mark Manley's suggestions.

Of course it all depends on time of year--in mid-winter I'd shoot for Houston, L.A., Miami or similar, while summertime in Miami is IMO a good approximation of pure hell, with New York a close runner-up (and Montreal sometimes not far behind). The question of where you'd like to ride is also important--Halifax is a good bet for exploring the Maritimes; Vancouver closest to Alaska, B.C., and the Yukon; L.A. or Houston if determined to cross into Mexico as efficiently as possible.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

[Flipflop]

Hi
We are shipping into North America in September so my research is current.
By sea is a real problem at the moment for several reasons - shortages of empty containers, dock staff to off load them etc…. And the prices have increased a lot.
RoRo remains an option.
Flying bikes has pretty much doubled in price.
However Transat are offering the fly with your bike deal at pretty much the same price as pre-Covid. We are going through Motorcycle Express and they have been excellent so far.
It’s Paris to Montreal for us but there are other options.

You could ship into South America and go the other way, I don’t think shipping has been affected so much or so I have been told.

Good luck

[Flipflop]

In the end we air shipped from Paris to Montreal using Motorcycle Express. They were excellent, the whole process was quick, easy and comparatively cheap - if you use Transat Airlines.
I don’t normally like recommending anything because everyone is different but I will make an exception, this time and highly recommend Motorcycle Express and Transat.