Spain

Spain is the longest-standing route for British households and the one where the delivery address rather than the distance decides how the day goes. Everything in between is road and road behaves.

The route

Loads leave HA6 for the A404 and M25, then round to the M20 or M2 and the Kent crossings. Then France end to end. Vehicles for Catalonia and the east coast cross at La Jonquera and run down the AP-7; those for Madrid, the south and the west go via Bordeaux and the border at Irún, then across northern Spain. Multi-day, under driving-hours rules, and quoted with an expected window rather than a promise.

Where deliveries go

• Costa Blanca — Alicante, Torrevieja, Jávea, Dénia, Altea
• Murcia and the Costa Cálida — Mar Menor, Mazarrón, Águilas
• Andalucía — Málaga, Marbella, Nerja, the Axarquía, inland to Granada
• Valencia and the interior — the city and the villages behind it
• Catalonia — Barcelona, the Costa Brava, Tarragona
• The Balearics — Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, with a mainland ferry leg

The far end, in detail

A coastal apartment with a service lift is straightforward; a fourth floor in an old town, up a stair built for people rather than furniture, off a street a lorry cannot enter, is a completely different job. Photographs of the street, the entrance and the lift take five minutes and prevent the most expensive surprise on the move — and on a large household they also decide whether a transfer to a smaller vehicle is needed for the last stretch.

Customs and the document order

Relief on household effects entering Spain is routine provided the documents exist in the right order: the NIE first, then evidence you have left the UK system, then evidence you are entering the Spanish one — the padrón at your new address being the proof usually wanted — with a valued inventory alongside. What delays these moves is almost never the inventory; it is discovering late that a document needed early takes weeks to obtain.

Dedicated vehicle or shared space

A dedicated vehicle means your dates and the fewest handlings. Shared space means a lower cost, a delivery window rather than a named day, and more handlings along the way. On a household with pieces you would mind losing, the handling count is a real argument for a dedicated vehicle, and we will make that argument rather than quietly selling the cheaper option.

Starting the move

Both addresses, rough dates, a sense of the volume, and whether shared space is an option for you. We will survey and quote in writing. See European removals for how the four compare.