Freight or International movers?
 

I am considering moving a smallish amount of household goods to BBS - enough to set up our home as a holiday retreat. This will mainly be kitchen essentials, soft goods, but probably a few items of flat pack furniture keeping weight to a minimum. I will eventually use international movers for the bulk of our goods but for this much smaller amount I ask your advice on the best way to go. Is air freight so expensive it wouldn't be worth it? - how long does the average sea freight take? Has anyone had good or bad service? Any advice to assist my choice would be welcome. I'm sure someone out there has already done this! Many thanks :confused:

Re: Freight or International movers?
 

That was my pain one year ago. I ended up with sea freight. International movers send me a quote for airfreight door-to-door Edinburgh-Bridgetown of £3,000 for one cubic meter! With such prices, sending everything by MonkeyParcel would be cheaper. JP RAM Shipping charged me £500 for two full pallets (may be 6 cubic meters), plus 180 BBD local agency handling fee for sea freight. If you are not in London, you can sent your stuff to JP RAM Shipping by a local delivery company. For this I paid £120 more. Zero customs duty in BBS because it was all used. Arrived in ten days after the ship left the port.

In your case I would sent the stuff by sea freight only sending valuable items by MonkeyParcel. But send only used stuff (or that looks like used) as all that is new is taxable and BBS duties are exorbitant (250% on toys, for instance). If they spot that you have new stuff, you won't save anything and may end up with paying more.