Al Basmah International Shipping ships from Ras Al Khaimah to Turkey in two ways only: by sea, in a full or shared container leaving a UAE port for Ambarlı in Istanbul or for Mersin, which takes roughly 3 to 5 weeks port to port before clearance and inland trucking; and by air for urgent, light parcels, roughly 2 to 5 days door to door. We do not use a road route to Turkey. We collect from your villa anywhere in Ras Al Khaimah, pack the indoor furniture and the garden furniture, load the container at your gate and deliver to your house in Trabzon or any Turkish city. Orders reach us on WhatsApp at 0557643821 at any hour.
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We wrote this guide for a customer we know well in Ras Al Khaimah: a villa owner in Al Nakheel, Al Hamra Village or Mina Al Arab who has bought a summer home on Turkey’s Black Sea coast in Trabzon and wants to move part of the furniture there, and perhaps the 4×4 he is used to driving up Jebel Jais. The two places are more alike than people think, mountains here and mountains there, but the humidity, the rain and the steep narrow roads change how we pack and how we deliver. Below you will find what we ship, how we prepare furniture for the Trabzon climate, which papers you need, and when a car can be shipped and when it cannot.
From mountains to mountains
- Turkey is reached by sea or air only: containers for furniture and cars, flights for urgent parcels.
- Indoor villa furniture and garden furniture go in one container, each packed its own way.
- Trabzon is rainy and humid most of the year, so we pack against moisture, not just dust.
- The last leg from the port to your house usually runs on mountain roads and may need a smaller truck at the foot of the hill.
- A 4×4 is never booked until the team has confirmed it may enter Turkey and what it will cost.
- Price: send the details on WhatsApp and the price comes back to you. Insurance is optional; ask the team.
What do we ship from Ras Al Khaimah to Turkey?
We ship complete or partial villa and apartment contents, garden and roof-terrace furniture, cars once their eligibility is confirmed, commercial goods and urgent parcels by air. The most common requests on this route:
- Bedroom, living, majlis and dining furniture, with dismantling and reassembly.
- Garden furniture: aluminium and synthetic rattan outdoor sets, large parasols, barbecue tables and terracotta planters.
- Appliances, freestanding kitchens, fridges and washing machines, which run in Turkey without a converter because the supply there is 230 V, 50 Hz.
- Carpets, curtains, soft furnishings, ornaments and kitchenware.
- Camping gear and mountain bikes, which many Ras Al Khaimah homes have plenty of.
- 4x4s and family cars, after checking whether they can enter Turkey.
- Commercial goods for a registered Turkish importer, and urgent parcels and documents by air.
Whole villa
A 40 ft or 40 ft high-cube container loaded at your gate and sealed until clearance.
Part of the house
Moving two rooms and the garden set only? A shared container charges for the cubic metres you use.
4×4
RoRo, driven aboard the ship, or inside a container with the furniture, after the eligibility and cost check.
Urgent parcels
Documents, keys, clothes and light items arrive by air within a few days.
Pickup areas in Ras Al Khaimah
We collect from every part of the emirate, from the coast to the mountain and farm areas. The packing crew arrives at your address on the agreed day, and the container size is set after a photo survey or a visit.
- Al Nakheel, Al Dhait North and South, Khuzam, Al Qusaidat, Seih Al Uraibi and Julphar.
- Al Hamra Village, Mina Al Arab, Al Marjan Island and the Al Qawasim Corniche, with many sea-view villas and apartments.
- Al Mairid, Al Rams, Shaam, Al Jazeera Al Hamra, Digdagga, Khatt and Al Hamraniyah.
- Industrial areas and the RAK Economic Zone (RAKEZ) in Al Hamra and Al Ghail for commercial shipments.
- Villas in mountain and farm areas, where we send a truck that fits the road before the container.
If the villa entrance is too narrow for the container truck, we load a small truck and shuttle the furniture to a nearby point where the container waits. After loading, the container is trucked to the departure port, usually Jebel Ali or Khor Fakkan, and sometimes Saqr Port in Ras Al Khaimah itself, depending on the shipping line sailing that week.
Indoor and outdoor villa furniture for a Black Sea home
Indoor furniture and garden furniture travel in the same container, but each is prepared differently, and the usual mistake is to treat them alike with cardboard and plastic wrap. Furniture that copes with the Ras Al Khaimah sun will not necessarily cope with a month in a closed container followed by a wet winter in Trabzon.
Indoor furniture
We dismantle beds, large wardrobes and tables, and number the parts and bolts in bags marked with the room name. Wood is wrapped first in soft paper, then bubble wrap, then heavy cardboard; marble and glass edges get cardboard corners and travel upright in a timber frame. Leather and fabric sofas get a breathable cover rather than tight plastic alone, because plastic traps condensation as the temperature changes between the Gulf and the Black Sea.
Garden and terrace furniture
- Aluminium sets are washed and dried completely before wrapping, because sand and salt left in the joints speed up corrosion in humid air.
- Outdoor cushions travel dry in separate bags, not squeezed into the frames.
- Large parasols are separated from their steel or concrete bases, and heavy bases are fixed to the container floor.
- Terracotta planters are emptied of soil, since soil and live plants are usually refused without a phytosanitary certificate.
- Barbecues are cleaned of grease and charcoal; gas cylinders are never shipped.
- Bikes and camping gear are wrapped piece by piece, and camping stoves are emptied of fuel.
The sea route from Ras Al Khaimah to Turkey
Sea freight is the normal way to move villa furniture and cars. The container leaves a UAE port, passes Bab al-Mandab, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, and arrives at a Turkish port on the Mediterranean or the Sea of Marmara. We do not use a road route to Turkey, and every time we quote is approximate.
- Loading at your villa in Ras Al Khaimah and sealing the container.
- Trucking to the departure port: Jebel Ali, Khor Fakkan or Sharjah, sometimes Saqr Port, and occasionally Fujairah or Khalifa Port.
- Sailing via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, roughly 3 to 5 weeks depending on the line and any transshipment.
- Arrival at Ambarlı in Istanbul, Mersin in the south or Izmir in the west.
- Customs clearance at the Turkish port, then trucking to your city.
For a home in Trabzon, the cargo usually lands at Ambarlı and continues by truck along the Black Sea coast road, or occasionally comes in through Trabzon port itself when a suitable connecting sea service is available. The team picks whichever cuts inland trucking and fits the date you arrive at the house.
A practical note: many of our customers reach Trabzon at the start of summer and want the furniture in place when they arrive. Allow roughly two months for sailing, clearance and inland trucking together, and do not ship at the last minute. If you are weighing more than one emirate, the same approach is explained in our Fujairah to Turkey guide and our Sharjah to Turkey guide.
Transit times from Ras Al Khaimah to Turkey
The method decides the time more than anything else. An approximate comparison of the three options:
| Method | Approximate time | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sea, full container (FCL) | 3–5 weeks port to port, then clearance and inland trucking | A whole villa, large indoor and outdoor sets, or a car with furniture | 20 ft, 40 ft or 40 ft HC, loaded at your gate and not shared |
| Sea, shared container (LCL) | 3–5 weeks, sometimes a little longer while the container fills | A few rooms, a garden set and some boxes | Charged by the cubic metre and unloaded at a warehouse before delivery |
| Air | About 2–5 days door to door including clearance | Urgent parcels, documents, light items | Not for furniture; charged on actual or volumetric weight, whichever is higher |
Air freight from Ras Al Khaimah to Turkey
Air freight is the right choice when you need something in Turkey within days: house keys, signed contracts or a power of attorney, the season’s clothes, permitted personal medicines, or an electronic item you need before the container lands. We collect the parcel from your home in Ras Al Khaimah and fly it from Dubai or Sharjah airport to Istanbul Airport, or to Sabiha Gökçen, Ankara, Antalya or another airport depending on the city. It takes roughly 2 to 5 days door to door with clearance.
- The charge is based on actual weight or volumetric weight, whichever is higher; volumetric weight = length × width × height in cm ÷ 6000.
- Example: a 60 × 50 × 40 cm box has a volumetric weight of 20 kg, so if it actually weighs 9 kg it is charged as 20 kg.
- Lithium batteries, liquids and perfumes are restricted by air, and some are only accepted under special conditions.
- Furniture is not practical by air; the cost usually exceeds its value.
Advice for summer-home owners: split the shipment. Furniture and garden gear go by container well before summer, and a bag of what you need in the first week goes by air, so you are not waiting for the container to sleep in a decent bed.
Packing for Trabzon’s humid, rainy climate
Trabzon is one of the wettest parts of Turkey and humid most of the year, so the risk to your furniture is not heat, as in Ras Al Khaimah, but water and mould. We pack for the voyage and for the first weeks in the house at the same time:
- Moisture absorbers inside wardrobes, drawers, clothes boxes and book boxes, and inside the container itself.
- Nothing is packed wet or freshly washed; carpets are cleaned and dried days before rolling.
- Solid wood gets a breathable layer under the cardboard so condensation does not settle on the surface.
- Outdoor metal gets a light protective wipe before wrapping, and bolts are kept in sealed bags.
- Appliances are fully drained: washing machine, fridge and water dispenser; leave fridge doors ajar for airing after delivery.
- Every box is labelled with the room in the Trabzon house, not the Ras Al Khaimah villa, so it goes straight to its place.
On delivery, try to unwrap on a dry day if you can, and air the house if it has been shut since last summer before bringing the soft furnishings in.
Shipping a 4×4 from Ras Al Khaimah to Turkey
A 4×4 suits Trabzon’s mountain roads perfectly, but that does not mean it can enter Turkey. Turkey restricts and heavily taxes imports of used cars by individuals, with a special consumption tax (ÖTV) that depends on engine size and value, and many personal cars cannot be imported at all, or only temporarily by some foreign residents under conditions. So we never book a car before the team has checked your case: whether the car can enter, on what basis, and what the expected costs are.
If the car is eligible, it goes one of two ways:
- RoRo: the car is driven up the ramp into the ship and lashed on deck, uncovered. Nothing can be left inside the car this way.
- In a container: the car is strapped and chocked inside a container, and can share it with part of the villa furniture if there is room.
Before shipping we photograph the car from every side, record the mileage and ask for a near-empty tank. External accessories such as roof racks and extra lights are removed and packed, since a modified car may need an extra inspection on arrival.
Documents for shipping to Turkey
The paperwork depends on the type of shipment, and the team reviews your case before loading so the container is not held at the port.
Personal effects and used furniture
- Passport and, for a foreigner moving to Turkey, usually a valid residence or work permit.
- A Turkish tax number in the owner’s name.
- A detailed inventory, with brand and serial numbers for electrical items.
- The bill of lading in the owner’s own name.
- A Turkish rental contract, often for 12 months or more, or the property deed; for a summer-home owner the deed is the key document.
- Returning Turkish citizens have their own conditions, which the team goes through with them.
These are the usual requirements. We do not promise a customs exemption before the team has studied your case; a summer home for someone who does not live in Turkey full time may be treated differently from a permanent move.
Commercial goods
- Commercial invoice and packing list, and a registered Turkish importer.
- A certificate of origin where needed; UAE origin does not automatically mean exemption.
- Customs duty according to the goods, plus Turkish VAT (KDV) at the standard rate of 20%.
- Conformity documents for some products such as appliances, toys and building materials.
Cars
- The original ownership papers in the shipper’s name, free of loans or fines.
- An export or deregistration certificate from the UAE.
- Passport and Turkish residence document if you have one.
- The team’s eligibility and cost check before booking.
Prohibited and restricted items for Turkey
- Prohibited: narcotics, weapons and ammunition, counterfeit goods.
- Restricted: drones, mobile phones in quantity (IMEI registration needed), and some medicines and foods that need permits.
- Never in the container: gas cylinders, fuel, flammable paints and fireworks.
- Soil, live plants and seeds usually need a phytosanitary certificate; better not to ship them.
Warning: Do not put anything in the furniture boxes that is not on the inventory, and no new phone in its box or several devices. One undeclared item can hold the whole container at inspection, and delays at a Turkish port mean daily storage charges.
Prices from Ras Al Khaimah to Turkey
We do not publish fixed prices for this route, because two villas in the same area can differ a lot in volume, packing and destination city. For every service: send the details on WhatsApp and the price comes back to you. Send photos of the rooms and garden, a rough list of items, the Turkish city and whether a car is included, and the team replies with the price and a suggested container size. You can also use our quote request page.
What decides the price of shipping to Turkey?
| Factor | How it affects the price |
|---|---|
| Method | A full container (FCL) is better value for a whole villa, a shared one (LCL) for small volumes, and air for urgent parcels only, at the highest rate per kilo |
| Container size | 20 ft for a small flat or part of a villa; 40 ft or 40 ft HC for a villa with garden furniture or a car |
| Volume in m³ | In a shared container you pay for the space your goods actually take |
| Arrival port and city | Ambarlı, Mersin or Izmir, then the inland distance to Trabzon or elsewhere |
| Access to the house | Narrow mountain roads may need a transfer to a smaller truck, which adds cost |
| Packing | Timber crates for marble and glass, moisture protection, dismantling and reassembly |
| Documents and clearance | Personal or commercial shipment, and any Turkish duties and taxes |
| Car | RoRo or in a container, plus the expected Turkish taxes if it is eligible |
How to ship from Ras Al Khaimah to Turkey, step by step
- Message us on WhatsApp at 0557643821 with photos of the rooms and garden and the Turkish city.
- The team suggests the method and container size, reviews your documents and checks the car’s eligibility if there is one.
- You receive the price, and once you agree the packing day is set.
- The crew packs the indoor and outdoor furniture at the villa and writes the inventory with you.
- The container is loaded at your gate, sealed and trucked to the departure port.
- The container sails, and the team sends you a WhatsApp update at each stage: loading, sailing, arrival and clearance.
- The shipment is cleared at the Turkish port and trucked to your house.
- The furniture is unloaded and assembled in the rooms marked on the boxes.
Delivery in Turkey: Trabzon and other cities
We deliver to every Turkish city. Sea freight lands at one of the main ports and continues by truck; this table shows the usual arrival port for each area:
| Area | Usual arrival port | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Istanbul, European side (Başakşehir, Esenyurt, Beylikdüzü, Bahçeşehir, Küçükçekmece, Şişli, Sarıyer) | Ambarlı | Closest port, short inland leg |
| Istanbul, Asian side (Kadıköy, Ataşehir, Üsküdar) | Ambarlı | Bridge or tunnel crossing; delivery timing matters because of traffic |
| Ankara | Ambarlı or Mersin | By truck from the better-placed port |
| Bursa and Yalova | Ambarlı | Both close to Istanbul |
| Trabzon | Usually Ambarlı, sometimes Trabzon port | Mountain roads after arrival; a smaller truck may be needed |
| Antalya and Izmir | Izmir or Mersin | Depends on the shipping line |
| Mersin and Gaziantep | Mersin | Closest for the south |
The last leg on Trabzon’s mountain roads
Many summer homes in Trabzon sit on green slopes, reached by narrow, steep, winding roads that are often wet. A large container truck sometimes cannot reach the door, so the furniture is unloaded at the nearest safe point and moved by a smaller truck or in two runs. We ask about this before shipping: send us the house location and a photo of the access road, so it is part of the price from the start and not a surprise on delivery day.
Apartments in high-rise complexes
If your Turkish home is a flat in a tall residential complex, as is common in Istanbul, furniture is often lifted to the balcony with an external furniture lift, and building management may want notice of the delivery time. The team arranges this with the receiver in Turkey. Have your residence papers and tax number ready before the container lands, because clearance does not start without them.
Tips and warnings before you ship
- Start about two months before you plan to arrive in Trabzon; sailing, clearance and inland trucking add up.
- Get your Turkish tax number and have the property deed ready before loading.
- Do not ship cheap furniture you can buy in Turkey for less than the cost of moving it; focus on pieces you love or cannot easily replace.
- Check door and staircase sizes in the Trabzon house before shipping large wardrobes and sofas.
- Do not leave the car question for later: if it is not eligible, you want to know before booking space for it.
- Insurance is optional; ask the team about it before booking, not after loading.
- If you are also moving a home from another emirate, see our main UAE to Turkey guide.
FAQ: shipping from Ras Al Khaimah to Turkey
How long does shipping from Ras Al Khaimah to Turkey take?
Sea freight takes roughly 3 to 5 weeks port to port, plus a few days for clearance and trucking to your city. Air freight takes about 2 to 5 days door to door.
Is there road freight from Ras Al Khaimah to Turkey?
We do not use a road route to Turkey. Furniture and cars go by sea in a container, and urgent parcels go by air.
Can garden furniture go with the villa furniture?
Yes, in the same container, but garden furniture is washed, dried and packed differently, planters are emptied of soil, and gas cylinders are not shipped.
Can I ship my 4×4 to Turkey?
It depends on your situation and the car. Turkey restricts and heavily taxes used-car imports by individuals, so the team checks eligibility and costs before booking; eligible cars go by RoRo or in a container.
How does a container reach a hillside house in Trabzon?
It goes to the nearest point where the truck can stop safely, and the furniture continues in a smaller truck if needed. Send the location and a photo of the road before shipping.
What documents do I need for a summer home in Turkey?
Usually your passport, Turkish tax number, a detailed inventory and the property deed or rental contract, plus residence for a permanent move. The team reviews your case, as a summer home may be treated differently.
How will I know where my shipment is?
The team sends you WhatsApp updates at loading, sailing, arrival at the Turkish port, clearance and the delivery appointment.
Do you collect from mountain areas in Ras Al Khaimah?
Yes, from all over the emirate; if the road cannot take the container, we load a small truck to a nearby point.
A villa in Ras Al Khaimah and a home on the Black Sea?
Photograph the rooms, the garden and the road to the Trabzon house, send them on WhatsApp, and get the price and the right container size.
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