Personal effects, household goods and unaccompanied luggage shipped by sea from the UK to Dégrad des Cannes, near Cayenne. Collected from your door, handled by our own team since 1998.
French Guiana is an overseas department of France and an outermost region of the European Union. We ship personal effects and household goods there from the UK by sea, working to Dégrad des Cannes, near Cayenne. Whether you are relocating, returning home, or sending belongings on ahead, sea freight carries far more for the money than air — the trade-off is time.
We are not a comparison site or a booking marketplace. When you ship with us you are dealing directly with the company handling your consignment. We collect it, receive it into our warehouse near Heathrow, verify the weights and dimensions, wrap and label it, prepare the documentation, complete the UK export entry and hand it to the shipping line.
French Guiana is part of France, but it does not work like mainland France for customs. It sits inside the EU customs union yet outside the EU VAT area, so your consignment needs a full customs declaration on arrival and is assessed for local taxes — including octroi de mer, the dock dues levied on goods entering the territory — rather than French VAT. Budget for that, and do not assume that shipping to a French department means shipping within the EU VAT area.
We handle your UK customs export entry. Import clearance, duty and any local taxes on arrival are the responsibility of the importer or consignee. It is worth being clear about that before the goods sail: a consignment that arrives before the receiver is ready to clear it will sit at the port and accrue storage charges nobody planned for.
Your goods share a container with other consignments, consolidated before loading and deconsolidated at the far end. It suits most household and personal effects moves to French Guiana, because very few private shipments justify a whole container. LCL is charged on a weight or measure basis, so the volume of your consignment matters as much as its weight — a light but bulky load pays on its cube.
Your goods travel alone in a 20ft or 40ft container. It suits a full house move, and it means less handling and a more predictable transit than groupage on the same lane.
Sea freight to French Guiana typically runs around four to ten weeks door to door, against roughly four to ten working days by air. Schedules, transhipment and congestion at the destination all bear on it. If you need something quickly, ask us about air — most people send the urgent things by air and the volume by sea.
Every personal effects, excess luggage and student consignment must travel with a valued packing list and a photocopy of the consignee's passport. For personal effects the sender must be the same person as the receiver.
Use double-wall shipping cartons — we can supply them. Single-wall storage boxes, plastic containers, canvas bags and bin liners do not survive a sea voyage. Dismantle and flat-pack furniture. The commonest causes of damage we see are overpacking, unsuitable packaging, and TVs wrapped in nothing but bubble wrap and a duvet.
What cannot travel: no loose lithium batteries, no aerosols, no perfumes. Phones, power banks, vapes, e-scooters, flammable sprays and nail varnish are routinely found among personal effects and pulled at inspection. Tell us what is in the consignment and we will tell you honestly what can go.
Excess Luggage Co. comply with the UK aviation and maritime security act and regulations, we ship all dangerous goods under IATA and IMDG rules, and all our staff are trained in aviation & maritime security for shipping.
“I have worked in this industry for more than 40 years, and safety has always been my highest priority. Our responsibility is to protect not only the shipper’s belongings, but also airline staff, carriers, customs authorities, and fellow passengers travelling on the aircraft carrying the shipment.”
Lak Kharod — Director, Excess Luggage Co.
Minimum chargeable weight is 25kg on most services and 45kg on some; items over 30kg are accepted with a heavy-weight surcharge. We collect from: London · Birmingham · Manchester · Glasgow · Bristol · Leeds
See also commercial sea freight from the UK for FCL and LCL business cargo, and air freight vs sea freight if you are weighing up the two.
Yes. We ship personal effects, household goods and unaccompanied luggage from the UK to French Guiana by sea freight, working to Dégrad des Cannes, near Cayenne. We collect from your door anywhere in the UK, receive the consignment into our own warehouse near Heathrow, wrap and document it, complete the UK export entry and deliver it to the shipping line.
Typically around four to ten weeks door to door, depending on the routing, the sailing schedule and whether your goods move as LCL groupage or in a full container. LCL takes longer than FCL on the same lane because the cargo is consolidated before departure and deconsolidated on arrival. Transhipment and port congestion also matter, so we give you a realistic transit time when we quote rather than a headline figure.
French Guiana is part of France, but it does not work like mainland France for customs. It sits inside the EU customs union yet outside the EU VAT area, so your consignment needs a full customs declaration on arrival and is assessed for local taxes — including octroi de mer, the dock dues levied on goods entering the territory — rather than French VAT. Budget for that, and do not assume that shipping to a French department means shipping within the EU VAT area. Import clearance, duties and any local taxes are the responsibility of the importer or consignee. We handle your UK customs export entry.
Every personal effects, excess luggage and student shipment must travel with a valued packing list and a photocopy of the consignee's passport. The sender must be the same person as the receiver for personal effects. Depending on the goods we may need more, and we will tell you before we collect.
No loose lithium batteries, no aerosols and no perfumes. Dangerous goods travel only under IMDG rules for sea and IATA rules for air, correctly declared and packed, with a safety data sheet where one is required. Prohibited items are still found at X-ray and physical inspection even when a declaration has been completed, so tell us what is in the consignment and we will tell you honestly what can travel.
Yes. We collect from homes, universities and businesses across the UK and bring everything back to our warehouse near Heathrow before export. Minimum chargeable weight is 25kg on most of our luggage shipping services and 45kg on some, and items over 30kg are accepted with a heavy-weight surcharge.
Send us the items, the weights and dimensions, your collection address and the destination, and we will come back with a quote and a realistic transit time.
Get a Quote 0800 096 38 39 · WhatsApp +44 7380 854644
We move personal effects and cargo to French Guiana by every route — choose what fits: Air cargo • Luggage shipping to French Guiana.