Shipping Company from Mecca to the Netherlands 0552803439 | Baggage, Gifts, Furniture and Car Shipping to Amsterdam

Home Safe is a shipping company from Mecca to the Netherlands that carries pilgrims’ baggage and gifts, furniture, goods, cars and parcels by two routes: by sea from Jeddah Islamic Port to the port of Rotterdam, and by air via King Abdulaziz Airport to Schiphol Airport at Amsterdam. About 4,500 km of flight path separate the two countries, which the aircraft covers in roughly six and a quarter hours, and a container reaches the consignee’s door in 25 to 33 days. An air kilogram starts from SAR 23, part-load furniture from SAR 5,500, and a saloon car by RoRo from SAR 2,800. To book: 0552803439.

In this guide45ShowHide

1. Who ships from Mecca to the Netherlands, and what do they ship?
2. The shipping route from Mecca to the Netherlands and its transit time
3. From Mecca to Jeddah port, then the Netherlands
4. Shipping price from Mecca to the Netherlands
5. What sets shipping from Makkah apart?
6. Shipping Umrah gifts and dates from Mecca to the Netherlands
7. Shipping the baggage of Umrah and Hajj pilgrims and their groups
8. Shipping household furniture from Mecca to the Netherlands
9. Transfer-of-residence exemption in the Netherlands
10. Full container or part load?
11. Shipping parcels and electronic devices
12. Shipping commercial goods from Mecca to the Netherlands
13. Car shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands
14. Dutch customs and the documents required
15. What cannot be shipped to the Netherlands or needs a permit
16. Delivering Mecca shipments in Amsterdam, Almere and Haarlem
17. Services for individuals, companies, government bodies and consulates
18. Air freight from Mecca to the Netherlands
19. Air or sea? And is there land freight to the Netherlands?
20. Collection from Makkah’s districts and nearby towns
21. Steps for shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands
22. Following the shipment, support and insurance
23. Shipping from the Netherlands to Makkah
24. Tips before shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands
25. How do you choose a shipping company from Mecca to the Netherlands?
26. Common mistakes when shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands
27. Why Home Safe for shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands?
28. Related articles and pages
29. Tags
30. Frequently asked questions about shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands
31. How much does shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands cost?
32. How many days does a shipment need from Makkah until it is delivered in the Netherlands?
33. Makkah has neither a port nor an airport, so where does my shipment leave from?
34. What is the cheapest way to ship from Mecca to the Netherlands?
35. What is the most suitable way to ship household furniture?
36. Can dates and Umrah gifts be shipped to the Netherlands?
37. Do you ship Zamzam water with the baggage?
38. Do you collect suitcases from the hotel in Makkah?
39. Do I pay customs on my used furniture in the Netherlands?
40. Will my family in the Netherlands pay tax on a gift parcel I send them?
41. Do you ship a car from Mecca to the Netherlands?
42. Will my electrical appliances work in the Netherlands?
43. Do you deliver to Almere, Haarlem and outside Amsterdam?
44. How do I find out the exact price of my shipment before booking?
45. Do you collect shipments from the Netherlands to Makkah?

Route: your home or hotel in Makkah → Jeddah Islamic Port → Suez → Gibraltar → North Sea → Rotterdam → the consignee’s door · Time: from 25 to 33 days for a full container, and from 3 to 6 days by plane.

Who ships from Mecca to the Netherlands, and what do they ship?

Most people who ask for this route do not live in Makkah; they are visiting it. Umrah and Hajj pilgrims who came from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, many of them Dutch citizens of Moroccan and Turkish origin, go home with dates, prayer rugs and gifts that an airline suitcase cannot hold. Alongside them are residents who have finished working in Makkah and are moving to the Netherlands to live or study, and traders who buy in Makkah’s markets for their shops there. Each has a different shipping method and a different standing before Dutch Customs:

Shipper	What they ship	Most suitable method	Standing at Dutch Customs
Umrah or Hajj pilgrim from the Netherlands	Excess suitcases, dates, rugs and gifts	Air for the urgent, sea cartons for the bulk	Used baggage is personal; new gifts by their value
Umrah or Hajj group	A whole group’s baggage	One shipment sorted by name	A declaration for each consignee in his name
Person moving residence to the Netherlands	Home furniture, appliances and a car	20 or 40 ft container	Transfer-of-residence exemption by permit
Student	Books, clothes and room items	Cartons in a shared container, and a suitcase by air	Student relief with proof of admission
Someone sending to family there	A gift parcel in Ramadan or at Eid	Air	A gift between individuals, exempt up to a threshold
Trader	Dates, prayer beads, rugs, abayas and perfumes	Container or part load with an invoice	Duty by item and 21% tax

The shipping route from Mecca to the Netherlands and its transit time

When someone says “shipping to the Netherlands takes three weeks”, he means only the vessel’s days between Jeddah and Rotterdam. The time that matters to you begins the hour the goods leave your home or hotel in Makkah and ends with the consignee’s signature, and it includes what comes before sailing and what comes after. These are the stages of a full container as they actually run:

Stage	What happens	Usual time
Loading in Makkah	Dismantling, wrapping, numbering and inventory, within the hours permitted for trucks	One day
Down to Jeddah	A truck on the expressway to the port gate	The same day
Export and waiting for the vessel	Export declaration and handing the container to the shipping line	4–6 days
Sailing	The Red Sea, then Suez, the Mediterranean, Gibraltar and the North Sea	15–21 days
Dutch clearance	Import declaration with the permit number or with the tax paid	3–4 working days
Delivery inside the Netherlands	From Rotterdam to the address, with unloading	One day

Rotterdam is a fixed call on the major container lines, so sailings to it are regular, some direct and some changing vessel at an intermediate port. We tell you on the booking day which kind yours is, because a transhipment adds days. As for the other methods, these are their times from Makkah:

Method	Route	Time from Makkah	Suits
Full container	Makkah → Jeddah port → Rotterdam	25–33 days	A whole home and wholesale goods
Sea part load	A shared container sorted in a Rotterdam warehouse	30–38 days	Baggage cartons and a room or two
RoRo for cars	A carrier to Jeddah, then a car vessel	25–33 days	A car that runs on its own engine
Air	Jeddah airport → Schiphol	3–6 days	Gifts, suitcases and documents

What lengthens the transit?

• The Hajj season and late Ramadan: truck restrictions in Makkah tighten, and demand for shipping after the season rises all at once.
• Vessel rerouting: the shipping line may choose the Cape of Good Hope instead of Suez, which lengthens the sailing by a week or two. We confirm the route on the booking day.
• A missing Dutch permit: a mover’s container that arrives before his exemption permit waits in the port and accrues storage.
• Inspection: Dutch Customs pulls containers for scanning or opening, and a vague declaration raises the odds.
• Food in the wrong place: a tin of meat or cheese among the baggage stops the whole carton.

Times for the other destinations are on the transit times page.

From Mecca to Jeddah port, then the Netherlands

Makkah is an inland mountain city with no quay and no runway. But it is the closest of the Kingdom’s large cities to Jeddah Islamic Port: about 80 km of dual expressway lie between them, which a truck covers in an hour and a half outside peak times. That means a Makkah shipment does not pay for a long inland haul as a Riyadh shipment does, and a container loaded in the morning spends that same night in the port yard.

The loading itself takes one of two forms. When the house stands on a wide street in Awali, Sharaie or Shawqiyah, the container stops at the door and is packed and sealed in front of you. When it stands in a hillside district a trailer cannot enter, we move the goods in a small closed truck to our warehouse, where they are stowed in the container against the same numbered inventory. In both forms we book the container’s slot on the vessel before the loading day, so it does not sit in the port for days without a sailing.

A vessel leaving Jeddah heads straight north to the Suez Canal, so it does not circle the Arabian Peninsula as a vessel leaving the Gulf does. That is why sailing to Europe is shorter from the west coast. The service is explained on the sea freight page, and what goes on inside the port in the article International sea freight from Jeddah.

Shipping price from Mecca to the Netherlands

The price follows what you ship, not the distance alone. Gifts and suitcases are charged by the kilogram, baggage cartons and furniture by the cubic metre, a whole home by the container, and a car by its size. A clear invoice separates three things: what is paid in Makkah for collection, packing and the haul to Jeddah; the sea or air freight; and what is paid for the service inside the Netherlands. These are the figures our prices start from:

What you ship	Method	Price starts from
Gifts, suitcases and parcels	Air via Jeddah airport	SAR 23 per kilogram
Documents up to one kilogram	Express	SAR 83
Parcel up to 5 kg	Express	SAR 110
Furniture and baggage	Sea part load	SAR 5,500
Full-home furniture	Full container	SAR 11,000
Saloon car	RoRo from Jeddah port to Rotterdam	SAR 2,800
Four-wheel drive or large car	RoRo or container	Priced by its dimensions
A whole group’s baggage	Sea part load or container	Set by the number of pieces and their volume
Haul from Makkah to the port or airport	By volume and collection point	Set on request

A real example: a pilgrim in a hotel in Aziziyah has two cartons of dates and rugs with a chargeable weight of 28 kg. Their air freight is 28 × 23, that is from SAR 644, and they reach his home in Almere before his first week back is over. Had he been in a group of twenty pilgrims with two cartons each, the shared container would have been cheaper for all of them.

The prices circulating in the market for this route are far apart. An air kilogram is published at between SAR 25 and 45, and in dollar offers at between 2.5 and 8 dollars. A parcel up to 5 kg is quoted once at about SAR 400 and once at about SAR 850, express documents and small parcels from SAR 900, and electronic devices at between SAR 500 and 1,200. By sea, a 20 ft container is offered from SAR 3,500 as ocean freight, a part load from SAR 6,000, and a full container from SAR 12,000, and in dollars at between 1,500 and 8,000 dollars. A car inside a container is quoted from SAR 7,000, a saloon at between SAR 7,500 and 10,000, and a four-wheel drive at between SAR 11,000 and 15,000. The spread comes from what each figure includes, so the right question is always: to the port or to the door?

What sets the price	Its effect on a Makkah shipment
Volume or weight	The cubic metre by sea, and chargeable weight by air. Estimate it with the volume calculator
Collection point	A hillside district needs a small vehicle and more labour than a house on a wide street
Season	After Hajj and in late Ramadan demand rises and loading hours narrow
Scope of service	To the port of Rotterdam, or to the door with clearance and unloading
The Dutch address	Little effect as the country is small; more if the house needs a hoist
Packing and insurance	Wooden crates for fragile pieces are a separate item, and insurance is a percentage of the value

How do you lower the cost?

• Combine the family’s or the group’s gifts in one shipment, as the kilogram gets cheaper as the weight grows.
• Ship by sea whatever you are in no hurry for, and keep the aircraft for what is awaited at an occasion.
• Take the dates out of large gift boxes that are hollow inside, as air freight charges you for volume just as it does for weight.
• Finish the exemption permit before loading if you are moving, as 21% tax is bigger than any difference in freight.
• Book before the season rather than after it, and hand over your goods early while the available hours are wide.

Each factor is detailed on the pricing factors page.

What sets shipping from Makkah apart?

Loading in Makkah involves calculations no other city knows. The movement of large trucks there is governed by hours set by the regulating authorities, and they change in Ramadan and the Hajj season. Many districts are built on slopes, with streets that narrow and climb. And a large share of the shipments leave not from homes but from hotels, their owners travelling in a day or two. Anyone who gives you an appointment without asking about your district and your travel date does not own that appointment.

Circumstance	What follows from it	How we act
No port and no airport	Every international shipment passes through Jeddah	We take it to the port or airport on the day we collect it
Truck entry hours	Loading cannot happen at just any time	We confirm the hours in force and fix an appointment within them
Hillside districts	The trailer does not reach the door	A small vehicle shuttles to the nearest wide street or to the warehouse
Ramadan and Hajj	Crowding and tighter restrictions around the central area	We load before the peak, or hold the shipment with us until after it
Hotel accommodation	No room and no time for lengthy packing	We collect the pieces closed from reception against a receipt

Someone whose tenancy in Makkah ended before his Dutch address was ready is not forced to ship at once. His goods stay inventoried in our warehouse and sail when he gives the word. The terms are on the storage page.

Shipping Umrah gifts and dates from Mecca to the Netherlands

A pilgrim returning to the Netherlands carries more for his family and neighbours than for himself: Ajwa and Sukkari dates, prayer rugs, prayer beads, abayas and headscarves, and incense. An airline suitcase does not hold all that, and every excess kilogram at the airport is charged at a high rate. It is easier to travel light and let the gifts follow to the front door. The first things we do at collection are three: we sort each shipment under its owner’s name, weigh every piece in front of him, and stick on it a number matched by a line in the receipt.

What enters the Netherlands from these items is not all alike. Some pass without a question, and some have a quantity or a paper attached. This is current practice, and we review what is in force with our broker before every shipment:

Item	Can it be shipped?	What we watch for
Dates of all kinds	Yes, without a plant health certificate in current practice	Sealed boxes showing the variety, a personal-use quantity, and kept away from clothes
Prayer rugs and prayer beads	Yes	The count is written down, as a large quantity is treated as commercial goods
Abayas, ihram garments and fabrics	Yes	New items at their value in the declaration
Perfumes and oud oil	By sea, and by air with restrictions	Alcohol-based perfume is a flammable item on an aircraft, and oud is a protected species with a small personal limit
Incense and burners	Yes	Quick-lighting charcoal does not board an aircraft
Honey, ghee and cheeses	We do not put them in baggage	Animal products are restricted on entry to the European Union
Zamzam water	Not shipped as cargo	It stays with the traveller in its dedicated pack

Dates need more care in packing than they do at customs. We place them in a double-wall carton with no gap to shift in, never together with perfume or incense so they do not take on the scent, and we choose the aircraft for them in summer if they are a soft variety. A trader shipping dates for sale is another matter: an invoice, a label in Dutch on the pack, and a registered importer to receive them. Packing rules are in the packing guide.

Shipping the baggage of Umrah and Hajj pilgrims and their groups

The excess suitcase is a problem repeated on every journey home. An organised group has it many times over, as forty pilgrims with eighty excess pieces are not something the airline will solve. We collect the pieces from the hotel in one go and treat each pilgrim as a separate shipper: his name as in his passport, his address, postcode and Dutch mobile number, and a list of what is in his cartons.

• Collection: from the hotel reception or a room the supervisor sets aside, against a receipt showing the number of pieces and the weight of each.
• Label: a numbered sticker on every suitcase and carton, and a copy of the full manifest with the group supervisor.
• Method: one urgent piece per pilgrim by air if he wishes, and the rest in a shared container to Rotterdam.
• Distribution in the Netherlands: to each person’s address in his city, or to a single point the supervisor chooses, such as the neighbourhood mosque or the group’s office.
• What stays with the traveller: the passport, cash, gold, phone, medicine and the Zamzam pack.
• Timing: handover two or three days before leaving Makkah, and after Hajj earlier than that if possible.

Used baggage the traveller took out of the Netherlands returns to it as personal effects. What he bought new is declared at its value, and anything above the exemption threshold is taxed on arrival. We tell each consignee what may be asked of him before his shipment arrives, so a message from the broker does not come as a surprise.

Shipping household furniture from Mecca to the Netherlands

Furniture in Makkah homes is large: long floor-level majlis seating, bedrooms with wide wardrobes, and fridges and air conditioners. The Dutch house is the opposite, narrow-fronted, with a very steep staircase and small rooms. So our first question is not “how many cubic metres?” but “which house will receive this furniture?”. After the answer we sort with you what ships and what is sold in Makkah or given away.

• Worth shipping: good carpets, bedrooms that dismantle into panels, kitchenware, books and small appliances.
• Checked before shipping: sofas that do not dismantle and wide wardrobes, which are measured against the new house’s door and staircase.
• Not worth it: air conditioners, as most Dutch homes do not need them, and gas appliances designed for the Kingdom’s fittings.
• Dismantling: every piece is taken apart into numbered parts, with its screws in a bag fixed to the part itself.
• Packing for the sea: blankets and corrugated paper for wood, moisture-absorbing bags inside the container, and crates of treated timber stamped ISPM 15 for glass and mirrors.
• In the Netherlands: unloading into the rooms and reassembling what was dismantled, with an outside hoist when the furniture will not pass the staircase.

The contents list is written in English or Dutch from day one, item by item with an estimated used value. That list serves you three times: it is attached to the permit application, the import declaration is built on it, and the insurance policy is calculated from it. Service details are on the furniture shipping page, and securing methods on the packing and lashing page.

Transfer-of-residence exemption in the Netherlands

Anyone moving his place of residence from outside the European Union to the Netherlands brings in his used baggage and furniture free of duty and tax. But the exemption is not granted automatically at the quay; it comes by a permit from Dutch Customs that the shipping agent usually applies for in your name, accompanied by proof of your registration with the municipality of your new city. These are its conditions in current practice, and we confirm what is in force before loading:

Condition	Detail
Previous residence	At least 12 consecutive months outside the European Union
Ownership and use	6 months before the move, so new items in their boxes fall outside the exemption
Import window	Within 12 months of taking up residence in the Netherlands
After entry	The goods are not sold, lent, leased or pledged for 12 months
Attached to the application	A signed list of all the goods, and the municipal registration certificate, or an employment or tenancy contract if registration is not yet done
Not covered	Alcohol, tobacco, commercial vehicles and non-portable professional equipment
Second home	Its furniture is outside the exemption, which is tied to the main residence

The order is everything: register the address, then apply for the permit, then the container arrives. A resident leaving Makkah needs something proving he lived in the Kingdom for a year or more, and a copy of the residence permit and the final exit visa are usually enough. A full-time student goes through none of this, as he has the student relief for his clothes, books and room items with proof of his admission to the university.

Full container or part load?

Volume decides the choice, then the deadline. A full container is yours alone, sealed in Makkah or in our warehouse, and its seal is only broken at customs or at your door. A part load places your cartons with other people’s in one container, and you pay only for the space you took, in exchange for more days of waiting at both ends.

Comparison	Full container	Part load
You pay for	The whole container, full or not	The cubic metres you occupy
Time from Makkah	25–33 days	30–38 days
Number of handlings	One loading and one unloading	Consolidation in the Kingdom and sorting in Rotterdam
Best for	A home of three rooms or more, or furniture with a car	Under 15 cubic metres, and group and student baggage
Price starts from	SAR 11,000	SAR 5,500

A 20 ft container holds about 28 cubic metres, that is a flat of two or three rooms once its furniture is dismantled. A 40 ft container holds nearly twice that. If your volume comes close to half a small container, ask us for both prices together, as the difference may be smaller than you think. Internal dimensions are on the container sizes page, and container rates from the port in the article Container shipping prices from Jeddah.

Shipping parcels and electronic devices

The parcel is the simplest thing shipped on this route and the most frequent: a mother in Makkah sending her son studying in Delft his Eid clothes, or a resident sending his family a phone or a laptop. The parcel leaves Makkah for Jeddah airport the same day and is delivered in the Netherlands against the consignee’s signature. Two things govern its entry there: whether it is a gift between two individuals or a purchase, and how much it is worth.

• Price: starts from SAR 110 for a parcel up to 5 kg, and from SAR 23 per kilogram above that.
• Gift: current practice exempts a gift between individuals worth no more than 45 euros, and anything above it is taxed.
• Devices: a phone, laptop or tablet ships with its battery fitted, while a loose lithium battery is restricted on aircraft.
• Packing: the device in its original box if there is one, inside a larger carton padded on every side, with nothing written on the carton about what is inside.
• Plug and frequency: the Dutch socket takes two round pins and the frequency is 50 hertz, so check the label of any device with a motor.
• Declaration: each item by name, count and value in English; the word “gifts” alone is not accepted.

How to prepare a parcel is on the parcel shipping page.

Shipping commercial goods from Mecca to the Netherlands

The large Dutch cities have shops selling what is bought in Makkah: dates, prayer rugs, prayer beads, abayas, oriental perfumes, and copies of the Quran and books. Their owners buy wholesale in the markets of Makkah and Jeddah and need someone to gather their purchases from more than one supplier into a single shipment. Commercial goods do not enter in an individual’s name but in that of an importer holding a European customs identification number, with a declaration filed before the vessel arrives.

• Consolidation: we collect from each supplier in Makkah and Jeddah, and sort, count and check against the invoice before packing.
• Invoice: a commercial one in English, showing the item, its tariff heading, quantity, value and country of origin.
• Duty and tax: duty by heading in the European tariff, then 21% value added tax, which an importer registered in the Netherlands may account for in his return instead of paying it at the port.
• Foodstuffs: dates and their products with a Dutch label and the importer’s name and address; anything of animal origin is accepted only from approved establishments.
• Other products: the European conformity mark for devices and toys, and a product file for perfumes and cosmetics.
• Pallets: heat-treated, stamped timber, or else treated at the shipper’s expense.

A regular trader gets a fixed shipping schedule, a single account manager and a status report for every shipment. Details are on the commercial shipping page.

Car shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands

The car is not driven from Makkah to the port; it is carried on a car carrier from your home to the export yard in Jeddah. From there two ways lead to Rotterdam, and the type of car and whether furniture goes with it decide between them. The steering wheel is on the left in both countries, so nothing changes there, but a Gulf-specification car goes through an individual inspection at the Dutch vehicle authority before it gets plates.

Method	How it works	Suits	Price starts from
RoRo	Driven into the vessel’s hold and lashed by its wheels, shipped empty of any belongings	An ordinary running car	SAR 2,800 for a saloon
20 ft container	Secured with straps and chocks inside a sealed container	Luxury and classic cars and non-runners	Set on request
40 ft container	A car with the home’s furniture in one container	A family moving with its home and car	Set on request

The freight is the lightest part of it. After the port come three financial stops: 10% customs duty on the car’s value plus its freight, then 21% value added tax on the total, then a registration tax calculated on the engine’s emissions that climbs steeply with large engines. A person moving residence has his car covered by his exemption permit if he has owned and used it for six months, and he neither sells nor lends it for a year after entry. So add up the three stops before you decide to ship a four-wheel drive with a big engine.

Before handover: a quarter tank of fuel, no belongings in the cabin, photos of every side, and one key with the car. The drive-on method is explained on the RoRo car shipping page, the sealed-box method on the container car shipping page, and what the Kingdom asks for to export a vehicle in the article Car shipping from Saudi Arabia.

Dutch customs and the documents required

The Netherlands is a member of the European Union, so whatever is cleared in Rotterdam then moves freely through all the Union’s states. The general rule on entry: a duty according to the item’s heading, and 21% value added tax calculated on the value plus the freight, except for what enters under an exemption. Each type of shipment has its own file:

Type of shipment	Documents	Note
Furniture and baggage of a person moving residence	Passport, signed contents list, municipal registration certificate, exemption permit and bill of lading	The name on the bill as in the passport
Baggage of an Umrah or Hajj pilgrim	Passport copy, and a list of what is in each piece and its value	Address, postcode and Dutch mobile number
Student baggage	Passport, admission or enrolment letter, and contents list	The full accommodation address
Parcel or gift	Sender’s ID, and a statement of the items and their value	Stated as a gift free of charge if it is one
Commercial goods	Invoice, packing list, bill of lading, certificate of origin and the importer’s European customs number	Extra certificates for foodstuffs
Car	Registration, export certificate, purchase invoice and proof of ownership for an exemption applicant	The registration tax is worked out before shipping

On the Kingdom’s side we issue the export declaration at the customs of Jeddah port or airport; from a resident a copy of his residence permit and passport is enough, and from a visitor a copy of his passport and visa. Each paper is explained on the required documents page, and the release steps on the customs clearance page.

What cannot be shipped to the Netherlands or needs a permit

What most often stops a shipment leaving Makkah is something small put in with good intentions: a bottle of Zamzam, a tin of ghee, or a perfume in an air suitcase. The ban may come from the Kingdom at export, from the European Union at entry, or from the airline for safety reasons. We go through the list with you at inventory time, and these are its main entries:

Item	Ruling
Zamzam water	Not exported as cargo; it stays with the traveller in its pack
Meat, dairy and their products	Banned from outside the European Union in baggage and parcels
Plants, seeds, soil and fresh fruit	With a plant health certificate; dates are excepted in current practice
Oud, products of protected species and ivory	With the international convention certificate above the personal limit
Medicines	A personal-use quantity with a prescription
Counterfeit goods	Seized and destroyed
Tobacco and alcohol	Outside the exemption, and subject to special duties
Alcohol-based perfumes, loose lithium batteries and lighters	Restricted by air, and shipped by sea with their declaration
Cash, gold, passports and original documents	Not shipped; carried by hand

Our complete list is kept on the prohibited items page. When you cannot tell whether something may travel, a photo sent to us ahead of sealing the carton settles it.

Delivering Mecca shipments in Amsterdam, Almere and Haarlem

The vessel’s job ends in Rotterdam, and from there our agent’s work begins: he clears the shipment first, then delivers it to the door. Most addresses on this route are in and around Amsterdam, which is only about 80 km from the port. Around the capital are two cities with many consignees: Almere to the east, a modern city on land reclaimed from the sea, with wide streets and ground-level houses that are easy to unload at; and Haarlem to the west, an old city with a centre of narrow lanes. An air shipment is closer still, as Schiphol Airport lies between Amsterdam and Haarlem.

City	Distance from Rotterdam	Delivery note
Amsterdam	About 80 km	Canal houses with narrow stairs, a centre a container truck cannot enter, and a parking space booked from the municipality
Almere	About 105 km	Modern residential districts, and the truck stops at the door
Haarlem	About 75 km	A historic centre entered with a smaller vehicle
Suburbs: Zaandam, Amstelveen, Hoofddorp and Diemen	Within the Amsterdam area	Delivered on the same day as Amsterdam
Rotterdam, The Hague and Delft	Up to 25 km	The addresses nearest the port
Utrecht	About 60 km	The middle of the country, with delivery on the release day or the next
Eindhoven, Maastricht and Groningen	110–250 km	The farthest cities, reached by truck in a day

The old Dutch house has a custom for getting furniture in: through the window, not the door. At the top of Amsterdam’s house fronts is a beam the rope was hung from, and today an outside hoist does the job. So tell us the floor, the type of building and the width of the staircase when you book, so the hoist is costed from the start and does not appear on delivery day. And write the address the way it is written there: the street, the house number and the postcode made up of four digits and two letters. Our destinations are on the shipping to the Netherlands page.

Services for individuals, companies, government bodies and consulates

The service is one at its core, but what each client expects from it differs. A visitor wants to hand over his suitcases and forget about them. A family that is moving wants someone to carry the customs file for it. A company wants a schedule and a tax invoice. An official body wants a documented procedure befitting the shipment’s status. This is how we arrange it:

Client	What they need	What we provide
Individuals and families	Moving baggage or a home at a known price	A survey, an itemised price and one coordinator until delivery
Umrah and Hajj groups	Shipping a group’s baggage without mix-ups	Sorting by name, a manifest for the supervisor and distribution to the addresses
Companies and traders	Repeat shipments with orderly paperwork	Consolidation from suppliers, a tax invoice and a report on every shipment
Government bodies and universities	Exhibition equipment, delegations and books	Keeping to the event date, and returning what comes back afterwards
Embassies, consulates and Hajj missions	Baggage of transferred staff, documents and seasonal equipment	Sealed envelopes for documents, coordination with the mission’s administration, and the body’s letter in the file

Official bodies’ documents go out in a waterproof envelope with its own tracking number, bearing no description other than “documents”, and are handed to the named person against his signature. Express documents start from SAR 83.

Air freight from Mecca to the Netherlands

The aircraft cuts the whole route down to days. We collect the shipment in Makkah and take it to the cargo terminal at King Abdulaziz Airport, where it is weighed, measured and put through the security check. From Jeddah there are flights to Schiphol, some direct, arriving in about six and a quarter hours, and some stopping at an intermediate airport. Door to door takes 3 to 6 days including clearance, and Schiphol is one of Europe’s largest cargo airports, so the wait there is not long.

• For whom: Umrah gifts that are being awaited, excess suitcases, documents, a student’s baggage before term starts, and commercial samples.
• Calculation: the piece is measured and weighed, then the higher of its scale weight and its volumetric weight is taken, the latter being its volume in cubic centimetres divided by 6000. Work it out before closing the carton with the volumetric weight calculator.
• Price: a gift parcel up to 5 kg from SAR 110, documents from SAR 83, and anything heavier from SAR 23 per kilogram, the kilogram getting cheaper as the shipment gets heavier.
• Delivery inside the Netherlands: from Schiphol to Amsterdam and Haarlem the same day after release, and to the other cities the next day.
• Kept off the aircraft: charcoal, pressurised sprays, loose batteries, and alcohol-based perfume beyond a small quantity.
• What it does not suit: home furniture and bulky goods, whose place is the container.

Service details are on the air freight page, and how things work at the airport in the article Air freight office in Jeddah.

Air or sea? And is there land freight to the Netherlands?

Deciding between the two is a simple sum: what is counted in a few kilograms or has a near deadline boards the aircraft, and what is counted in cubic metres boards the vessel. Many of our clients combine the two in one file, so the gifts and clothes go ahead by air, and the furniture and heavy cartons follow by sea a month later.

As for the land route, we do not rely on it for the Netherlands. A truck would have to cross the Levant and Turkey and then several European states, each border with its own papers and waiting, while a sea container arrives sealed at a lower cost and on a firmer date. Anyone who promises you a truck reaching Amsterdam in a week should be asked for its route in writing. The full comparison is on the shipping methods comparison page, and delivery to the address on the door-to-door shipping page.

Collection from Makkah’s districts and nearby towns

Our crew goes to your location wherever it is in Makkah. In the spacious districts such as Awali, Sharaie, Shawqiyah, Batha Quraysh and Nawariyah the truck drives right up to the door. In Utaybiyah, Kudai, Zahir, Rusayfah and similar districts stepped up the mountain we send a small vehicle first. From Aziziyah and the central area we collect from hotels. And we add to the Makkah run the towns and villages around it:

Place	Distance from Makkah	How we collect
Makkah’s residential districts	Inside the city	From the door, with dismantling and packing on site
Hotels in the central area and Aziziyah	Inside the city	Closed pieces from reception against a receipt, outside prayer and rush times
Hillside districts	Inside the city	A small vehicle to the truck or the warehouse
Al-Jumum and Wadi Fatimah	About 25 km	On the same day as Makkah
Bahrah	About 40 km	On the Jeddah road, so it joins the truck on its way down
Taif	About 90 km	Brought in before the loading day

The cities we cover are on the service cities page.

Steps for shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands

1. Request: you send us what you are shipping, with photos, your district or hotel in Makkah, and the Dutch city and its postcode.
2. Establishing your status: a returning visitor, a person moving residence, a student or a trader. The Dutch customs file is built on it.
3. Price: we estimate the volume or weight and suggest the method, and you receive the price with its items and its transit time.
4. Collection appointment: we fix it within the hours permitted for trucks, and two days before you travel if you are a visitor.
5. Collection: dismantling, wrapping, sorting, weighing and numbering, and you sign a receipt showing the number of pieces.
6. To Jeddah: sea cargo to the port and air cargo to the airport, with the export declaration.
7. Follow-up: the container or air waybill number, and a message at every stop until Rotterdam or Schiphol.
8. Release and handover: once the agent has cleared the shipment he settles a day with the consignee, unloads it and takes a signature.

Following the shipment, support and insurance

Someone who handed over his suitcases at a hotel in Makkah and flew home wants to know where they are without ringing every day. That is why we do not stop at a tracking number; we send word at every move. The date we give you is a range of days, not a single day, because the sea and customs do not run to the hour, and we tell you if something comes up to shift it rather than leaving you to find out.

• Tracking: by container number with the shipping line, or by air waybill number with the airline; the track your shipment page shows how.
• What you hear from us: word when the shipment goes down to Jeddah, when it is handed to the vessel or aircraft, when it berths in Rotterdam or lands at Schiphol, and when it is released and a delivery day is agreed.
• Support: one coordinator answering calls and WhatsApp from 7 am to 11 pm, who knows your file without you explaining it again.
• Changing the delivery: the day or the address can be changed before the truck leaves the agent’s warehouse, so tell us early.
• Insurance: optional, calculated as a percentage of the value written in the list. We consider it necessary for home furniture, a car and appliances, as the sea carrier’s liability is limited under the conventions. The terms are on the cargo insurance page.
• Claim: the remark is written on the delivery receipt on the day, with photos of the piece before wrapping and after opening attached.

Shipping from the Netherlands to Makkah

The route works in both directions. A resident back from studying in the Netherlands with his books and belongings, a family that bought furniture or appliances there, a trader importing equipment or spare parts, and a pilgrim who sent his baggage ahead of a long stay. Our agent collects from the address in any Dutch city and gathers purchases from more than one shop where needed.

• By air: from Schiphol to King Abdulaziz Airport, then to Makkah on the release day.
• By sea: from Rotterdam to Jeddah Islamic Port, then by truck to your district.
• Saudi customs: used belongings of someone coming back are cleared as personal effects, while anything new pays duty according to its type plus 15% VAT.
• Trade goods: products that fall under the technical regulations need a SABER registration before they leave the Netherlands.

Tips before shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands

• Hand over your baggage while you still have two days in Makkah, as collection at the hour of travel spoils the inventory and the weighing.
• Write your name as in the Dutch passport or residence card, not as you are called.
• Put the dates in a carton of their own, and the perfumes and incense in another.
• Do not hide new gifts among used clothes, as declaring them is cheaper than having the carton held.
• Ask your family in the Netherlands for the door and staircase measurements before you ship any large piece of furniture.
• If you are moving, register your address with the municipality as soon as you arrive, as the permit waits on that paper.
• Keep a photo of the receipt and the contents list on your phone until delivery day.

How do you choose a shipping company from Mecca to the Netherlands?

Offers in Makkah are plentiful in the seasons, and some come from a temporary office that vanishes after Hajj. The difference between one offer and another shows in the Netherlands, not in Makkah, when the shipment arrives and the consignee is asked for something he was never told about. Ask these questions before you hand over a single piece:

What you ask about	A reassuring answer	A worrying answer
Legal standing	A commercial registration, a fixed address and a stamped receipt	A seasonal office and a mobile number only
Weight of the pieces	Weighed in front of you, with each weight written down	An estimate by eye and a lump-sum price
Dutch tax	Explains the gift threshold and the exemption permit	“You owe nothing there”
Transit time	Distinguishes sailing days from the time to the door	“Ten days by sea”
Zamzam water	Refuses to put it in the shipment	Accepts it to win the order
Delivery	An agent in the Netherlands and delivery to the door within the price	“You collect it from Rotterdam”

Common mistakes when shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands

• Leaving the handover to the night of travel, so the suitcases are collected with no weight and no list.
• Putting a bottle of Zamzam or a tin of ghee in the gift carton.
• Writing “gifts” or “personal effects” instead of naming the items and their count.
• A Dutch address with no postcode, or with no mobile number the consignee answers.
• Shipping a mover’s furniture before registering the address and applying for the permit.
• Shipping majlis seating or a wardrobe that will not pass the Dutch staircase without arranging a hoist.
• Comparing a price that ends at the Rotterdam quay with a price that reaches the door.

Why Home Safe for shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands?

To book: 0552803439 by call or WhatsApp, from 7 am to 11 pm. Or from the request a quote page.

Related articles and pages

• Shipping from Saudi Arabia to the Netherlands
• Shipping company from Jeddah to the Netherlands
• Shipping company from Mecca to Belgium
• Shipping company from Saudi Arabia to Europe
• Car shipping
• Shipping services

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Frequently asked questions about shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands

How much does shipping from Mecca to the Netherlands cost?

By air via Jeddah airport a kilogram starts from SAR 23, express documents from SAR 83, and a gift parcel of no more than 5 kg from SAR 110. By sea from Jeddah port, part-load furniture starts from SAR 5,500, a full-house container from SAR 11,000, and a saloon by RoRo from SAR 2,800. Photograph what you have and send the name of your Dutch city to 0552803439 to get the figure for your own shipment.

How many days does a shipment need from Makkah until it is delivered in the Netherlands?

A parcel or suitcase by air takes 3 to 6 days. A full container takes 25 to 33 days, of which 15 to 21 are spent at sea between Jeddah and Rotterdam. A part load takes 30 to 38 days, because your cartons wait for the shared container to fill and are then sorted in a Dutch warehouse before they go out to you.

Makkah has neither a port nor an airport, so where does my shipment leave from?

From Jeddah in both cases. Sea cargo goes down by truck to Jeddah Islamic Port about 80 km away, and air cargo is handed to the cargo terminal at King Abdulaziz Airport north of Jeddah, about 100 km away. Both trips usually happen on the collection day itself, and you do not need to arrange anything in Jeddah.

What is the cheapest way to ship from Mecca to the Netherlands?

The sea, by a wide margin. Someone with baggage cartons or a room or two pays for the cubic metres he occupies in a shared container, and someone moving a whole home books a container of his own. The aircraft is left for what weighs little or is due soon, such as gifts meant to arrive before Eid.

What is the most suitable way to ship household furniture?

A sea container. Bedrooms, majlis seating and appliances are dismantled and wrapped in your home in Makkah, then stowed in a 20 or 40 ft container that is sealed and only opened in the Netherlands. One or two urgent pieces can go ahead of the container by plane, but a whole home by air costs many times what it is worth.

Can dates and Umrah gifts be shipped to the Netherlands?

Yes. In current European Union practice the date is one of the few fruits that enter without a plant health certificate, so it ships in its sealed boxes in a household quantity, not a shop quantity. Prayer rugs, prayer beads, abayas and ihram garments carry no restriction. We write each item, its count and its value in the declaration so the carton is not opened to ask about it.

Do you ship Zamzam water with the baggage?

No. Zamzam water is not shipped as cargo out of the Kingdom, and what the traveller is entitled to is the dedicated pack he takes with him on his flight. If a bottle turns up among the cartons we take it out during the inventory, so the whole shipment is not turned back at the export point because of it.

Do you collect suitcases from the hotel in Makkah?

Yes, from hotels in the central area, Aziziyah and elsewhere. You leave the suitcases and cartons closed with the reception desk or the group supervisor, and we collect them against a receipt showing the number of pieces, the weight of each and the owner’s name. Handing over two days before you leave Makkah is best, not at the hour you set off for the airport.

Do I pay customs on my used furniture in the Netherlands?

You do not if you are moving your residence there and Dutch Customs has issued you the exemption permit. Its conditions in current practice: 12 consecutive months of residence outside the European Union, ownership and use of the goods for 6 months, and bringing them in within 12 months of your move. Without the permit, 21% value added tax and a duty by item are charged.

Will my family in the Netherlands pay tax on a gift parcel I send them?

In current practice a gift sent from one individual to another free of charge is exempt if its value does not exceed 45 euros, and anything above that is charged value added tax and possibly duty. That is why we write the real value of each item, and tell you when splitting the gifts between different recipients would suit you better. We confirm the threshold in force before sending.

Do you ship a car from Mecca to the Netherlands?

Yes. A car carrier takes it from Makkah to Jeddah port, then it sails by RoRo or inside a container to Rotterdam. RoRo starts from SAR 2,800 for a saloon. Before you decide, work out what follows the port: 10% duty and 21% tax, then a registration tax based on the engine’s emissions, unless your car comes in under the transfer-of-residence exemption.

Will my electrical appliances work in the Netherlands?

The voltage is practically the same, 230 volts, so no transformer is needed. Two things differ: the Dutch socket takes two round pins, so you need an adaptor or a new plug, and the frequency there is 50 hertz while it is 60 hertz in the Kingdom. So look at the label on the washing machine, the fridge and anything with a motor; if it reads 50/60 hertz it is fine.

Do you deliver to Almere, Haarlem and outside Amsterdam?

Yes. After release in Rotterdam the shipment leaves on the agent’s truck for Amsterdam about 80 km away, for Haarlem to its west and Almere to its east, and for Zaandam, Amstelveen, Hoofddorp and the other suburbs. We also deliver to The Hague, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Groningen and Maastricht; the country is small and a truck reaches its farthest city in a day.

How do I find out the exact price of my shipment before booking?

With three pieces of information: what you are shipping, with photos; where in Makkah we collect it; and which Dutch city it is going to. We estimate the volume or weight and suggest the method, then send you the price split into its items: collection and packing, the haul to Jeddah, the sea or air freight, and clearance and delivery. The estimate is free of charge.

Do you collect shipments from the Netherlands to Makkah?

Yes. Our agent collects from the home or shop in any Dutch city, and the shipment travels by air from Schiphol to Jeddah airport or by sea from Rotterdam to Jeddah port, then we clear it and deliver it to your district in Makkah. A returnee’s used baggage enters as personal effects, and new items carry duty by type and 15% tax.