Road trip through Eastern Europe in November
#1
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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 10
Road trip through Eastern Europe in November
My husband and I will go on a road trip starting from Italy and through Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia we will reach Bulgaria, where we will stay for a month or so. While in Bulgaria, we will visit Romania.
Has anyone got any tips for us? Not so much on sightseeing and the like, more like about the conditions of the roads, best area to enter each country, things to look out for (I heard nightmare stories about Serbian roads, for example, but we will drive mostly on motorways). I would love some practical tips, basically.
Both hubby and I hold the EU Covid Green Pass (in Italian, French and German) in paper form; our car will have winter tyres (+ chains in boot in case of need).
Thank you in advance to whoever will reply.
Has anyone got any tips for us? Not so much on sightseeing and the like, more like about the conditions of the roads, best area to enter each country, things to look out for (I heard nightmare stories about Serbian roads, for example, but we will drive mostly on motorways). I would love some practical tips, basically.
Both hubby and I hold the EU Covid Green Pass (in Italian, French and German) in paper form; our car will have winter tyres (+ chains in boot in case of need).
Thank you in advance to whoever will reply.
#2
Re: Road trip through Eastern Europe in November
My husband and I will go on a road trip starting from Italy and through Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia we will reach Bulgaria, where we will stay for a month or so. While in Bulgaria, we will visit Romania.
Has anyone got any tips for us? Not so much on sightseeing and the like, more like about the conditions of the roads, best area to enter each country, things to look out for (I heard nightmare stories about Serbian roads, for example, but we will drive mostly on motorways). I would love some practical tips, basically.
Both hubby and I hold the EU Covid Green Pass (in Italian, French and German) in paper form; our car will have winter tyres (+ chains in boot in case of need).
Thank you in advance to whoever will reply.
Has anyone got any tips for us? Not so much on sightseeing and the like, more like about the conditions of the roads, best area to enter each country, things to look out for (I heard nightmare stories about Serbian roads, for example, but we will drive mostly on motorways). I would love some practical tips, basically.
Both hubby and I hold the EU Covid Green Pass (in Italian, French and German) in paper form; our car will have winter tyres (+ chains in boot in case of need).
Thank you in advance to whoever will reply.
We drove with a hire car in Romania and when we wanted to travel into Bulgaria the hire company refused to let us use the existing car but downgraded it to a very old model as they considered the Bulgarians as "thieves" . Similar quality roads, border crossing slow while passports checked in great detail but no real hassles.
#4
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2020
Posts: 33
Re: Road trip through Eastern Europe in November
Roads and driving standards will get progressively worse the further east you go. When you enter Serbia you’ll get on a stretch of motorway with tons of potholes (unless this has been fixed in the meantime). You will find people speeding, cutting in etc. However if you’re in Italy now none of this should be too shocking.
#5
Re: Road trip through Eastern Europe in November
Loafing Along is right, Romania (especially Transylvania and perhaps the Delta) are well worth a visit. As for driving there, as LA says, most the main roads are in decent condition, although there's not much motorway yet - but anyway, motorways are boring for roads trips so if you're not rushing, the regular roads probably give you a more interesting point of view. The driving can be a bit iffy at times as people here tend to like to overtake even for very little advantage, so you have to keep an eye open and don't assume the guy behind you won't try to overtake just because it's a blind bend on a foggy day :-) It's got better in the last ten years though. Passing through Romania from Transylvania through the Carpathians to the south region can be problematic at times as there are only a handful of routes through the mountains, mostly single-lane roads, so if you hit them when people are heading to/from the capital they get very congested - try to avoid travelling South to North on Friday evenings, Saturday late morning/afternoon, and North to South on Sunday afternoons. As for parking, most the big cities have carparks and for a lot of them you can pay by SMS - just look for the sign (usually near the coin payment machine). It's often a bit more expensive using the SMS option but less hassle and still pretty cheap.
#6
Just Joined
Joined: Jul 2023
Posts: 6
Re: Road trip through Eastern Europe in November
My husband and I will go on a road trip starting from Italy and through Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia we will reach Bulgaria, where we will stay for a month or so. While in Bulgaria, we will visit Romania.
Has anyone got any tips for us? Not so much on sightseeing and the like, more like about the conditions of the roads, best area to enter each country, things to look out for (I heard nightmare stories about Serbian roads, for example, but we will drive mostly on motorways). I would love some practical tips, basically.
Both hubby and I hold the EU Covid Green Pass (in Italian, French and German) in paper form; our car will have winter tyres (+ chains in boot in case of need).
Thank you in advance to whoever will reply.
Has anyone got any tips for us? Not so much on sightseeing and the like, more like about the conditions of the roads, best area to enter each country, things to look out for (I heard nightmare stories about Serbian roads, for example, but we will drive mostly on motorways). I would love some practical tips, basically.
Both hubby and I hold the EU Covid Green Pass (in Italian, French and German) in paper form; our car will have winter tyres (+ chains in boot in case of need).
Thank you in advance to whoever will reply.
#7
Just Joined
Joined: Jul 2023
Posts: 6
Re: Road trip through Eastern Europe in November
My husband and I will go on a road trip starting from Italy and through Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia we will reach Bulgaria, where we will stay for a month or so. While in Bulgaria, we will visit Romania.
Has anyone got any tips for us? Not so much on sightseeing and the like, more like about the conditions of the roads, best area to enter each country, things to look out for (I heard nightmare stories about Serbian roads, for example, but we will drive mostly on motorways). I would love some practical tips, basically.
Both hubby and I hold the EU Covid Green Pass (in Italian, French and German) in paper form; our car will have winter tyres (+ chains in boot in case of need).
Thank you in advance to whoever will reply.
Has anyone got any tips for us? Not so much on sightseeing and the like, more like about the conditions of the roads, best area to enter each country, things to look out for (I heard nightmare stories about Serbian roads, for example, but we will drive mostly on motorways). I would love some practical tips, basically.
Both hubby and I hold the EU Covid Green Pass (in Italian, French and German) in paper form; our car will have winter tyres (+ chains in boot in case of need).
Thank you in advance to whoever will reply.
How did everyone like Slovenia and Croatia? I heard only good things about and lots of fun things to see and activities to do like rafting, canyoning Bled and climbing. Any advice would be appreciated?
#8
Just Joined
Joined: Apr 2024
Posts: 4