........such a brilliant response - i never expected so much help - just to let you know i'm soaking it all up, as no doubt others are - i'll get back to some of you later if i may, as the trip gets more detailed
thanks again
Mick

Hi Mick,

I don't know much about Bulgaria, but I was in Romania two times. First by bike and second by car. It's a great country, with very good hospitality, people are very helpful,...

Check my website : www.motodiary.info I tink you will find some info for your trip.

Good road !!!

I`m from Serbia and I`ve been in Bulgaria last year on the road from Turkey, and my friends from my club were in Romania two years ago. Romania have a good landskapes but roads are so,so, very cheap country, friendly people. Bulgarian roads are better every year, either cheap, better landskapes are on the north of the country. On Bulgarian seaside you can have good time, good food, accomodation, every for a little money. Don`t worry about safety anywhere. Sorry for my not so good enlish.

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Bikers work is never done!

I did that with Carole Nash too. Romania, at least for me, was much MUCH more interesting than Bulgaria. No police issues there, but Bulgaria is crawling with them. Check out my blog 'Kevin Payne' for more detailed info. Happy to answer specific questions once u have looked at that.

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Honda CBR 1100 XX, Yamaha XTZ 660, Harris Special

Hi mickba,

I am planning a similar solo trip, starting (hopefully) with LeMans 24 in April, then heading East, no timescale or ties, only timeframe is the International Transalp rally in Austria, May 15th for a few day's.

If you fancy meeting up for a while, feel free to contact me.

Phil

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650 Transalp

Welcome to Romania!!!!

As a romanian I will recomend you to stay in the north and west region of Romania, roads are more suitable to enduro than to street bikes. In north regions you can enjoy beautifull lanscape, virgin nature, monuments, nice people. In south and eastern romania you should be aware of gypsies - take care of your pockets . people are still nice but not like in north.

Also keep your eyes open on the roads .... drivers don't often respect bikers and don't respect driving rules so you can see a driver turning in the middle of the street even if he has a continuous line, road signs for priority are not respected and treated as they should ... slow down before cross-roads.

If you are in rural zone and is almost night take care and look for cows and horses because is "coming home hour".

Truk drivers are crazy and especially look out for cars with foreign numbers from Spain and Italy ..... 90% of them are romanians .... and they have to prove what car they bought from their work abroad ... so they are driving like sh**.

Don't expect to meet ATM's allover or exchange houses - allways change your money on city at a bank or at a trusty exchange office ... not on street.
Also be aware on small motells or hotels that accept credit cards but they don't require pin authorisation for tranzactions .... allways look at the person who handels your card.


Maybe I scared you .... but is better to know.

It worth to visit Romania, and you will see that you will wish to come again.

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See me,
Feel me,
Touch me,
BEER ME!

Not so true ....... Euro is not a valid curency in Romania .... it will be in 2008-2009 .... but now you still have to change in Lei

People accept euros ... but they trick you .... YOU CAN'T PAY IN EURO!!!!

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See me,
Feel me,
Touch me,
BEER ME!

I visited Romania in the summer of 2006 on a Honda ST 1100 and thought the whole country was just delightful. Nice people, good food, very low cost compared to western Europe. What Kumuya said in post #21 about roads and driving is very true. You have to slow down, you will be sharing the road with horses, horses and carts (in rural areas), and the big truck drivers really are jerks. Passenger cars that have Romanian plates on them are fine, no worries. Passenger cars (especially larger ones) with Western European plates on them are the big problem - they are being driven by expat Romanians who are home for a visit.

Motorcycles (other than scooters in the city) are uncommon in Romania, so, I don't think drivers are really used to looking for motos... that's the heart of the problem. Keep your headlight on and wear an orange or yellow safety vest when you ride.

Roads themselves fall into three main categories: Brand new and as good as you will find in Switzerland, kind of old and not really the best, but fine nonetheless, or (more commonly) being dug up to make the transition between the two states mentioned first.

Keep your wits about you, don't rush into anything you can't see, and you will be just fine.

Hi Kumuya,

Do you know about road conditions in east Romania, especially in Galati area.
I'm travelling in Odessa next April and one plan is to continue route Odessa-Galati-Bucharest-Brasov. On that route I have to ride through Moldova. We as EU citizens dont need a visa anymore, but is the border crossing working nevertheless ?

Moldavian roads are 90% good on major route - like Suceava to Bucharest, Galati - Bucharest is not bad but I don't know how are secondary roads.
Now depend from Galati what route you choose to Bucharest, If you take Galati - Braila - Slobozia - Bucharest ... Is a good road at least Slobozia Bucharest is ok.

Or if you take Galati-Focsani- Bucharest ..... also Focsani - Bucharest is a very good road ... but in Galati area depend if it will be again a flood ... roads will be affected

Bucharest - Brasov is a good road only if you will go on week-end you should expect many cars

ALSO many roads will have radar systems - Bucharest - Brasov already has, but if you go along many cars you will notice where are radars because all are slowing down
On moldavian roads last summer were a lot of police cars with radar or "our favorite" unmarked police cars with radar. Luckily car drivers signals a radar so if you see some cars flashing their lights you should verify your speed.

Also romanian road legislation says that motorcycles must always have lights on, and cars only outside cities.

I don't know about border crossing from Ukraine to Romania ... but you shouldn't have problems on romanian border.

As I wrote on previous post take care of your pockets in Galati area or if you stop at a gas station don't loose sight of your luggage - is valable for Bucharest too - especially when you see gypsies.

__________________
See me,
Feel me,
Touch me,
BEER ME!

I crossed from Ukraine into Romania in July of 2006. No problems of any kind, the Romanian customs officials were friendly, very courteous and helpful, and several of them spoke English. They checked to make sure that I actually owned the motorcycle I was riding, but I very much got the impression that they were doing this in an effort to reduce importation of stolen vehicles, not to give me any kind of hassle at all. Total time at the border crossing: about 10 minutes.

I entered Ukraine from the Czech Republic about a week earlier. That was a totally different experience. Although the Ukrainian customs officials were very courteous, they were not at all efficient, and they looked at all sorts of documents 'by rote' - ownership, insurance, passport, my visa, everything. Total time at the actual crossing point (interacting with officials) - about 90 minutes. There was at least a 4 hour lineup to enter Ukraine, but all of the local people at the back of the lineup kept telling me to just go ahead to the front of the line. I'm not sure if this was because I was obviously a visitor, or because I was on a motorcycle. Anyway, after a lot of prompting, I did that (jumped the queue), the folks at the front of the queue let me in as if it was normal, and I then started the customs formalities.

No-one at either crossing point ever raised the slightest suggestion of baksheesh, bribes, anything like that. All the extortion began once I entered Ukraine - every 50 kms, I was shaken down for about USD $10 or so in local currency by traffic cops running roadside shakedown stations.

Hope that helps.

Hi Mickba

I wondered whether you are still planning to make this trip? If so how is the planning going, as I am contemplating riding to Bulgaria via France, Italy, Greece, in May.

Romania won`t adopt euro curency until 2014 ... Bulgaria maybe in 2009-2010. The exchange rates for Euro->Ron you can find here : Info financiar . Alsa 1 leva is about 0.5 euro.
The major roads in Romania are decent, but they pass through every village posible with speed limit of 50 kmh ... There are many radars in towns/villages so speeding would not be a good idea Outside town there are usualy no radars.
Be carefoul to secondary roads as they are very bad ... Potholes everywhere ... But for a XTZ 750 i think would be ok I would recomand you Transalpina (links Sebes to Targu Jiu), it`s an unpaved road that goes over 2000m in altitude. Also, Transfagarasean is ok (links Curtea de Arges to Fagaras).
In Bulgaria the roads are ok, maybe a little worse than in Romania, but again, for an enduro-touring bike they are ok. The police in Bulgaria is a little less opresive from my experience , less radars ... A problem in bulgaria is also the cyrilic alphabet ... But on major roads they have signs in latin alphabet so it`s ok. With a gps won`t be any problem ...
As for clearing customs, now with the entry in european union it goes quite fast ... The only check your passport ... From my experince the crossing from Romania to Bulgaria didn`t took more than ... 30 secons ?

Just to share my recent experience in Romania (11 days) and Bulgaria(only 2 days):
Border Crossings - no problem, only needed ID (german)
Police - no problem in Romania, have rarely seen any, was never stopped. In Bulgaria I've seen lots and was once pulled over, obviously because I'm on a bike. But when they saw I'm german they laugh and wave me on. From Romanians I've heard there's a lot less hassle with Police in Bulgaria since it's EU now.
Roads Romania - bad to very bad in the north (still lots of fun!). OK to excellent in Transylvania and somewhat inbetween in the south.
Roads Bulgaria - were all OK, but I'v been only on major roads travelling through.


cheers Andi

Hi ptr10001,

When exactly are you going? I'm planning to ride via Romania/Moldova to Odessa at the very end of May/beginning of June. I'd be pleased to meet up with someone.