Croatia, Montenegro and Albania
 

Taking the coast road through Croatia, Montenegro and Albania to Greece then on to Turkey. Anyone been this way recently. Any problems with border crossings, paperwork entering/leaving Montenegro and Albania etc. Suggested stopovers.
Have been to Turkey a couple of times in the past but usually take ferry from Ancona to Iguomenitsa as time was a constraint. This time have a longer stay planned so going overland and calling at Plitvic, Mostar on route.
Thanks

Haven't been since 2011 but no problems at all for me. Albanian border officer demanded insurance papers and seemed to get pissed off when I said I needed to buy insurance but his buddy came over, looked at my papers, said, "Manchester United", smiled and waved me through. Very windy on the coastal route and be careful of oncoming traffic on your side of the road in Albania; you will have to get out of their way.

Just returned from the Balkans and we did ride some of the coast road, the northern stretch from Zadar to Rijeka has lots of road works going on but there's loads of great roads in land,

Dave

Hi,

have been there in '11 and all the way down to GR and Turkey last year. No problems with customs, at all! Actually the Albanian boarder guy guided me to pass all the cars and we did all paperwork in a small and shady corridor (it had about 44° last July) what I really appreciated.
Just watch out for the roads in Albania, they change suddenly without any warning or you have kids, dogs, cows and whatever in the middle of them or the worst, big big deep holes.

Everything else is really fine! The people are friendly and the area great, if you ignore all the trash around you.

Don't forget the green insurance card, every boarder you I did need it!

Have fun and enjoy the Balkans! :scooter::mchappy:

Alex

September 12
 

Went down that way last year in September. Croatia was wonderful, Montenegro lovely too. Albania smelled of oil, there seems to be petrol stations everywhere there. Had no hassles at all at borders, simply passed through quickly. There was a large queue to Croatia border from Slovenia but as I was on bike, simply passed by them all.
I was never asked for insurance at any of them. I had an emergency insurance document in any case (slightly modified by me to include countries not in Europe zone)

Albania roads are not as good as Croatia but mostly ok, some very polished and possible slippy when wet. I had about 20kms of gravel in the south Albania but on the whole easy peasy as my kids would say. Some waffle here, don't worry about the kidnap jokes, its what I was told.

No proplems
 

Hi Ted,

We did a similar trip last year in May 2012 and had total 7 boarder crossings without any problems. Only in Kosovo you must pay 10 EURO for insurance of your motorbike. Also in Kosovo some policeman stopped us and basicly said it is forbidden to ride motorbikes on a certain street in Prizren. But the locals really helped us out and talked the policeman out of giving us a fine :-).

By the way I would highly recomend to visit Bosnia instead of Croatian Costal Road. A very adventur route is from plicvice Lakes to Bosnia, then directly to Montenegro and further on thru Kosovo to Albania. A very nice and historical place is Orhid (Lake Ohrid is stunning). So i would recommend to visit KOSOVO and Macedonia (FYROM).

Well anyway safe trip and enjoy.