Albania,Montenegro,Bosnia-Rent and ride 2020???
 

I want to ride these countries, and more. I was thinking next year. But if things improve, I could go this year. I haven't research where to rent from or what countries companies may allow. I may look at buying a bike and shipping back to the USA. That's doubtful. But I have been looking for a new bike anyway. I rented 2 years ago from MotoPlasir? in France. But I'd rather start closer to my destination.



This time opportunity just opened up a few days ago. I haven't even looked at visa and insurance requirements. Does anyone have any recent information they could share with me?

Maybe you can ask Franjo from Bosnia.

He does Enduro tours, but maybe he rents bikes or knows someone who rents bikes.

The best enduro tours in Bosnia | Enduro Grip Bosnia

If you are in the area, let me know, if I have time, I might just ride on from Austria and we could get a beer together in the evening once....

If I find something in Montenegro or Albania, I let you know.

MotoCamp Bulgaria | motosapiens.org

Contact Polly, they rent out off road bikes - she may be able to help you.

There's a guy ADVRider that runs a bike rental company in Croatia (IIRC Scooby or something).

I highly recommend this kind of trip, Bosnia especially was probably my most pleasant surprise during all of my travels. Absolutely beautiful, and Sarajevo is really cool. Montenegro also seems nice, although Kotor was much more touristy than I expected. Had to kind of rush through Albania, so I missed a lot and hope to go back some day.

Bulgaria is far away from Bosnia, dont think this helps.

OP says these countries and more. The tone of the post suggests to me that he wants to travel for a decent amount of time - he has thought about shipping a bike out there which would be costly for a couple of weeks.
Bulgaria is a country that many people visit whilst on a tour of the Balkans. We rode from Bulgaria to Albania in a day - if he can get sorted in Bulgaria it is as good a place To start as any - imho.
Hopefully this has made my suggestion a bit more helpful :thumbup1:

Yes it is a long way. But Flipflop is right about the "and more". I rode (too fast) through Bulgaria, Macedonid, Serbia, and some of Croatia in 2013. After a month delay in Russia, I was behind schedule. I read, up the Adriatic coast was the route I should have taken. I've been going other places. Now it's time to go back and see what I missed. I won't have any real time limit. A month is an approximate length of time. I'll look at rental rates and air fares from Ohio to decide where I start. Last year I flew to Prague to do a Nordcapp loop.

What I've read, it sounds like Europe may not be open to American travelers anytime soon. So I may just be researching for 2021. It will give me something to do while "social distancing."

I looked at them. 650 Strom is $92/day. A month is 30 or 31 times that rate. And only 218 miles per day. I never communicated with them for a better rate.



Did I meet you at the Oasis in UB?

hey mate , there is a company in montenegro that rent bikes as well, buddy of mine is owner , and my partner as well since i operate help on the road, tourist info, accommodations and stuff , check rentamoto.me , he is on instagram as i am , and if you contact him directly make sure you say sparco gave you contact , so he can lower the price , plenty of bikes and huge range from mint condition tenere 660 do latest gs and africa
cheers
sparco ig : gremlinsgarage

p.s. accommo at my place always free for travelers from hubb

Ouch, that's expensive.

We might have met there, I was there in August 2013 on an XChallenge...I met several people there, what were you riding, or what's your real name?

I was there mid July, 2013 on a KLR. If I didn't meet you there I must have communicated with you here or on Adv.

Yes, we've probably communicated here; I used to live and travel in Russia, so posted quite a bit about that back in the day.

Well, I guess this thread is dead. Still no chance for me getting into Europe and riding. I'll have more time to plan. Try again next year after getting a vaccination.

Hope to see you maybe next year?

If you stop by in Austria, there is a place to sleep

Thanks Klaus. Hope to see you next year.

We are also here on HUBB as well:

https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...een-card-93020

and on ADVrider:

https://advrider.com/f/threads/new-e...chase.1075077/

Lobagola MotoTours | expedition off road tours, insurance, storage, freight

Serving as one of the co founders of www.transeurotrail.org as well as linesman for Croatia.

Thanks for the heads up,

BR
Dooby

Uhm would you be so kind and show me on our website where do we say limited mileage and also where did you saw that price per day is the same as the price for longer time windows?

I have linked HUBB and ADVrider threads on our services and you can get a lot of info if you get in touch with us directly.

We're the only one stop shop service of such kind in Europe, providing bike purchase on EU plates, registration, insurance (we're insurance broker and only one that provides insurance for EU plated bikes owned by non EU residents), service, logistics, transport, mapping etc etc.

Direct email to get in touch:

info@lobagola-mototours.com
insurance@lobagola-mototours.com
tours@lobagola-mototours.com

We can source any motorcycle you would like to have and store it in our warehouse with many other bikes owned by our clients from US, CAN, NZ, Aus etc. We have our own rental and expedition touring fleet in that same warehouse, so trickle charging, bike running, tyre pressure is checked 2 times per month.

There is much more to say about us and our services, but you can check what our clients have said on our google my business page as well.

https://www.google.com/search?q=loba...fe95dffd17d6,1,,,

BR
Dooby

We had clients flying in this year from US and riding in Europe and some of them outside as well.

It's doable, though you have to be flexible and patient enough because of the constant border crossing changes of regulation covid19 related.

Let me know if you need more info.

BR
Dooby

I believe that there is a mix up. I was referring to Rockermoto. Not Lobagola. If you find where I mentioned Lobagola being expensive, I will go back and edit that. I am starting a new file for the Balkans, and I will add your site to it so I can contact you next year. That is who I referred to about being expensive:


Originally Posted by motoreiter https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...s/viewpost.gif
There's a guy ADVRider that runs a bike rental company in Croatia (IIRC Scooby or something).



I Googled Croatia IIRC and came up with Rockermoto.

oops, sorry, I should have remembered dooby, not scooby! Next time!

Dooby is the guy to go to, i have my bike with him, he's easy to work with and very friendly, can't recommend him enough, bier

It was a minor mixup. All good now. I will revisit his site next year if the Covid has a short half life. His prices looked reasonable.

Trying east Europe again
 

I'm hoping again to get a ride in this year.The dates I'm using for airline prices are leaving USA Sept 8 and returning October 13.Tentative countries are Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria,Turkey, Armenia, and possibly Azerbaijan. I am looking at Lobagola in Zegrab closely. Has anyone been traveling in this area and what can you share about it with me?

Doogle:

I've ridden extensively over many years in the Balkan countries you mentioned (Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia) as well as in Bulgaria. They are all great places to ride.

But, personally, I think you are nuts to try and ride through half a dozen countries this year, this because of the current state of the COVID pandemic and the recent exponential growth of infections worldwide due to the Delta variant.

I think things are going to get a helluva lot worse (a 4th wave) before they get better - just look at your home country (USA) for an example. In your home country, anyone can get a vaccination tomorrow if they want one. That's not the case in any of the countries that you mention... they all have much lower vaccination rates than the USA, and things are going to hell in the USA right now. As soon as things get worse in those lesser developed countries, they are going to start imposing curfews, quarantines, lockdowns and border crossing restrictions.

Last March, at the very start of this pandemic - before it was even declared a pandemic - I took the ferry from Italy over to Tunisia to ride around there. The pandemic exploded, I got trapped in Tunisia, went through about a month of enforced quarantine and lockdown in Tunisia, and barely managed to catch a very expensive flight out of Tunis and back to Canada. My motorcycle is still in Tunis. As much as I would like to go get it ASAP, I don't think that's going to be possible this year... maybe next spring.

If you are dead-set on riding in Europe this year, pick ONE country to go riding in, and make sure that country has direct air service back to the USA if quarantines & lockdowns get imposed. You don't want to be riding a rented bike three border crossings away from where you rented it only to find out that you can't get the bike back to the rental site due to suddenly imposed travel restrictions. It's bad enough when one has to leave their own motorcycle behind... it will be staggeringly expensive if you have to leave a rental bike behind, or if your planned one-month rental turns into a 6 month rental.

Michael

Hi Michael,

Just to correct you and provide factual info for you and other based on checked and government provided info (I can provide links if needed).
In Serbia you could get free jabs as local or a tourist since mid May and in Croatia since beginning of July.

If you ask me autumn will be totally fine in Europe and Balkans, what would the politicians be forced to do and who is going to be the first one to be forced to accept they messed up totally with their decisions that will be present in the coming months. I won’t comment NZ and AUS at all that is a proper disaster of grandeur proportions.
Inflation bubble is going to burst and it will be interesting to follow how the politicians will weather this storm all along while blockchain and NFT’s are marching full steam ahead.

Stay well and let me know if you want help to get your bike from Tunisia to Europe to be stored here.

Cheers
Dooby

I appreciate your thoughts here. This is why I've been waiting till this last minute. Yes, paying for rental for 6 months while it sat would be expensive. Plus hotels stays long enough to pay for buying the hotel. And my concerns about infection in another country do heighten. I'm vaccinated-and possibly they will have a booster soon.

Hi Dooby:

The point I was trying to make in my post #24 above did not concern vaccine availability or whether the rider himself is vaccinated - it was a warning about the possibility that a rider could get trapped in a 3rd country due to quarantine or border crossing restrictions that could be imposed in the future with little or no notice if the COVID infection rate in that 3rd country or adjoining countries starts to get out of hand.

There are two reasons why I wrote that warning - and both of them arise from my own experience on the road when the pandemic first started.

1) A country that a rider is in may suddenly impose travel restrictions (i.e. no travel across regional borders within that country), curfews, or quarantines (stay at home orders) without advance notice if infections get out of hand. We've all seen that happen in the recent past in many different countries.

2) An adjoining country that a rider needs to pass through to get back to their point of origin (where they rented their bike, or where their return air ticket home originates, or even where they live if they live in Europe) may suddenly slam the door shut to entry of people other than their own citizens if the infection rate gets out of hand either in their country or in the adjoining country where the rider presently is.

For example, in the case of point 2 above, my moto is presently in Tunisia (where I got trapped as described in point 1 last year), and there is nothing preventing me from travelling to Tunisia tomorrow to get the motorcycle - except that Italy, the normal place to re-enter Europe by ferry from Tunisia, is not allowing anyone to enter their country unless they are a citizen or permanent resident of Italy. I'm a Canadian, so, no way I could get out of Tunisia into Italy. It doesn't matter that I am fully vaccinated with two shots of Pfizer, the Italians just won't let me in.

This is why I strongly recommend to Doogle that he not plan a ride that depends on crossing a number of country borders... because that runs the risk of getting trapped in a country because of restrictions that country imposes (point 1), or getting trapped in a country because of restrictions that an adjoining country imposes (point 2).

I've been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt, and it was an expensive and stressful process. It didn't cause me any great inconvenience because I am retired and I could afford the one month of wasted time and the additional $6,000 in unexpected expenses that I incurred from the Tunisian lockdown & quarantine & European border closures, but a younger person who has a fixed amount of vacation time and a job to return to - and probably a less healthy bank account - could find themselves really screwed.

Hence my advice to "pick one country and stick to it" and to also make sure that the country you pick has direct air connection back to your home country in the event that lockdowns and travel restrictions get re-imposed.

Personally, I'm quite pessimistic about what the "4th wave" is going to look like this fall... I think it is going to make the first 3 waves look like a dress rehearsal. Just look at what is happening in the USA and the UK right now - both those countries have much higher vaccination rates than any of the countries that Doogle is interested in visiting.

Michael

I understand your point but would just state here that there is not going to be any problem with new lockdowns in the autumn or in winter, or 4th wave.

Except of course in NZ/AUS when they reopen (terrible terror they have there and I really don't understand why people don't raise against the tyranny).

I am very aware that you got burned with extra cost of being trapped but that also goes to bad political decisions.

UK is on the right path, if you need graphs for me to post, I can do that. And I am not kidding here.

BR
Dooby

I'm not so sure of that. I'll bet you a cup of coffee that things will get significantly worse during the 4th quarter 2021, and we will see very significant restrictions put in place. These might not include the classic "lockdown" (meaning, everyone stay at home), but I am pretty sure that we will see border crossing restrictions applied to both international and internal (regional) borders.

We can settle the bet at your place in Croatia sometime in the summer of 2022 - which is when I think things will finally be back to normal, likely due to two-tier systems (vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated) being put in place, similar to what France has done already.

Michael

I am into thinking that if they try something along the way, there will be one country that will ignite the fire (people), and the rest will follow.

Virus will be here next year and the year after that, the sanity is already lost. Sadly by some nations I have considered to be the sanctuary of the free mind.

Time will tell, been through the war, lost everything, so saw 100’s of false flags and learned that state is just a large framework of fake safety so the ones on the top can pick up the cream and let the small people have fun working their ass of.

Namaste

I do respect your opinion, especially in light of your lived experience.

So far as government responses & actions related to this pandemic are concerned, I think there are two ways of looking at those actions:

(Positive outlook, assumes benevolent government): The most important responsibility of any country's government is to protect their citizens. So, if a country thinks that an external threat is present, such as infectious disease arriving from outside the country, they will close borders.

(Negative outlook, assumes cynical & self-serving government): If the government thinks it will lose popularity and put at risk its continuing electoral success as a result of any given development, it will take whatever actions it thinks appropriate to remain in power.

Either perspective could result in inbound travel restrictions.

Michael

So kind of a "heads I win, tails you lose" situation?

I'm still on the fence. I'll wait another couple weeks to see what pops up/ or doesn't. Turkey has the most places I'd like to see. If I start there, I might gamble with Armenia and Azerbiajan. If they look less inviting, I might just do the Balkans.

Just so that you can see the vaccination rates of the countries you have mentioned possibly going to:

https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2021-09-04&facet=none&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location &Metric=People+vaccinated+%28by+dose%29&Interva l=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Al ign+outbreaks=false&country=BGR~BIH~ALB~HRV~OWID_K OS~MNE~MKD~USA~TUR~ARM~AZE

Turkey is up at the rates that are in the USA as a national average and Croatia is not far behind. Now have a think about the mortality rates that are present in the USA with its health care system. The delta variant is ripping through the world and whilst the vaccine provides significant protection it is not 100%. Countries are liable to shut borders at the drop of a hat to protect their citizens as far as possible - if you are coming I suggest sticking to one country just to reduce the risk of your trip being buggered with no warning.

Thanks for chart I will be going to Croatia next Tuesday to start my 5 week trip.