Greece to italy - Slovenia - Croatia - Serbia - FYROM
 

I am planning a trip this summer, the first outside my country Greece. I have posted a similar post to advrider but i had very few answers and not the ones i was hoping for, so i thought to test my luck here.
So the plan is to leave Igoumenitsa Greece by ferry to Venice Italy, and then on travel all around Slovenia - Croatia for a while, see the sights and then return via Serbia-FYROM.
My main concern in about road conditions, accomodation and safety.
I also want to know if i must make accomodation arrangements before i go there (iam talking about Slovenia Bled, Ljubljana and Croatia Plitvice, Dubrovnik, Split) or i can easily find something there on the spot.
Finally any suggestions of places to visit, especially those off the beaten track are always wellcome and even better if you could give me any suggestions about routes to "must-see" places in these countries. The trip hopefully will last 15-17 days so it is enough time i thing to get a taste of the scenery and life there.
Looking forward for your answers.

There are a lot of ideas and maps in this trip report on UKGSer.

I rode some of this area last year and loved Plitvice, Bled and the Vrsic Pass from Kranjska Gora.

@ Robroy
Great pics. I haven' come across the Stol pass yet, so reason enough to ride down again :thumbup1:


@ Dreamadventurer
Apparently you do not intend to do any camping. Depending on the time you'll be travelling - outside main holiday times you shouldn't have any probs finding accomodation. Apart from SLO and HR there isn't much tourism and I never had any difficulty in finding a room or hotel in those countries. Dubrovnik is very touristical, so I would try to find accommodation in a small village outside.
Road conditions are mostly good for motorcycles if tarred. Dirt roads might be a bit rough at times, but what I came across up to now always doable. I love the croatian backroads, but if you're going for the first time I'd take the coastal route southwards after coming from Plitvice. In Montenegro, which you haven't listed, the Tara canyon and the Durmitor NP are very pretty. Personally I haven't been to Sarajevo, but it is supposed to be beautiful. Some of the roads leading to Sarajevo from the west are also marked as scenic. I have only visited the southern and western parts of Macedonia. Lake Ohrid is worthwhile to visit and along the lake are several orthodox churches and monastries which are must-sees. The southern parts will remind you of your Pindos mountains. Looks quite similar.

@Vaufi

Thanks for posting an answer.
In your opinion should i be carefoul of anything in particular during this trip?

Nothing in particular, except the traffic cops. Esp. on the coastal road down Croatia they love to set up speed traps :( Some of the villages are endless, on and off a house, inbetween fields, and all the way 50 kph :rolleyes2:

Bled is beautiful, but touristy. I went when I was a hiker not a biker. There's a bikers pub there (the Planincu, near the bus station) which is worth a visit, for the food alone. If you go in mid summer it will be full of tourists so you may have to stay 'after hours' to get talking to the locals :innocent:. They should be able give you ideas on routes around there. There's a nice hostel in Bled as well.

Depends what you are in to, but the most interesting place I went to in Slovenia was the franja partisan hospital. Franja Partisan Hospital - UNESCO World Heritage Centre. I went on the bus, but I would imagine its a beautiful bike ride there from Bled. The road goes up over a pass through the Julian Alps, and then follows the beautiful Soca river valley.

Hi Dreamadventurer,
I did this route last september anticlockvise.
Roads are ok, no problem thoughh coastal touristic parts are bit crowded on high season.
Be careful around Vrsic Pass, if it is rainy, foggy and dark, it can be dangereous. I was scared there :)

If you don't go in hi-season, you will always find room/soba/sobe everywhere. Don't worry for that. Try to be not late for searching for accomodation, I mean before dark hours.

It is a nice route, you will like it. Try to spend more time in Istra/Istria area. You will love the place...

Enjoy your trip...

Of the Italian way of driving... for sure (I'm a northern Italian, so I know what I say).
I read that you will skip the south of Italy, so don't worry (driving is sooooo crazy, there).

Don't leave your bike unattended in the big cities such as Venice, Trieste...: Police found that there's many bike theft carried out by immigrants gangs. They have been caught and sentenced to jail, but I assume they are not the only bastards out there.
How do they do? They follow you and they look at where you park: they are on van painted in some motorcycle dealers' colors (fake, of course) and they load your bike without letting people suspect anything (it looks like a broken bike recover operation).
As for the rest... have fun in my Country!


(I can make you sure I laughed my a$$ off when I came to know that some motorcycle thieves, some years ago, where caught by some riders while stealing the Harley of the boss of an Italian biker gang supporting my area's Hell's Angels chapter: I can make you sure 2 of those bastards had a veeeeeery hard couple of minutes... :thumbup1: before being trusted to Police).

slovenia is brilliant. If your camping there are loads of very well maintained and equiped campsites.

1. Pohorje range near Maribor
2. Bled
3. Visic Pass (overtook cars on way down)
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...a/P1010039.jpghttp://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...a/P1010019.jpg

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...a/P1010016.jpg

Slovenia
 

Hi there,

We went to Slovenia as part of our trip last year... lovelly country! :thumbup1:
We only found great roads, the best being when we got lost in the middle of no where... No other cars to be seen and friendly farmers who will point and jesture to the direction you should be going!

We went to see Postojna Cave, which whilst amazing, was not worth the 40 euro's which it cost for the 2 of us!! It's very well known and comercially run so lots of coaches and queues... however... because of this they couldn't inforce the no photo's rule! If we'd known it was sooo expensive we wouldn't have gone as campsite is also a nightmare... owners let anyone in, it's up to you to find a pitch, the only room we could find was on the VERY hard standing camper section! 1 inch of soil on top of solid rock...gave us a good challenge and the campers a few laughs while we struggled to pitch our tipi!

We stayed at a campsite outside Bovec for a couple of nights while we did some white water rafting and canyoning (highly recommend!). We then went over the Vrisic Pass which was lovelly but really busy. Also cobbled hair-pin bends might be scary in the wet!

We got into Bled but it was a Saturday and crawling with tourists and sunbathers... not pleasent and so continued onto Lake Bohinj where there is a good campsite and peaceful lake! From here we did a day trip to Ljubjana, really nice city. On another day we rode into Bled, changed into shorts and walked to Vintgar Gorge (Soteska Vintgar, Triglavski Narodni Park), you get directions and a basic map from the tourist office but it's enough as it's well sign posted! This was our highlight of Slovenia!


Tried to upload a photo of the gorge but no luck! Have fun!


Beej

@Beej

Thanks very much for the info
Tell me something, do i need to worry about anything in particular?
What time of year you went, im asking because i intend to go either June or September and i dont want to make arrangements about where i stay and i want to know if i can find a place to stay relatively easy.

Thank again

Slovenia
 

Last year we where away for July and August with the Slovenia part being end of July / beg of Aug.

Didn't book any accomodation anywhere on our trip and even when we where looking for Hotels in City's we always found somewhere within budget and fairly easily!

I'd imagine that in June or Sept you'd be fine. No warning or anything else to report. All of the Slovenian's which we spoke to where lovelly, proud of their country and really happy that we had come to see it.

You'll love it!

Very true indeed about Slovenes being incredibly friendly, with a country well worth visiting. I moved over here and commute to Italy to work.

Let me know if you'll be on the coast (there's about 24 km of coastline), the little venetian town of Piran is a great place to hang out for a few days. Actually in a lot of places here and in Croatia you can just turn up at people's houses where you see a sign saying "Sobe", or "Apartma".
In Piran I can call around and find someone who'll charge less than the youth-hostel for a self catering appartment, just PM me.

Ciao.

@Giacomo

Thank you very much for the info and also for the offer.
I will try to make a route and include Piran and i will let you know about exact dates, so that i can buy you a coffee if you can spare the time of course.

No Problem, Beer is on me once you get here! let me know how your plans turn out, later this year. See you. G.