the Balkans tour
 

Hello everybody,

I'm new here, but I've already met a few people from HU, helped or hosted them in Warsaw.
Last year I with the friend of mine made a tour across the Alps.
This year we are going for a trip around the Balkans.
We're starting on Saturday, 21.06.2014 (until 20.07)
This is our approximately route
https://maps.google.pl/maps?saddr=Al...z=4&dg=feature

and our schedule (very flexible depending on the weather conditions, interesting place to visit or road to ride):
24.06 - reach Brasov, stay 2-3 days (ride Transalpine and Transfogar)
27/28.06 - reach Tessaloniki (stay there for a few days, make few trips)
01-03.07 - Macedonia, Tirana
04-08.07 - Montenegro
09-12.07 - Croatia, Bosnia&Herzegovina
14-15.07 - Slovenia
16.07 on the way back to Warsaw.

We will be thankful for any help, advice, suggestion about interesting place to visit.
We will be more then grateful for cheap accommodation, it could be even a piece of back-yard (we have all stuffs we need - tent, sleeping-bags, etc).
We'd also love to meet local bikers, maybe ride together, have a chat and beer with them.

cheers from Poland
Marina and Kris
https://www.couchsurfing.org/profile.html?id=EPYRHNP
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1023740459
https://www.facebook.com/krzysztof.proczek.9?fref=ts

I made the Balkan express tour last year (Greece - Bulgaria - Romania - Serbia - Greece).
I really enjoyed Romania, so my suggestion would be to split Brasov, stay there for 2 days and add 1 day in Sibiu (it's close to Brasov) this way you can hop from Brasov through (Transfaragassan to Sibiu). From Sibiu you can enjoy the Transalpina.
While in Brasov you can tour around the castles of the area, which make a nice day trip with wonderful scenery, there are a lot of castles to visit there but you can easily find which ones are worth with a small Internet research.
Both cities are nice, Sibiu takes around 1 day to see the old center (which is really lovely) that's why a 1 night stay is worth it.
Make sure you see Sighisoara (the city where Vlad was born) it's really interesting and nice and you can have it in one day.
In Greece I would avoid Thessaloniki, it's just a big city, you can stay around (like Kastoria) or if you can add a few Km's more I would opt for Epirus (Visit Greece | Cross these bridges when you come to Epirus, Greece!) it has an amazing beauty, this time of the year you will easily find nice places to stay and surely you will avoid city madness enjoying the magical landscape (and one of the biggest national parks of Greece). There are places where you can camp, I spend alot of days during the year in Vovousa (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Vo...c93ca3b01584f7) there is a road accessible refugee there (http://www.katafigiovaliacalda.com/) where you can pitch your tent in one of the wildest National Parks of Greece (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pindus_National_Park) from there you can enjoy trips around most of Epirus Villages.

thank you very much, I'll follow your suggestion

I´d skip Thessaloniki; not much to see in this part of Greece other than traffic (yeah, I understand, you want that Greece flag on your panniers :-) and instead absolutely detour to the Danube Delta for a couple of days; much more worth the while. If you need more time to do ths, I´d recommend to skip either the Transfogarasch or the Transalpina - both are a good one-day ride each, and one might be enough. I know the Transfogarasch/Transfagarasan and we certainly enjoyed it. Sibiu is certainly nice, too, but again I´d give it up for the Danube Delta.

Vampire Camping in Bran is one of the few campsites in Romania; nice and clean facilities and in walking distance to Dracula´s castle (which it is in fact not, but sold as such). There´s usually some bikers on the ground.
Cheers
Chris

Hi Marina & Kris,

for three days in Croatia + Bosnia it would be extremely hard to make sensible route.

But here are the things I would recommend to see:

Dubrovnik, Ston, Mostar, Sarajevo, Trogir, Zadar, Velebit mountain range, Plitvicka lakes and over Zagreb you can hit highway and ride to Ljubljana.

I'm here open for new questions or send me a pm,

ride on
Dubravko

I am currently in Macedonia, heading up through the Balkans back to London. I am travelling alone. Have a look at my plan on page one of my trip report;

Kiwi Dreams - Europe & Morocco 2014 - ADVrider

If I am anywhere near you it would be nice to catch up?

Kiwi Mike

Hi Mike,

if you need any help get in touch while you're in the region.

ride on

Dooby