Planning to ride to the eastern end of the Mediterranean this May/July (I know it´ll be more or less unbearably hot, but this is the only possible time for me to do it this year!)

For starters, we´re looking into the possibility to ride through Russia, as well as a few other East European countries, that we havent visited before. Baltic states, Poland, Hungary, etc I´ve done many times. Been to Romania and Bulgaria, too, but that was 17 years ago.

I´ve ridden in some parts of Asia, Africa, Australia and Central America in the past, and not expecting this to be just plain sailing. I know it might be easier to take a little more westerly route, but we´re interested to see something new along the way. The bike´s a Vstrom 650, and we´ll travel 2-up with my girlfriend. Nobody else joining us at this time.

So, the route (just quickly out of Google, and this probably won´t be the final one, but to get a rough idea) at the moment looks like the following:

-Helsinki
-Virolahti
(Border crossing to Russia)
-Vyborg
-St.Petersburg
-Luga
-Pskov
-Ostrov
-Opochka
-Nevel
(Border crossing to Belarus)
-Viciebsk
-Orsha
-Mogilev
-Gomel
(Border crossing to Ukraine)
-Chernigov
-Kiev
-Bila Tserkva
-Uman
-Liubashivka
-Odessa
-Monashi
-Sarata
-Tatarbunary
(Border crossing to Romania)
-Galati
-Harsova
-Constanta
(Border crossing to Bulgaria)
-Varna
-Burgas
-Malko Tarnovo
(Border crossing to Turkey)
-Cerkezkoy
-Istanbul

Anyone ridden in those parts lately - I´m after experiences from all these countries, but especially Russia, Belarus & Ukraine?
How are the roads (and traffic) - and supposing you´re not carrying a tent, will it be tough to find accommodations? Are guarded, fenced parking lots for vehicles common in the cities?

Bike-insurance will of course be something to check. I will get a Green Card from my insurance company, but but may also need to get something at the borders.

If you´re planning to spend more time in the Mediterranean, and are willing to spend 10-12 hours on the saddle each day (we wont ride in the dark though - and we´ll take some rest once we reach Istanbul!) about how many days would you estimate for the ride from St. Petersburg to Istanbul?
I actually dont even know the distance just yet, but Tallinn to Thessaloniki without many detours was something like 2500 kms, may be it´s not far from that.

Any comments and suggestions on that route would be warmly welcomed!

From Odessa to Romania you have to go thru Moldova ... near galati there is a 1.5km stretch of Moldova that you go thru. If you dont have a green card that covers Moldova, that 1.5km will cost you 25 bucks.

A few of the roads near Odessa go thru small bits of Moldova. Its best to avoid countless border crossings ... which means you will need to go:
Odessa
Zatoka (by the black sea)
Monashi
Tatabunari
Ismail
Reni
(Moldova)
Galati

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Not trying to hijack your thread, but wonder if this might be an option for you to consider.

Does anyone know if there are any ferries (for bikes) that go between Russia and Turkey direct? Can be the other way round if it is easier.

Thanks for the tip about Moldova! How about the quality of gasoline in Ukraine, Belarus and those parts of Russia.. the bike will go 400kms between stops, so I wouldnt expect finding fuel stations to be a problem?

The police or border authorities likely to hassle tourists somewhere (they were a pain in Romania, but that was a long time ago, so might have changed)?

Ferries, dont know about Russia, but from Odessa there seems to be a ferry route to Istanbul (UKRFERRY SHIPPING COMPANY)

Yes there are ... do a search for Trabzon, Sochi or Novorossiysk on this board and there is a fair bit on info on here.

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Quality of fuel is no problem. Frequency of fuel is no problem. Police in Ukraine ARE a major problem. In Romania, they don't seem to be a problem anymore, but if you get thru Ukraine without getting booked for something meaningless, then you will be lucky.

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I personally would skip Belarus to avoid the need for yet another visa and go directly from Russia to Ukraine. Belarus is small, and although I've never been there, don't imagine that theres much to see there that you wont see in Russia and Ukraine.

Roads and gas are fine in Russia. Lodging without prior arrangements can be kind of a pain unless you're willing to stay in fairly dingy truck-stop type places, and even these are only on the major highways. THerefore I would try to make hotel reservations before arriving in a city. this is not to say that there are no normal hotels that you can simply ride up to without reservations, just not enough of them to be able to count on finding one every time you need one.

Do you read cyrillic or have russian maps for your gps? both make life easier.

I would stay off the major highways as much as possible, because that is where all the traffic and cops are. Riding on small roads via villages is much more interesting and hassle-free, although signage is not great, so expect to get lost, even with a gps.

i personally would probably rather go to istanbul via ukraine and the balkans than via ferry from russia, but either way would be interesting, have a great trip!

May be we still want to check out Belarus, simply because we´ve never been there! It´s not far from Finland either, but few bikers seem to go there.

No, I do not read cyrillic alphabets, but I´ve been to some countries before that use them. Getting bilingual maps would probably be a good idea.

It is likely that we want to spend more time in the Mediterranean, so in eastern Europe we will probably not take the small roads a lot, they will be very slow I think. Good point about main roads and the police, though.

To add to the excitement, my insurance company says, that if the bike gets stolen in Belarus or Ukraine, it wont be covered at all.. and in Russia, the deductible will be 4 times higher than normal. So, as always (but especially now!) I´ll need to make sure, that it will be kept in a safe place, especially in the nighttime.

Remains to be seen, if finding a safe place will turn out to be a problem in those countries. May be the staff will allow you to push the bike in the backyard or even into the reception (at least this seemed like a normal procedure in the Baltic states & Poland, but my last trips there were a long time ago).