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Route Planning Where to go, when, what are the interesting places to see
Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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  #1  
Old 19 Mar 2010
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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)
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  #2  
Old 20 Mar 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pecha72 View Post
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)?
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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Old 20 Mar 2010
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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!
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Old 20 Mar 2010
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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).
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