Hi Tim.
About Macedonia, you can not enter into Kosovo trough Mavrovo. It is dirt road to Prizren, but border crossing is only for locals who live in that area. Anyway, don't miss Mavrovo. It is beautifully. I would choose the road from Ohrid to Mavrovo trough Debar. Ride carefully, here, I mean Balkan, lack of respect for bikers on the roads is a common thing.
I wish you nice time.
Petre
PS
If you need some help in Macedonia, feel free to PM me.

That's great information, thanks for that - really appreciate it; couldn't find information on that border post for all the googling I could muster!

Lonerider - I'm working my way through your thread; already made a few very handy notes! Thanks.

davebetty - I've allowed two for the coast road; reading my post again I release that I didn't make that clear - we're stopping off in Hvar for a night before heading on to Plitvice. Good tip on the insurance.

Tourider - sounds like good advice; can always ride by Bled and then stay over somewhere a little calmer.

Thanks all.

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[ Tim | History - NW Italy/French Rivera, Swiss Alps, Morocco | 2016 - Greece > Albania > Macedonia > Kosovo > Montenegro > Bosnia > Slovenia > Austria ]

Insurance.
Be sure that your insurance is covering you for Macedonia. Getting one on border will cost you 50 euro per bike. There are much better ways to spend money.

Hello Tim:

I spent a month touring former Yugoslavia and Albania in the fall of 2014. I had a thoroughly pleasant time doing it.

You asked about the advisability of booking a cabin on the ferry south to Igo. If you are certain that you want to take that ferry, then yes, I recommend you book a cabin. I took that ferry northbound 3 years ago, and it's a long trip. I could not imagine doing 24 hours on a boat without a private cabin to retreat to. If you don't book a cabin, it's probable that neither of you will get any decent sleep during the trip, which will knock you off-balance for the beginning of your tour. That seems kind of self-defeating. The sea is not particularly rough.

Having said that, my suggestion to you is that you consider discarding entirely the plan to take the ferry south and then only ride north. Instead, I suggest you ride south, perhaps sticking to the coastal areas on your southbound tour (until you get to Greece), then, turn around, go inland slightly - perhaps across northern Greece to where you can enter Macedonia - then ride northbound. You could spend (for example) 10 days slowly poking your way southbound through Slovenia, Croatia, the coastal region of B&H, Montenegro, & Albania, then cut east across northern Greece and enter Macedonia, then ride north through Macedonia, Kosovo, the inland part of Montenegro (if you don't want to go into Serbia), and then the inland parts of B&H.

That's the route I did, and I found that there were significant cultural and geographical differences between the coastal areas and the inland areas.

I enjoyed all the countries I visited. I think I liked Kosovo and Montenegro the most. The daily cost of living drops as you go farther south, then rises as you come back up north. Northern Greece was quite nice, it is culturally very different from the more heavily populated southern areas.

Liability insurance is easily available at the major border crossings into all the various countries. If your bike is registered in Germany, it is probable that you already have coverage for Greece (an EC country) and Slovenia and Croatia (who, I think, are candidate countries). In any case, it would be to your great advantage to see if you can obtain insurance coverage for all the former Yugoslavian countries and for Albania from the same company that provides your current cover for Germany and the EC. Doing that would save you the inconvenience of having to buy insurance at each border crossing. I am also sure it would be much less expensive than buying insurance as you enter each country.

I wrote a post about the procedure for buying insurance at each border crossing, that post is here: Balkans Insurance - Here's the story, with details & sample documents. Just be sure to have exact change to buy the insurance (it's almost always sold in Euros), because the vendors don't keep change with them.

If you have toured Morocco, and enjoyed that tour, then you will certainly enjoy the Balkans tour. The difference between Northern Europe and some of the more southerly Balkan countries (Albania, Macedonia) is about the same as the difference between Morocco and Northern Europe. But, some of the southern countries - Montenegro and Kosovo, for example - are surprisingly highly developed.

Anyway - forget taking the ferry, ride your way down, then ride your way back up.

Michael

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm going to run the numbers and see if I can manage to do what I want to do by road. The trouble is that neither of us want the kind of trip where we are on the road every day, I love to ride but hate when it becomes a chore. Lena's only doing her bike training at the moment, I don't want to make her first major trip too mileage intense. I doubt that I can make it as far south as Albania in the time I've got without having to ride more often or further. That said, I could change the route and not go quite so far south. The ferry seemed the magic fix, turning it into a one way trip at relatively little cost.

Time to get the pencil and paper out again! All part of the fun!

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[ Tim | History - NW Italy/French Rivera, Swiss Alps, Morocco | 2016 - Greece > Albania > Macedonia > Kosovo > Montenegro > Bosnia > Slovenia > Austria ]

Ah, I had not considered the issue of "easy does it" for the passenger.

If that is a concern of yours, then for sure you would want to book a cabin on the ferry, if you choose to ride the ferry to enable you to start from the south end and work your way up. I think it is more likely that the passenger would be upset at an uncomfortable and unpleasant ferry experience (i.e. not having a cabin) than at a few days of long touring on high quality roads in the north.

Only additional suggestion I can offer is to not compromise the distance by cutting out touring down in the southern end. I say this because I found the far south part of my tour to be the most enjoyable. Slovenia & Croatia, while nice in their own right, are culturally pretty similar to Europe north of the Alps.

But, having said all that, if you have 28 days, I don't think it would be too difficult on your novice passenger to ride all the way down and all the way back. The roads are pretty good until you are south of Croatia, which means you could cover some pretty good distances comfortably on the northern half of your tour while going either north or south.

Michael

Hi there.
I went last spring From Vilnius to Iogoumenitsa.
I can mention a few places that were trully amazing, mostly Albania, must visit.
If heading to Sarande, just keep on road SH8, to Vlore., that passes along the coast. Place to enjoy is Park (and mountain) Kombetal Liogara. On the top is most beautifull view of Ioanean sea, also a lot of restorans with organic meniu, very accepatble prices, some 10-12 euros a course (ncluding and a drop of homemade rakia). Beautifull road and scenery.
From Vlore you can hop on the highway and reach Tirana. Drive through the block district, this is francy herritage from soviet times, busy nightlife.
Another intersting piece is road to Fierze
https://www.google.lt/maps/dir/42.25...!1m0!3e0?hl=lt
3 hours (117 km) unstopable twisties. Amazing scenery, lakes, mountains, forests, paved empty road. Make sure you have water and snacks. If you take this route, next adventure is a boat from Fierze that runs Koman lake to Koman vilage. No road. We took it oposite direction (Koman – Fierze) 9 in the morning and it goes back in the afternoon. You should check online shedule (Rozafa ferry).
From Koman there is one road that you can escape mountains for Skoder, and this is a road for enduro bikes. I drove it with my scooter suzuki burgman 650, and it was big fun .
Montenegro is all good, wherever you go, we enjoyed verry much Tara bridge (whics is on your route) and also Durmitor park. Take your time there. In the midle of the park is a biker friendly hotel and a camping. They are separate busineses. In the camping which we took, a cabin for two was 10 euro, and hotel is 15 euro per person.
You exit the durmitor exactly were you route follows (E762), and have another beautifull road along the Piva river. Lots short tunnels and twisties.
Entering B&H you will have a road works, so expect some dust, as well as cows on your way.

And I forgot to mention, Albania/Montenegro border E762 officers require passport . Anywhere else we used ID card.
I have a short report on local site, but it is in Lihuanian.. If you wish.
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