The Balkans offers excellent opportunities for overlanders, 4wd touring and more adventurous road trips. As overland travellers based in Europe or passing through on the way to or from Europe, the Balkan states are a great place to explore, without going to far afield. You will experience very diverse cultural scenes and a decent amount of modern history and friendly people.
In our blog you will see that there are many routes through the region, our first trip was by road entering via Slovenia to Croatia to head to Serbia and onto Montenegro, before using the Croatian ferries to explore the Dalmatian coast.
On later tours we explored the area further either entering using ferries from Italy to Dubrovnik or leaving via ferries to Italy from Albania.
However you choose to explore the area, you are guaranteed to have an awesome experience, for a fraction of the cost of Western Europe. I’d suggest you get off the beaten track, travel slowly and see what happens.
DAY 18: TUESDAY 16 AUGUST 2011 Camping Costs: Kamp Seget 191KN – 1 night We managed to leave early today, perhaps that was because we didn’t sleep due to the celebrations that consisted of loud music and singing. We reached Vela Luka at about 9.30hrs, purchased our tickets and went for a wonder around town. […]
DAY 16/17: 14/15 AUGUST 2011 Camping costs: Autokamp Vela Pelarka 99KN per night + 20KN electricity – 2 nights (7KN = €1) Woken by the Call-to-Prayer, not heard that for years. Dan grew up in the middle east so loved the sounds and memories Call-to-Prayer evoked. We went to see the Dervish house in Blagaj
DAY 15: SATURDAY 13 AUGUST 2011 Camping Costs: Sobe (A dodgy private room) €25 – 1 night Again, a fairly early start for us, with not far to travel either. The border crossing was uneventful, even for a Saturday. We managed to make it to Mostar by 14.30hrs. FOOTNOTE: The Garmin screen has given up
Camping Costs: Autokamp Ravela €30 – 2 nights + €6 for electricity Today we drove down to the coast of Montenegro. We first took the scenic route out of Durmitor…what a drive. Amazing views and mountains. We stopped for a coffee along the way and Dan managed to buy himself a Durmitor t-shirt. When we
DAY 11/12: 9/10 AUGUST 2011 Camping Costs: Autokamp Razvršje €10 – 2 nights We attempted to have a lie in this morning, we managed to sleep until 7.50am! A shower to wash away the bed bugs and another cereal breakfast in our room. Off into the Monastery for a look-see. The Studenica monastery was quiet,
DAY 10: MONDAY 8 AUGUST 2011 Camping costs: Studenica Hotel €15 – 1 night Up early with a breakfast of our cereal and milk. A shower and change and off to Mokra Gora Ŝargan Eight Railway. We arrived there early, so bought tickets, sorted out the back of the Landy and went to have a
DAY 8: SATURDAY 6 AUGUST 2012 Camping Costs: Hotel/Pension Restoran Zmajevac €27 – 1 night We decided to head off into Serbia today but stop in a town called Ilok to see a castle and war memorial. First we stopped for coffee which was very nice. Afterwards we headed off to Ilok. The town holds
DAY 7: FRIDAY 5 AUGUST 2012 Camping Costs: Pension Basišiĉ 340.00 KN (Kuna) – 1 night (7KN = €1) As we only had 1 tent to pack up, and we woke up earlier than our alarm, we managed to leave at a fairly decent time today. We didn’t have far to go according to the
This Summer Dan has managed to wangle 4 weeks off work. To add to that, Wendy has changed jobs and now has the school holidays off, so she has 6 weeks holiday over the Summer! This has allowed us to open up our plans, expand our horizons and we have this year decided to travel
DAY 9: SUNDAY 7 AUGUST 2011 Camping Costs: Private room €20 – 1 night We went to see the Ravanica Monastery near Vrdnik. They were having a service, which was to be expected as it was Sunday. We respected Catholic culture and crossed ourselves as we entered the church. We stayed a few minutes and