travelling overland

[dazza]

has anyone drove overland yet just wondering which was the best route as i am going to be bringing some furniture over with me.

[chrismanchester]

If you go on www.mybulgaria.info and do a search on the forums, there are quite a few people that have driven and have posted routes.

I think the most popular is via Hungary and Romania, its about 1900 miles one way

Chris

[Kath Stirling]

Hi Dazza,
We have done the trip several times.
Driving through France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Serbia.

This year however because of the bit of trouble in Serbia, Drove down through Europe to Ancona in Italy and took the ferry across to Greece. The ferry cost 257 Euro for two people car and cabin. Cars packed in a bit tight but a very comfortable crossing.
There is of course tolls to pay whichever route you take
Have look on the My Bulgaria forum there is always someone that as just done the trip or about to. If I can help further let me know.

[dazza]

thanks kath and chris will check it out how long does the drive take roughly i checked it out with expedia and that says 27 hours. but i know expedia is wrong sometimes

[Kath Stirling]

Hi Dazza.

Last year we caught midnight ferry from Dover on the Saturday night and came the Serbia route and arrived here at 15.00 Monday afternoon. This year left Dover on the 15.00pm ferry Tuesday and arrived here 01.45am Friday. The Ancona ferry is overnight takes about 16hrs I think.
Obviously it will depend on how many and how long breaks you have.

Looks like Chris and I were writing our last posts at the same time, both in agreement about searching the My Bulgaria forum.

Hope this helps

[FORTCLUB]

I have justed returned from driving a luton van to NFC in Bulgaria and we managed to do the journey in 32 hours ,France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania then Bulgaria. By taking this route from Eu countries our insurance was very cheap and we had a great journey. By dropping into Bulgaria from Romania it mean't we were on the right side of Bulgaria for a quick drive down to Sunny Beach. If anyone wants any tips drop me a post.

[FORTCLUB]

Had a few requests for further info.....




We took the advice that you should try and get a midday crossing over to France on a Friday and it worked out perfectly as we arrived in Calais around 2.30pm on the Friday and it was plain driving from there.

1. Ferry from Dover to Calais as this was the cheapest option over the tunnel.
2. Up the French coast on the motorway through Belgium and into Germany, we was well into Germany as the sun was setting. We drove non stop between two drivers but if you are going to stop there are lots of motorway hotels and Germany would be a good place to stop as it took me until day break to drive through Germany and hit the Austrian border. If you have an earlier start and can make the Austrian border their
hotels are first class and their service stations are amazing. When in Austria its one motorway all the way to the Hungary border. And one road through Hungary to the Romanian border. All the borders are open and we never saw anyone at the borders you just drive straight through now. What you must do in Austria and Hungary is stop at the first petrol station and pay tax to enable you to use their roads, this is simple you just point to you van/car and they take the registration number and pay for a vignette which is about six Euros job done. Romania will be your slowest journey through a country but its the safest route to take and is very scenic, best to try and drive through Romania during the day as the scenery is unbelievable (look out for the ruins of Vlad the Impailers castle (Dracula) as you pass it twice. Once through Romania you will hit the Danube river and just over is the Bulgarian border you will need to pay a bridge toll here, the first toll we had to pay during the route, its not much again approx eight Euros and this takes you over the bridge into Rousse/Bulgaria. From here its a short drive to Varna and then down the coast. We pulled the route up on the AA website by entering these countries and the then reconciled the route against our tom tom and it matched perfectly. Our sat nav only covered us to the Austria border with Hungary but the whole route was so easy that we really didn't need a sat nav. Let me know if you need any further info, but the AA route planner online is very good.
By leaving at this time on a Friday we hit no traffic at all and it was a plain sailing trip, this travel time was recommended on several internet posts and worked well for us. This trip can be done in 28 hours because its all motorway uptill Romania. As we was in a fully laden van it took slightly longer.

[dazza]

great info after budapest do you head towards arad