Balkans trip

[thelal]

Planning a camping trip end of Apr to June+ from Ireland to The Balkans.

Driving through France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, [Moldova], Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Czechia, Germany, Netherlands, [Belgium], UK

Looking for tips, events, 4x4 trails, places to visit, camping, fishing spots etc.
Also looking to meet with some House building construction companies along the way if anyone has contacts (build a house and ship it to Ireland for assembly)

Travelling in my 97 Series 80 (USA truck so works for most of EU - being LHD) with RTT, fridge etc.
Trying to get new exhaust fitted, springs and some other odds-n-sods maintenance work before I leave








All reactions:
53Chris Ratay, Martin Wit and 51 others

 

[Gary Stockton]

That's some trip, take care, have fun!

 

[flint]

In Romania, you could try giving @clivehorridge a shout.

 

[nick_the_fish]

We're planning something similar next year, so watching for hints and tips too......

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Seems like there are a lot of interesting places to visit in Croatia - we're heading there in June, but flying into Zagreb, hiring a car and making our way down to Dubrovnik to fly home again.

 

[thelal]

cheers - will do so

 

[thelal]

Looking for some good SIM coverage (mostly data, some voice) in EU (pickup in France?) as will be doing remote working 2 days per week - Zoom/email etc.

 

[Lorin]

Hi Thelal,

We’re currently in Croatia and driving a very similar route to you over the next 6 months - April through September. Our plan is follow large sections of the Trans Euro Trail through Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia, with lots of side trips.

Good sources of info for off-road trails are the TET website https://transeurotrail.org/ and Wikiloc Wikiloc | Trails of the World - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]. There are also some pretty good value Roadbooks available from Offroad English Books - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club] If you do plan to follow sections of the TET, I’d advise watching YouTube videos of the sections your are interested in as a few bits are impassable to anything but a trail bike. There are also some sections you might not want to drive as a lone vehicle.

For the length of time you are going a UK SIM card with a decent data allowance will cover you for most of the countries. You have up to 4 months roaming allowed. I’m using a data sim in my iPad from EE and a phone sim from Lebara (Vodafone), both of which work really well. The non-EU countries are best sorted with a country specific SIM card on arrival. Good info on all the options can be found here 12 Best (E)-Sim Cards for Europe in 2023 - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

Enjoy your trip

 

[yogi]

Looking for some good SIM coverage (mostly data, some voice) in EU (pickup in France?) as will be doing remote working 2 days per week - Zoom/email etc.

320K miles (rebuilt engine) 97 FZJ80 (USA) auto + LPG +mods/RTT, finished 1yr Alaska-Argentina https://twitter.com/ourlongwayhome

Your Irish phone is your best bet for the EU sections, its all free/included in your plan, with the bonus that you can select the best network for any given location.

For the non EU countries, either buy a local sim, or use an esim, which i found perfectly adequate in USA, Chile and Argentina already this year.

There's lots to see in the Balkans, and the mountainous areas and north of Romania are spectacular, though slowly succumbing to the vile rot of the EU...

 

[SpinDrift]

Hopefully a fair wind will take me through Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania later in the year. I have been tempted to include Kosovo and Macedonia but not worked that out yet.

Great to see overlanding picking up again!

 

[thelal]

Lorien - Thanks for that - will keep in touch

Yogi - currently on Tesco mobile in IRL and pretty naff when on Continent before

 

[GeekOKent]

EE and Three in the UK have roaming for 'free' in the EU and works as well as any local network will. There are some conditions like @Lorin pointed out, so read the fine print.

 

[Gr8Yota]

Have a great trip Brendan! If you need a contact in Germany I’ll put you in touch with a good friend and Cruiserhead there. Sarah

 

[SpinDrift]

Don't forget that in the Balkans (ex Yugoslavia) other than Croatia and Slovenia, you're out of the EU so mobile costs might differ. Best check before you leave to avoid surprises.

 

[GeekOKent]

Did you look at starlink ? You can rent the equipment now, and it works in a roaming mode, as in, you don't need to be home to use it.

 

[Raj]

Last month before going to Austria I took ID Mobile as it has free roaming in about 50 countries and this includes unlimited data as well. I used Spotify all the time and WhatsApp calls a lot.

 

[clivehorridge]

You know you’re always welcome here (again) Brendan, even though we look a bit too far to the East of your route, as marked on your map…
It was a pleasure meeting you in 2017[was it??]
Anyway, drop me a ‘conversation’ if you plan to come close by, we’ll try to meet up.

 

[thelal]

@clivehorridge will pop you a msg as firm up my plans
@Raj will checkout ID Mobile
@GeekOKent Starlink is cool and potentially on my plans if get into a more permanent overlanding mode (Marcus Tucker the guru for this)
@Gr8Yota What part of Germany - as its pretty big!

 

[GeekOKent]

@thelal it looks like the starlink hardware is on a discount at the moment, and you can sell it on after a few months once you are done with it!

 

[Gr8Yota]

@clivehorridge will pop you a msg as firm up my plans
@Raj will checkout ID Mobile
@GeekOKent Starlink is cool and potentially on my plans if get into a more permanent overlanding mode (Marcus Tucker the guru for this)
@Gr8Yota What part of Germany - as its pretty big!

Nr Frankfurt