In this section I love posting unbiased content coming from travellers I get in touch with.
I met June and Michael online while they were researching for their Balkans road trip. Experienced travellers with enough time on their hands to pay a thorough visit and make a lasting impression, they were kind enough to provide an honest review after their Eastern European visit.
I have to say that their travelling style is not suitable for everyone as they prefer spontaneity, therefore don’t book accommodation ahead. Still, they plan their itinerary carefully and the post is filled with raw impressions that can be a big help for anyone in a similar situation.
The Balkans road trip – countries and duration
Expectations and Balkans trip planning
The highlights (and surprises) in every country
The realities of road tripping the Balkans
The Balkans road trip – countries and duration
TTF: For a start, please introduce yourselves and say a few words about you and the trip. Which countries did you visit, how long did you spend in each of them, etc?
J&M: We are June & Michael from Australia, this our 8th visit to Europe as independent travellers planning & arranging the whole trip ourselves. We undertook an extensive trip to Eastern Europe (6 countries) that we organized the following way: Bulgaria 8 nights, North Macedonia 2 nights, Romania 13 nights, Hungary 11 nights, Croatia 13 nights, Serbia 2 nights with a total of 9,100 km driven.
We chose an independent car rental this time, Lucky Car Rentals (Sofia) who we can highly recommend.
This was mainly an 8-week road trip starting in Brisbane (Australia) with overnight in Dubai (UAE), arriving & finishing in Sofia (Bulgaria) with a 4-night stopover in Dubai returning home.
Expectations and Balkans trip planning
TTF: What expectations did you have? What did you know about the Balkans and this part of Europe given that this was your first trip here, but not first in Europe? What is the general belief in Australia about visiting these countries?
J&M: We had no expectations of our visit; our knowledge of the Balkans was very limited with maybe a little caution about countries that had been under communist rule & exposed to war even though some years prior. This turned out to be no different to other visits to Europe with absolutely no problems or worries wherever we visited. All places felt and seemed very safe.
We can’t give any definitive answer about general belief of Australians visiting the Balkans but would guess it’s definitely not on a popular go to list, mainly due to years of advertising & articles relating to Western European countries.
TTF: I know this was an independent trip. Can you explain briefly how you organized the trip? What was an absolute must for each country, where did you get the info for each country, how long it took to organize etc.
J&M: To organize our trip (also previous Europe visits), first we search each country for the best places to visit, read independent travel blogs making a list of attractions and highlights, then arrange on a map planning a route. Then work around travelling around 200 km each day which gives a guide for approximate time needed so you can book airfares & car hire. We always travel out of season, never book forward accommodation as we never know where we will be each day excepting of course arrival & departure days.
There was no absolute must for any country. However, I must say that probably most of the blogs we gathered information from must be receiving advertising revenue as their descriptions & photos were definitely less accurate than most of the places we visited.
It was time consuming, the biggest hurdle was the car rental, we had to painstakingly get everything answered before choosing the city to fly into. Every agency has restrictions, eg cross border (can’t take car to certain countries, have to plan route with this), all have different pricing for cross border, if no clarification there could be a big wallet surprise when picking up. Vignette was something we had never heard of. Green Card another surprise. The major rental companies either didn’t respond or gave vague answers that didn’t clarify anything, most independent had vague answers or inflated add on above advertised base rental.
The highlights (and surprises) in every country
TTF: Pick one or two representative elements or moments that you cherished in each country. And one you deeply disliked in each. If you had the opportunity to return to one of these countries, which would it be and why?
J&M: Bulgaria: – we did travel a lot of miles. Probably Rila Monastery & Belogradchik Fortress two standouts. There were so many places on our list we drove in & didn’t stop, mainly due to the uninhabited dilapidated buildings, general disorder & rubbish in the streets.
North Macedonia: – Skopje is the only place we could say is worth a visit, interesting city but also filthy, however, we did enjoy our visit. As for the rest, even though we enjoyed most of the drive around Lake Ohrid & other places, most towns were dilapidated & filthy, so no stopping.
Romania: – a must see is Slanic Salt mine, one of most amazing things in all our travels, although not really advertised; had a great day in Timisoara with Andrea (Travel Taste Feel) who we met online & gave us lot of helpful information & assistance. We found it a little off-putting in restaurants/café, when paying the bill, there was already a service charge (15% included) but the waitstaff always pestered for extra tip, if declined they always became extremely rude. Romania is trying hard to become a tourist destination, some places have done well, but the broad picture still far away, particularly the places tourists use, restaurants, hotels, shopping etc the staff in general have no customer skills, very few have a smile or acknowledge you exist (we call them lemon suckers).
Hungary: – Budapest is one of the best cities we have visited in all our travel years, the town of Eger was also enjoyable. Most of Hungary has advanced to a good level with tourism (not as many lemon suckers). They also add a 15% service charge to the bill & get a little snaky when a tip is declined.
Curious to know more about Budapest? Read How to get the maximum of Budapest on a minimum budget, read a comparison guide between Bucharest and Budapest or discover a 3-day itinerary in Budapest on a tight budget without sparing any important attraction!
Croatia: – It has transitioned into a major tourist destination; customer service is at good level (most even smile). The highlight for us was the drive along the coast from Novigrad to Dubrovnik, the scenery & views are stunning. The town we enjoyed the most was Rovinj, we even stayed a couple of nights in Tučepi. Dubrovnik being the go-to favourite of the world was good to visit, but is a major tourist trap, your wallet will get hammered. If this is your only place to visit you will be happy, but there are other cities/towns equal or better.
Serbia: – We had to backtrack here (cross border restriction Montenegro & Albania) to return rental car in Sofia. Drove through Novi Sad but didn’t stay, lucky to find Hotel Monogram 40km further, we didn’t stay in Belgrade either (very grey depressing city, not clean or inviting), Smederevo Fortress, we drove into car park, turned around & drove out, the filth & rubbish were disgusting. Found good accommodation at Horizont Hotel near Golubac, crossed into Romania & followed the Danube to Vidin (Bulgaria).
The Balkans has a long way to go as a major tourist destination, for us was it was a great trip & thoroughly enjoyed it, however we wouldn’t recommend our mode of travel to first time travellers. As we don’t book in advance, we look for accommodation late afternoon wherever we happen to be, overall, the standard was excellent. Would be unlikely we would return to the Balkans, no reason other than been there done that.
The realities of road tripping the Balkans
TTF: Was it easy to get along with the internet, money, language etc? Which was the main challenge?
J&M: No problems with internet, we had pre-paid Europe SIM cards with us, activated on arrival, for Nth Macedonia & Serbia simply purchased a sim at A1 store. For money we used our Wise Debit Card, little difficult finding ATM with no fees, twice we had to pay cash for accommodation, as the only available ATM had hefty fee. Language was never a problem. Google Translate is excellent especially with the menu. Overall, it was easy.
TTF: How did you manage with the transportation and planning/booking of sites? Besides (renting a car), did you use any other means of transportation? How do you find Eastern European drivers and Romanian drivers in particular?
J&M: When looking for a hotel each night we used booking.com first up as our reference point, main criteria is the cleanliness rating, generally we will find the hotel first & decide to stay if it looks OK.
Only used a tram in Budapest & Zagreb.
The Eastern European drivers are similar to other parts of Europe. Tailgating & aggressive behaviour is rife & does annoy you. Bulgaria & Romania the worst offenders, the best description we could tag them with is “stupid”.
TTF: What was your favourite food in the Balkans and which was your favourite Romanian food?
J&M: Favourite food in Romania, bean soup in a bread & stuffed cabbage roll, try a freshly squeezed lemon drink with mint (limonada), langos in Hungary.
