Hello David & Ann,
You might find this info useful when planning your trip.
Are you thinking of visiting Greece? Why not make a round trip, out through the Balkans and back on the Greece - Italy ferry route using the camper deck option. Sailing into Venice on a spring morning is a wonderful sight. With careful planning it can be a very rewarding and memorable trip.
Travel through the Balkans has been made easier in the last few years what with Hungary's entry into the EU and Romania and Bulgaria following shortly.
A straightforward overland route to Greece through the Balkans is via, Luxembourg, Heidelberg, Regensburg, Vienna, Budapest, Szeged, Arad, Timisoara, Craiova, Sofia and entering into northern Greece from Bulgaria at the crossing at Promahonas which is about 145km north east Thessaloniki where the whole of Greece then awaits you. It's about 1710 miles from Calais to Thessaloniki using this route.
If you use this or a similar route please bear in mind you will need the following vignettes. This is a very rough guide only.
Austria,
For vehicles up to 3500kg a vignette can be bought for Euros 7.80 for ten consecutive days. For vehicles over 3500kg you will need to buy a "Go Box" that fits on the windscreen for a one off handling fee of Euros 5. Then for a two axle vehicle it will cost about 13 Euro cents +VAT per km. If you are close to the 3500kg mark it's advisable to carry a certificate issued by a weighbridge showing your weight. For full details see
www.go-maut.at
Hungary.
You will need a vignette for the motorways. For vehicles up to 3500kg a four day vignette it will cost about £3 for vehicles over 3500kg it's about £4 for four days.
Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian motorway vignette costs between 5 - 69 Euros per vehicle and according to the validity period.
You will need a Green Card from your insurers to enter Romania and Bulgaria, third party (it's not cheap)
insurance is available at most border crossings
Try and plan your route so you use the smaller out of the way border crossings. If you do have to use the main border crossing points try and avoid weekends especially in the high season.
On the return leg the two Greek ferry ports are Patras in the Peloponnese and Igoumenitsa in the north west. Patras is the larger port and is very congested most of the time. Patras has now got a by pass but the town is still difficult to navigate due to the one way system. You will be hard pushed to find somewhere to stay over night in the port area. It is also very difficult to find somewhere to park to purchase ferry tickets due to the complexity of the port lay out. Many of the ferries sailing to Italy call at Igoumenitsa.
Igoumenitsa is a much smaller port with plenty of overnight parking just outside the new international terminal building. The international terminal has a full range of facilities and ferry tickets can be purchased there. All the ferry companies have an office in the terminal which is usually open about three hours before a sailing departs.
Over the years we have used the four Italian ferry ports from Greece. Venice Ancona, Bari & Brindisi. Venice and Brindisi have the easiest access while Ancona is very congested at all times and Bari can be difficult at times.
Between 1st April and 31st October it is possible to have the use of your van on the camper deck on some of the Greece - Italy crossings. This year 2006 the option is limited to:-
Minoan Lines
www.minoan.gr Patras - Igoumenitsa - Venice and Patras - Igoumenitsa - Ancona.
Ventouris Lines
www.ventouris.gr Igoumenitsa -Bari
ANEK Lines
www.anek.gr Patras - Igoumenitsa -Ancona and Patras - Igoumenitsa - Venice.
MY WAY Ferries
http://www.ferries.gr/myway/default.htm Patras - Igoumenitsa - Brindisi
Agoudimos Lines
www.agoudimos-lines.com Igoumenitsa - Corfu - Brindisi..
For a list of other sailings available see
http://www.ferries.gr/ ferries can also be booked on this site. If you intend to use the camper deck option in the high season it would be worth booking in advance especially on the Patras - Venice sailing. The camper deck also gets very busy the weekends either side of Easter as many Germans/Dutch motorhomers head for the Peloponnese.
On Jan 11th this year we used the Agoudimos Lines day crossing from Brindisi to Igoumenitsa. We had full use of the van and were hooked up to the mains for the crossing. Friends claim My Way ferries will also let you have use of the camper during their crossing to Igoumenitsa and Patras. If you prefer a short sea crossing the Igoumenitsa - Brindisi crossing is the best. We paid Euro 136 for a camper up to 7 metres and two persons on a single crossing.
There is a discount if you book the return crossing at the same time as the outbound one.
Be warned the Camper Deck option can have its drawbacks. It's the cheapest crossing from Greece to Italy but you could find yourself parked between or very close to some refrigerated trucks which also use this deck. We have been very lucky and have never had this problem yet but I know some who have.
Other friends have spent a crossing parked next to a truck full of sheep.
Greece is a marvelous country for touring with a motorhome, there is so much on offer from ancient ruins to the mountains and beaches. One of our favourite areas is the Peloponnese especially in the spring time.
Safe travelling
Don
