Northerner
Guest
I know that we have many well-travelled people on here but I also know that there are many who may never have strayed beyond France, or even GB, so I thought that I’d mention a little about my recent trip to Slovenia and Croatia.
Slovenia: Easy to get to from Calais via Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Austria. Slovenia is just like most other EU countries in that it has the Euro.
Communications: Your phone calls and texts and data usage will be exactly that same as in, for example, France, Spain or Germany. Excellent motorways and you buy a vignette for 15 Euro (one week) or 30 Euro (one month).
Northern Slovenia is beautiful, and similar to its near neighbour Austria. Lake Bled is stunning and worth spending two or three days at least. We drove over the Vrsic Pass in the Julian Alps, just for the hell of it and visited the Vintnar Gorge (excellent) and visited the finest cave complex that I’ve ever seen in Postojna. That really was amazing and included a two kilometre drive on a little train, through some amazing caverns before you even got to the main part of the complex.
We had a couple of days in Ljubljana, the capital, which has a super old town and lovely architecture and is vibrant and buzzing.
We visited many other places too numerous to mention and next time we hope to go to the east of the country and take in Hungary as well. All in all, a friendly, clean and prosperous country with stunning scenery.
Croatia: Next one down from Slovenia but different in so many ways. It isn’t in the EU and has its own currency, the Kuna. I just stopped at the first motorway services immediately after the border crossing and drew a couple of hundred pounds in Kuna. I paid by credit card for any major purchases, restaurants etc. without any problem.
Communications: Expensive! Croatia is not in the list of European countries covered by telecom providers’ EU deals. Calls can cost up to £1.50 a minute to make or even to receive. Data costs are horrendous. My provider charges £7.50 per megabyte! If you need to keep in touch (I had to Skype my office quite a bit) do what I did. I have an unlocked USB dongle and bought a Croatian SIM card for £11, which gave me one gigabyte of data for up to a month. I didn’t use it all up! The 3G reception was superb everywhere, even in the sticks and I could log on wherever we stopped.
Motorways, If you need to use them there are tolls. On the way down to Dubrovnik ( a must) most people take the beautiful and scenic coast road but, coming back north to see the Plitvice Lakes for instance, the motorway is quick and easy if you’re pushed for time.
Where to go? Where do I start? Krka National Park, Dubrovnik, Plitvice Lakes and lovely old towns too numerous to mention. Highlights were definitely Dubrovnik, where we stayed three days and Plitvice where we stayed two. The drive down the Adriatic to Dubrovnic is a joy, with numerous islands dotted of the coast in the bluest sea you’ve even seen.
Getting to Dubrovnik. There is a logistical problem as Bosnia has a window onto the Adriatic just north of Dubrovnik and most insurers won’t cover Bosnia. On the way down we went round it by taking a one-hour ferry ride from Ploce to Trpanj, which is on the end of a peninsular that juts out above the Bosnian bit. I would really recommend this as the Peljesac Peninsular is really nice. A wine growing are with lots of lovely little fishing villages.
One the way back we decided to risk it and drive through the bit of Bosnia (the Neum Corridor). I tried to buy third party insurance in Dubrovnik but no one wanted to know. It’s supposed to be available at the border but there’s never anyone there to take your money so we approached the border, were waved through without a second glance and drove very carefully for the fifteen minutes. You do this at your own risk and we reduced it by going on a Sunday morning when it’s very quiet.
All in all an easy and thoroughly enjoyable holiday in two superb countries.
Slovenia: Easy to get to from Calais via Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Austria. Slovenia is just like most other EU countries in that it has the Euro.
Communications: Your phone calls and texts and data usage will be exactly that same as in, for example, France, Spain or Germany. Excellent motorways and you buy a vignette for 15 Euro (one week) or 30 Euro (one month).
Northern Slovenia is beautiful, and similar to its near neighbour Austria. Lake Bled is stunning and worth spending two or three days at least. We drove over the Vrsic Pass in the Julian Alps, just for the hell of it and visited the Vintnar Gorge (excellent) and visited the finest cave complex that I’ve ever seen in Postojna. That really was amazing and included a two kilometre drive on a little train, through some amazing caverns before you even got to the main part of the complex.
We had a couple of days in Ljubljana, the capital, which has a super old town and lovely architecture and is vibrant and buzzing.
We visited many other places too numerous to mention and next time we hope to go to the east of the country and take in Hungary as well. All in all, a friendly, clean and prosperous country with stunning scenery.
Croatia: Next one down from Slovenia but different in so many ways. It isn’t in the EU and has its own currency, the Kuna. I just stopped at the first motorway services immediately after the border crossing and drew a couple of hundred pounds in Kuna. I paid by credit card for any major purchases, restaurants etc. without any problem.
Communications: Expensive! Croatia is not in the list of European countries covered by telecom providers’ EU deals. Calls can cost up to £1.50 a minute to make or even to receive. Data costs are horrendous. My provider charges £7.50 per megabyte! If you need to keep in touch (I had to Skype my office quite a bit) do what I did. I have an unlocked USB dongle and bought a Croatian SIM card for £11, which gave me one gigabyte of data for up to a month. I didn’t use it all up! The 3G reception was superb everywhere, even in the sticks and I could log on wherever we stopped.
Motorways, If you need to use them there are tolls. On the way down to Dubrovnik ( a must) most people take the beautiful and scenic coast road but, coming back north to see the Plitvice Lakes for instance, the motorway is quick and easy if you’re pushed for time.
Where to go? Where do I start? Krka National Park, Dubrovnik, Plitvice Lakes and lovely old towns too numerous to mention. Highlights were definitely Dubrovnik, where we stayed three days and Plitvice where we stayed two. The drive down the Adriatic to Dubrovnic is a joy, with numerous islands dotted of the coast in the bluest sea you’ve even seen.
Getting to Dubrovnik. There is a logistical problem as Bosnia has a window onto the Adriatic just north of Dubrovnik and most insurers won’t cover Bosnia. On the way down we went round it by taking a one-hour ferry ride from Ploce to Trpanj, which is on the end of a peninsular that juts out above the Bosnian bit. I would really recommend this as the Peljesac Peninsular is really nice. A wine growing are with lots of lovely little fishing villages.
One the way back we decided to risk it and drive through the bit of Bosnia (the Neum Corridor). I tried to buy third party insurance in Dubrovnik but no one wanted to know. It’s supposed to be available at the border but there’s never anyone there to take your money so we approached the border, were waved through without a second glance and drove very carefully for the fifteen minutes. You do this at your own risk and we reduced it by going on a Sunday morning when it’s very quiet.
All in all an easy and thoroughly enjoyable holiday in two superb countries.
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