I am going to travel to Greece initially down to Piraeus, in my Ford Transit on the 4th August'06
I want to go through Belgium,Germany, Austria, Slovinia, Croatia, FYROM etc is there anyone who has done this route & can they give me a quick guide

Route
Camp sites
Places of interest
Hotels
Political issues
Insurances
International Driving Permits
Do's & Don'ts etc
Tolls & fees

I would appreciate some experienced help on this

Thankyou



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 18/07/2006 03:41PM by Nikos.

Hello mate,ive done it a number of times,car & bike but calais,belgium,german,austria in to italy & got the ferry from venice to igamenitsa,theres no tolls that way,as for slovenja,croatia,i dont know mate,also when i needed a kip i slept in the car,on the bike i just booked in an motel for the night at a petrol station.

Hi, we did it three years on the trot, but we went Calais, Strasbourg, Venice and then got a boat to Igoumenitsa first time, thereafter to Patras.

I know people say it is now safe to go through Slovenia, Croatia etc., but apart from not being sure, it is a hell of a drive and you can now get a super fast ferry that takes (I think) about 17 hours from Venice.

We stopped at hotels in Calais, Strasbourg and Lake Garda, but we were treating it as a holiday and not economising on stops. Having said that there are plenty of cheap motels to stay at, or you could sleep in your van?

We personally used the toll roads in France as we found them to be almost empty and you could get a good speed up. Tolls in France and Italy not too expensive. Greek tolls almost free. Switzerland, you get a pass which lasts all year for however many trips, and it was not too expensive but cant remember exactly.

My one warning, do not speed in Switzerland. We got stopped through the Gottenburg tunnel, along with hundred of other people, and we were doing five miles an hour over the speed limit, we were fined about £250 and we HAD to pay there and then, no credit card, only cash. They took all our French Francs, Swiss money, Drachmas, Italian lira etc (just before the Euro ) and leftus almost penniless, but when they demand the money you really get no choice but to pay.

Italy, they tailgate you terribly, at high speeds. Switzerland we got fed up of tunnels. Greece, well we know it well anyway, but driving standards are very bad.

Have a great trip!

I'd take the easy way, I drove here (Greece) from the UK and am now living here.
Dover to Dunkirk, through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, back into France, down through Switzerland (very nice), but check if the Gottard tunnel is open, if not as it wasn't for use its a long detour. After Switzerland, into Italy and get the ferry from Ancona across to Igoumenitsa. I drove then through Greece to my final destination, Halkidiki.
France, watch out detours...they're not well signposted and you can get lost. If your using sat nav, forget it in these diversions, take a map and make sure you know where you are. Belgium and Luxembourg, boring...Switzerland very nice to drive through, but you'll need to get a tax sticker at the border. Italy, crazy!!! There seems to be no organisation at the ferry ports either.
Formula One Motels in France and clean and cheap. We stopped at one in Dunkirk and another at Mullhouse, near the Swiss border!

Have a good trip!

Nic

Oh, one more thing, watch out for dirty fuel, only use the big petrol stations. I filled up at a smaller on in Italy before we took the ferry, everything seemed fine until we hit the mountain roads in Greece, the dirty fuel had blocked the injectors and the car lost all all power, luckily I had some RedX, brilliant stuff, fluhed the system through! Make sure you take some!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 27/07/2006 07:12PM by Nic.

Nic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'd take the easy way, I drove here (Greece) from
> the UK and am now living here.
> Dover to Dunkirk, through France, Belgium,
> Luxembourg, back into France, down through
> Switzerland (very nice), but check if the Gottard
> tunnel is open, if not as it wasn't for use its a
> long detour. After Switzerland, into Italy and get
> the ferry from Ancona across to Igoumenitsa. I
> drove then through Greece to my final destination,
> Halkidiki.
> France, watch out detours...they're not well
> signposted and you can get lost. If your using sat
> nav, forget it in these diversions, take a map and
> make sure you know where you are. Belgium and
> Luxembourg, boring...Switzerland very nice to
> drive through, but you'll need to get a tax
> sticker at the border. Italy, crazy!!! There seems
> to be no organisation at the ferry ports either.
> Formula One Motels in France and clean and cheap.
> We stopped at one in Dunkirk and another at
> Mullhouse, near the Swiss border!
>
> Have a good trip!
>
> Nic
>
> Oh, one more thing, watch out for dirty fuel, only
> use the big petrol stations. I filled up at a
> smaller on in Italy before we took the ferry,
> everything seemed fine until we hit the mountain
> roads in Greece, the dirty fuel had blocked the
> injectors and the car lost all all power, luckily
> I had some RedX, brilliant stuff, fluhed the
> system through! Make sure you take some!
>
>
>
> Edited 1 times. Last edit at 07/27/06 10:12PM by
> Nic.

I'm driving over to Greece very soon and would like to know the cheapest ferries to get from either Venice or Ancona to Igoumenitsa. Does anybody have any website addresses? Would you say its better/cheaper to book in advance or just turn up on the day?

Many Thanks

Try www dot hellasferries dot com, they are very helpful.

When we drove over for three years on the trot, we used Paleologos Shipping. You can book on line www dot ferries dot gr / booking which is under the Paleologos umbrella. We booked on line, they emailed the confirmation etc and sent the tickets via courier to us. We went from Venice to Igoumenitsa first time, thereafter we went from Venice to Patras which we found easier to drive up to Halkidiki. However I now understand there is a new motorway from Igoumenitsa which helps you to avoid the windy mountain roads.

Both companies are extremely helpful. Prices vary depending on what sort of cabin, whether you go superfast or over two days etc. We always booked in advance and were pleased to have done so as it is complicated enough sometimes at Venice and Patras to get to your boat, never mind getting tickets too!!

Hope this helps.
Jane