Driving From Ireland - Greece/Bulgaria

MadMardegan

Anyone have any experience with this?

Me and then girlfriend are thinking about driving over in the summer.
Would most likely be getting the ferry from Hollyhead then driving down to France and on from there. We don't really want to stick to just motorways though, would be nice to go through some small villages and stop off.

Anyone done it before?

Jake The Fat Ma

Dont even think about it.

Stromecek

Not exactly the same but I drove from Prague to Istanbul via Greece last summer. It was an amazing drive even including the ludicrous roads in Albania and I'd heartily recommend it if you have the time to take it all in. Its really very common in Europe to drive to your holiday destination so in most counties there's ample facilities to cater for that. Bear in mind we had six weeks or so and you're talking maybe twice the distance.

Also we have a lhd campervan, I dont think I'd be comfortable driving a right hand drive car all the way to Greece, it would just be a constant source of stress especially if you intend to avoid the major roads. Otherwise it takes just a short while to adjust to driving on the other side of the road, instinctively trying to change gear with your left hand and whacking against the door being one of the challenges.

yeraulone

Jake The Fat Ma wrote: »

Dont even think about it.

Why?! It would be an amazing drive. Would love to do it.

MadMardegan, how long are you going to do it for?

zagmund

You ask "Why ?".

Well, think of the practicalities. Cherbourg to Sofia is 26 hours according to Google. By motorway. Assuming you do *nothing* but drive for 6 hours a day this means you will get there somewhere between 4 and 5 days later. Not too bad, eh ?

6 hours a day doesn't sound too much, but it is a lot of time on the road. Remember that the hotels you stay in won't be right by a motorway exit all the time. You might spend 30-60 minutes time leaving your route, finding your hotel, getting stuck in traffic, getting lost in a city, etc . . . and then there's the rest stops during the day - if you allow 30+ minutes per stop and you have a few stops along the way (you do have to eat) you can see how 6 hours point to point driving ends up being more like 8 or more hours on the road. Every day.

Except this is on motorway. You don't get to see anything interesting, you don't get to notice the changing culture, landscape & environment along the way unless you count the differences between Serbian & Austrian service stations.

Telling Google to avoid motorways (so you get to see stuff along the way) increases the journey to 43 hours. At 6 hours driving a day this is between 7 & 8 days. This is all well and good, but it doesn't include time spent visiting the interesting places you pass along the way. Assuming you stop along the way for a couple of days, the trip will probably take you something like 10-14 days.

Two weeks, just to get to Bulgaria. Then there's the tolls and petrol costs. Have you any idea how much petrol you would need to drive 2,650 KM ? A lot.

And then you have to do it all over again, just to get home. Another two weeks, another shed load of money on petrol, food, accommodation, etc . . .

My suggestion (if you have the time and money involved in the trip) would be to fly or get the train to somewhere you specifcally like in the region, rent an apartment & a car and do local/regional trips for a few weeks from there. Save yourself the joy of spending a few hours travelling through suburban Saarbruken, Augsburg und Drobeta-Turnu Severin at rush hour.

z

yeraulone

You've raised some great points there and some serious considerations for any driver looking to do an extensive road trip like this.

I do know about the costs of these type of trips, having driven across Canada, Australia and the full length of france twice. Being in the right vehicle for the journey can save you a shed load on fuel etc.

It really depends on how long the OP is going to do the trip, what the budget is, are they in a campervan etc. The return journey can be a completely different route across Europe, which would make the return a lot less daunting.

Jake The Fat Ma

zagmund wrote: »

You ask "Why ?".

Well, think of the practicalities. Cherbourg to Sofia is 26 hours according to Google. By motorway. Assuming you do *nothing* but drive for 6 hours a day this means you will get there somewhere between 4 and 5 days later. Not too bad, eh ?

6 hours a day doesn't sound too much, but it is a lot of time on the road. Remember that the hotels you stay in won't be right by a motorway exit all the time. You might spend 30-60 minutes time leaving your route, finding your hotel, getting stuck in traffic, getting lost in a city, etc . . . and then there's the rest stops during the day - if you allow 30+ minutes per stop and you have a few stops along the way (you do have to eat) you can see how 6 hours point to point driving ends up being more like 8 or more hours on the road. Every day.

Except this is on motorway. You don't get to see anything interesting, you don't get to notice the changing culture, landscape & environment along the way unless you count the differences between Serbian & Austrian service stations.

Telling Google to avoid motorways (so you get to see stuff along the way) increases the journey to 43 hours. At 6 hours driving a day this is between 7 & 8 days. This is all well and good, but it doesn't include time spent visiting the interesting places you pass along the way. Assuming you stop along the way for a couple of days, the trip will probably take you something like 10-14 days.

Two weeks, just to get to Bulgaria. Then there's the tolls and petrol costs. Have you any idea how much petrol you would need to drive 2,650 KM ? A lot.

And then you have to do it all over again, just to get home. Another two weeks, another shed load of money on petrol, food, accommodation, etc . . .

My suggestion (if you have the time and money involved in the trip) would be to fly or get the train to somewhere you specifcally like in the region, rent an apartment & a car and do local/regional trips for a few weeks from there. Save yourself the joy of spending a few hours travelling through suburban Saarbruken, Augsburg und Drobeta-Turnu Severin at rush hour.

z

All of the above plus imagine all the rows:eek:
It would be unbearable.

the_doctor

zagmund wrote: »

You ask "Why ?".

Well, think of the practicalities. Cherbourg to Sofia is 26 hours according to Google. By motorway. Assuming you do *nothing* but drive for 6 hours a day this means you will get there somewhere between 4 and 5 days later. Not too bad, eh ?

6 hours a day doesn't sound too much, but it is a lot of time on the road. Remember that the hotels you stay in won't be right by a motorway exit all the time. You might spend 30-60 minutes time leaving your route, finding your hotel, getting stuck in traffic, getting lost in a city, etc . . . and then there's the rest stops during the day - if you allow 30+ minutes per stop and you have a few stops along the way (you do have to eat) you can see how 6 hours point to point driving ends up being more like 8 or more hours on the road. Every day.

Except this is on motorway. You don't get to see anything interesting, you don't get to notice the changing culture, landscape & environment along the way unless you count the differences between Serbian & Austrian service stations.

Telling Google to avoid motorways (so you get to see stuff along the way) increases the journey to 43 hours. At 6 hours driving a day this is between 7 & 8 days. This is all well and good, but it doesn't include time spent visiting the interesting places you pass along the way. Assuming you stop along the way for a couple of days, the trip will probably take you something like 10-14 days.

Two weeks, just to get to Bulgaria. Then there's the tolls and petrol costs. Have you any idea how much petrol you would need to drive 2,650 KM ? A lot.

And then you have to do it all over again, just to get home. Another two weeks, another shed load of money on petrol, food, accommodation, etc . . .

My suggestion (if you have the time and money involved in the trip) would be to fly or get the train to somewhere you specifcally like in the region, rent an apartment & a car and do local/regional trips for a few weeks from there. Save yourself the joy of spending a few hours travelling through suburban Saarbruken, Augsburg und Drobeta-Turnu Severin at rush hour.

z

Americans often drive at least 12 hours per day, if not more! Many drive from MA to VA in one trip. VA to FL is completed in the second trip. Given how European roads have been improving steadily, then why can't they do the trip?

You can only drive 6 hours per day? Where did this thought originate?

I've been to 3 european countries. I would not want to complete the trip since the European gas price is generally 3 times the American price. I would take the train service which is wonderful even in Spain.

However, I think that there are not many direct routes or easy transfers between trains on this route, either. Driving the car seems very practical and more reasonable to me than others have indicated.

Bill

MidlandsM

and what if you had a breakdown? or an accident OP ?

bk109

MidlandsM wrote: »

and what if you had a breakdown? or an accident OP ?

There's breakdown assistance at least in the civilized part of Europe you know . Still,it's a good idea for the original poster to check with his insurer just in case. The other important point is to check all the relevant vignettes and highway taxes,as not paying them can and will lead to a hefty fine.

Also from personal experience (I did the Dublin - Rousse/Bulgaria trip) - DO NOT GO THROUGH ROMANIA! The roads are insane,ditto the truckers (I did this part of the trip at night and I think that shortened my life by at least a decade). Then again,I might be biased a bit because someone nicked my laptop from the back of my car while in transit in Bucharest.
By the way - a whole week from Dublin to Bulgaria's a bit silly,as I managed the trip in 2 days with a non-driving companion in the car,but I guess 3 days would've been a bit less tiring with an estimated fuel usage of 7/100 (I could've gotten down to at least 6/100,but... the Autobahns,man,the Autobahns (aka - pedal to the metal from the Dutch to the Hungaro-Romanian border... where possible of course )
Ah,another (possibly relevant) tip - for some reason finding a petrol station at the E40 from Calais to the Belgian border is an impossible feat at night at least,judging by the lines at the first Texaco beyond the border

Peanut

OP you could look at motorail services for part of the journey although it might defeat the purpose/not be economical.

zagmund

Interesting replies.

Where did 6 hours come from - explained at length above. See paragraph 3 for my reasoning. Also, see original post for indication that the OP might want to stop along the way - "would be nice to go through some small villages and stop off". I know you can do 12 or 14 hours a day but if you want to see anything (or more than one single stop along the way) you will end up doing shorter days.

Breakdown cover ? Ho, ho, ho, ha, ha, ha. It will get you off a motorway and towed to a garage. Probably. It won't get your car home from the far flung reaches of Europe.

"then why can't they do the trip?" - oh, they can do it all right, but in my personal opinion it would be slightly bonkers. I still think my suggestion makes more sense - fly or train there, hire an apartment and car there and spend the time driving around the area rather than through E-roads of Europe.

z

Agricola

zagmund wrote: »

Interesting replies.

Where did 6 hours come from - explained at length above. See paragraph 3 for my reasoning. Also, see original post for indication that the OP might want to stop along the way - "would be nice to go through some small villages and stop off". I know you can do 12 or 14 hours a day but if you want to see anything (or more than one single stop along the way) you will end up doing shorter days.

Breakdown cover ? Ho, ho, ho, ha, ha, ha. It will get you off a motorway and towed to a garage. Probably. It won't get your car home from the far flung reaches of Europe.

"then why can't they do the trip?" - oh, they can do it all right, but in my personal opinion it would be slightly bonkers. I still think my suggestion makes more sense - fly or train there, hire an apartment and car there and spend the time driving around the area rather than through E-roads of Europe.

z

I agree. The problem with a roadtrip is that the romantic notion we have of it is far removed from the reality. People dont fully understand what they're letting themselves in for untill they're behind the wheel for the 3rd day in a row. I think its really only for petrol heads that have a performance car and want to test out some of the glorious driving roads in Europe. If, in everyday life driving does nothing for you and is more of a chore than a pleasure, then don't do a roadtrip.

Much better to fly to the destination and hire a car. I really want to drive from Bulgaria / Northern Greece all the way down to Athens, taking in all the ancient sites in the Peloponnese, but Id only consider flying there and using a hire car.

bk109

Agricola wrote: »

I agree. The problem with a roadtrip is that the romantic notion we have of it is far removed from the reality. People dont fully understand what they're letting themselves in for untill they're behind the wheel for the 3rd day in a row. I think its really only for petrol heads that have a performance car and want to test out some of the glorious driving roads in Europe. If, in everyday life driving does nothing for you and is more of a chore than a pleasure, then don't do a roadtrip.

Much better to fly to the destination and hire a car. I really want to drive from Bulgaria / Northern Greece all the way down to Athens, taking in all the ancient sites in the Peloponnese, but Id only consider flying there and using a hire car.

This is definitely the better solution,plus you can always arrange your flights so you for example land in Sofia (I'm biased,but I think Varna,Plovdiv or Burgas are better choices), pick a car from Hertz - drive around and really enjoy the surroundings without having to juggle between the need to worry about covering long distances and the desire to check out various sights in and around your destination and then drop it off say at Athens airport or Istanbul.

Btw,a great thing you can do is to start from Bucharest and work your way down from there. The bonus of starting from up there is that you can check out the mountain roads that were featured on Top Gear a couple of seasons back and also that there are quite a few museums and sights in the city itself

zagmund wrote: »

Breakdown cover ? Ho, ho, ho, ha, ha, ha. It will get you off a motorway and towed to a garage. Probably. It won't get your car home from the far flung reaches of Europe.

Actually, I can vouch for the breakdown assist being useful at least in the civilized part of Europe.In my case it included getting my car from Hungary back to Bulgaria (a student driver rear-ended my old 80/B4 on the M5 on the outskirts of Budapest) and everything including the courtesy car that got me home were provided by my insurer... I do agree,however,that you're essentially right about what your coverage gets you in SE Europe... that's provided the locals recognize your coverage in the first place and even that isn't exactly guaranteed