anonymous
Traveller
2469 comments
Posted 9 years ago
Hello everyone! I'm likely going on a night train tour in the Balkans. I'm curious to know what your experiences of the border controls in the region are.
Among routes that go outside Schengen, the following are currently options for my tour:
Budapest-Bucharest
Budapest-Belgrade
Ljubljana-Zagreb-Belgrade
Belgrade-Skopje-Thessaloniki
Belgrade-Sofia
Bucharest-Chisinau
Being aware of the differences could possibly help me in deciding on a route.
Thanks for any help :)
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
In my experience border controls are really easygoing, at least if you have a Schengen passport. Border police usually just has a quick look at the pass, as long as you dont behave or look suspicious. ;)
If you enter Greece (or another Schengen country) the checks can take longer and the passports may be taken for inspection to the border control office at the station.
What is quite annoying are the border controls in the middle of the night, eg Belgrade - Sofia or Belgrade - Thessaloniki night trains. You are woken up at the first border from the conductor PASSPORT CONTRROOOLL, then have to wait for the check, then can nap again for a while until the train is good to cross the border where the same procedure takes place again - overall this can take about one hour where you cant really sleep very well.
I rarely experienced custom controls, my luggage was never checked. However, the Belgrade - Sofia night train and trains into Croatia have a reputation of smuggling and border control might look thoroughly for cigarettes etc - however apparently this is more likely to happen in seated coaches. Havent been to Moldova.
I'd be curious to hear from experiences from other travellers too! :)
anonymous
Traveller
2469 comments
Thanks for the info. Eventually went for Zurich-Budapest-Belgrade-Sofia-Bucharest-Chisinau, because I want to visit both Belgrade and Chisinau.