daboytonie
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 8 years ago
Hello everyone. Me and a friend are going to travel through europe during summer 2016. We are both in our twenties and living in Brussels.
I plan to go to a festival in Pula wich ends Monday 5/09. My friend comes with the plane to Pula. I looked up a few possible train lines. From what I understood the best was to go to Zagreb first. We end in Sofia cause it is very cheap to take the plane to Brussels from there.
The plan is as follow:
Pula -> Zagreb(1) -> Sarajevo(2) -> Belgrado(3) -> Pristina (1)-> Podgorica(1) -> Tirana(2) -> Thessaloniki(3) -> Sofia (1)
Anyone who travelled these parts can give us some tips? Is there a problem to get into Kosovo?
How long would it take to do the trip?
Ofcourse we can change if you guys know better routes and maybe smaller cities that are a must see.
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
How much time do you have in total?
Pula - Zagreb is no problem; you can buy tickets locally and will have to use the bus between Lupoglav and Rijeka. The bus is provided by Croatian Railways and included in rail tickets - it covers the missing tracks in this area (the railway line runs via Slovenia which is a much longer way).
Then, Zagreb - Sarajevo is easy too - german blog: [u]https://rail.cc/blog/de/zug-von-zagreb-nach-sarajevo/[/u]
From Sarajevo to Belgrade you would have to get a bus again. However, you could also think about travelling to Montenegro first (from Sarajevo by bus), then take the fantastic train line (see photo below) to Belgrade and continue by train to Pristina...but it then may be harder to include Tirana...
An alternative would be to go Sarejevo - bus to Belgrade - train to Montenegro - bus to Tirana - bus to Skopje/Pristina - Thessaloniki.
Skopje - Thessaloniki: [u]https://rail.cc/blog/belgrade-skopje-thessaloniki-train/[/u]
Thessaloniki - Sofia: [u]https://rail.cc/blog/from-thessaloniki-to-sofia-by-train/[/u]
In Bulgaria I would strongly recommend also to visit Plovdiv. :)
Flo 8)
daboytonie
Traveller
1 comments
Hej Flo,
First thank you very much for your fast reply and sorry for my late one :os
I haven't forgotten you.
We are leaving Pula on tuesday the 6th and heading to Zagreb.
And are thinking to leave from bucharest on the plane the 25th at 11H05 heading back to Belgium.
The route you proposed is very nice, let's sum it up:
Pula - Zagreb - Sarajevo - Belgrade ( - Podgorica - Belgrade ) - Pristina - Skopje - Thessaloniki - Sofia - Bucharest
Between brakets is an idea of my friend but in my opinion it is time consuming. We want to stay at least 2 nights in Belgrade and 2 nights in Thessaloniki. Do you think this is douable, if not we can fly back from Sofia. Also, what train pass you think we should buy?
Thanks in advance !!
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
You wont need any rail pass - just go with tickets bought locally.
If you think of adding Podgorica (or Montenegro in general, as Podgorica isnt that interesting) I think that you will save time by going Sarajevo - Podgorica - Belgrade instead of going back and forth from Belgrade.
Bucharest is not that spectacular either, so if you want to spend more time at other places it would be fine to skip it IMO - especially at it is a rather long day trip from Sofia to get there. But I dont want to discourage you from going there! :D
Timewise it will work out, you will have at least two days at each destination.