spontaneoustravel
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 9 months ago
Where can I buy the BalkanFlexipass? And how does the pass work?
I want to start my journey from Austria, near to Villach.
I cannot find a reliable website that has all information about the Pass. Some say you need to buy it 6 months in advance but also that it is better to buy it locally?
Do you have more informations?
MisterSteve
Traveller
912 comments
As far as I can tell it is no longer sold and hasn't been for a few years. If you Google for it but limit the results to those from the last year all you find is people asking the same question as you and unreliable sites that don't know the answer. The out of date rail.cc page has a sales link to ACP Rail (a known expert retailer) but their website returns an error message for the old page.
Even if it was sold it wouldn't be very good. The service from Bulgaria into Turkey is very weak, posibly only one train per day (hard to tell, the train companies arenlt really interested in running it). A lot of Greek trains are suspended and NONE have crossed the border since the first covid restrictions. Much of the Serbian rail network has been suspended for a few years and this affects travel to Montenegro and Macedonia.
And Slovenia was never part of the pass so you couldn't start at Jesenice near Villach.
spontaneoustravel
Traveller
1 comments
okay. Thank you very much!! That was helpful.
Do you recommend doing balkan then? I would´nt want to do Turkey anyway. My plan is to somehow get to greece.
argon
Traveller
350 comments
After Corona all trains from or to Greece were cancel , the only way to go to Greece is by bus .
nltrainer
Traveller
1336 comments
As above; NO trains over borders in most of teh countries that are in this scheme.
I myself was in BG and RO spring ´23-on an INterRail (with 50%^discount from last yr) and saw notes that this pass is still for sale there-but f.e. in Ro NOT valid on CFR=the main state-owned operator there, only a few other minor railways. Which means this pass is about useless-plus that local fares are so low you will be amazed thy even still sell them and its not free.
As such it works the same way as an INterRail-though I think only old-style paper passes are used, not the new on your holy mobile fone.
Just pay when there also leaves you to the much often far better=faster, more often, does run, BUSes that are plentiful and more fitted for the size of demand there is.