sandrawrrr
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 12 years ago
Hi guys!
we're 3 girls planning to travel from northern switzerland to budapest (via prag), osijek where we can stay for free and istanbul by balkan express entering in beograd. we want to visit as many cities and countries as possible and staying in each for 2 nights (2/3 of us already did one last year like this and it was exhausting but we dont want to loose time). we also think about going to bulgaria, black sea, but somehow the train connections seem bad.
so, my question is:
what places do you recommend us to visit?
how can we travel back in another, more or less fast way, so that we can also see other interesting places? albania is kind of in the way, and there are no ferries ..
best regards
sandra
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hej Sandra,
have you already thought about how long you want to travel? And which pass you intend to buy?
Depending on whether you are travelling with a Flexi or a Global Pass, I would recommend to options to go to Prague:
with Flexi: go to Zürich and take the direct CNL :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/night-train/zurich-prague-cnl-40470/38[/u] to Prague. For the part of the journey within Switzerland you will need an extra ticket for which you will get an InterRail reduction.
with Global: Go to Schaffhausen and then via Waldshut to Basel to join the CNL to Prague there. This will be cheaper than via Zürich although you will need to leave a bit earlier probably.
In any way you will need a reservation for the CNL, for prices follow the link above.
From Prague you have two-hourly connections to Budapest, if you want you could also travel overnight. Or make a small detour and visit Wien on the way to Budapest as well. :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/prague-to-budapest[/u]
From Budapest to Osijek there is one direct train :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/budapest-to-sarajevo[/u]
Depending on how much time you have, you could think of then continuing to Sarajevo - Mostar - Ploce :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/sarajevo-to-ploce[/u]
Then along the coast (by bus) via Dubrovnik - Kotor to Bar/Podgorica and finally with train again back to Belgrade.
:arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/bar-to-belgrade[/u]
Then from Belgrade to Istanbul with a possible stop in Sofia :arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/belgrade-to-istanbul[/u]
On the way back you could either skip the Bulgarian Black Sea coast and travel to Bukarest directly, or go to Plovdiv and change there for Burgas or Varna.
On your way back you have two major routes: Either via Bukarest - Budapest or via Sofia or Bukarest - Belgrad.
If you go via Budapest you could spend some extra time in Austria or visit some places in Romania as well like Sibiu, Brasov, Cluj,...
If you go via Belgrad you could visit Zagreb, Ljubljana, Lake Bled and then go via Triest - Venezia - Milano back to Switzerland
Flo 8)
sandrawrrr
Traveller
1 comments
Thanks for your answer!
we want to take the interail ticket for 22 days.
we are actually from schaffhausen, but we could also travel from basel. there is a german train (so its included in the ticket) from schaffhausen to basel that only takes an hour. so leaving early wont be a big problem, and if its really that early, one of us also lives in basel, so there isnt a problem with early departures.
we could make a stop in munich, sleep there for 2 days and leave later for prague. thats actually a cool idea to make a stop in vienna, and it also only takes 2,5 hours to go from there to budapest. so this would take about 10 days i think. from budapest to osijek its about 3 hours i think, and there we could also stay for another night.
but THEN it gets tricky: we wanted to go to the croatian coast and the plitvice lakes. to you happen to know if there are any buses to the plitvice lakes?
and are there any connections from split to ploce? and from ploce to beograd there should be some, but i just cant find any timetables and how long this would take travelling across bosnia .. i guess 15 hours :|
have you ever travelled by the balkan express? i wonder if its nice because 23 hours stuck somewhere where its unbearable would be pretty unconfy.
and how is sofia? is there anything interesting?
i just think that travelling from istanbul to burgas would be cool and so on, but it takes such a long time ..
by the way, are there any reliable train connections so greece? it would be so nice to travel by ferry from greece to somewhere else, so that we can skip travelling through the balkan region again (its just that weve been there pretty often so we want to see new stuff and a second time would prolly be a waste of time).
sorry, that are a lot of questions ;) i just wonder what you can recommend to 3 young girls who like culture and party as well
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hej,
if you are from Schaffhausen then definitely go to Basel via Waldshut. It is included in your InterRail ticket and you wont need an extra ticket since Schaffhausen is CH <> DE border station.
However, if you want to go to Munich first, then it will be better to go to Lindau via Singen and take then a direct train to Munich.
From Munich there are several trains (free) or buses (reservation needed) to Prague. The following legs until Osijek are easy and no reservations are required.
If you want to visit the Plitvice lakes it is probably best to get a bus there from Zagreb. There are several departures daily from the main bus station, the trip takes ~ 2h30 and costs ~12€
[u]https://rail.cc/en/train/zagreb-to-plitvice-lakes[/u]
From Plitvice you have buses to Zadar and Split ([u]https://rail.cc/en/train/plitvice-lakes-to-split[/u]) ...along the coast there are frequent buses between the cities, so it wont be a problem to get to Ploce. From Ploce you can use the train again, however I would recommend to have a stop at Mostar and/or Sarajevo.
:arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/ploce-to-sarajevo[/u]
:arr: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/sarajevo-to-belgrade[/u]
Have a look at the link I posted above for Belgrad - Sofia - Istanbul, you will see pics of the Balkan Express from last december. Currently there is a TCDD couchette running all the way Belgrad - Istanbul, which should be replaced by a ZS sleeper during the summer.
I have never been to Sofia so cant really comment on it...but I think it is certainly interesting and worth to visit.
At the moment there are no international train connections to/from Greece. You can either cross the border by taxi/bus or be less adventurous and get a direct bus to Thessaloniki or even Athens.
Flo 8)