Italy through Slovenia to Croatia during COVID-19...
 

Hi fellow travelers and riders,

We are two Americans living in Germany (EU citizens) looking for advise on border situation. We are considering travel to Croatia from Germany through Austria, Italy, and Slovenia. It seems that CURRENTLY these countries are all on the “green list“ so, from what we’ve read, travel is allowed without quarantine.

Does anyone have first hand experience or information that would help us make a decision?

Thank you,
Travis Gill

Hi Travis:

I think the key word in your question - which kind of suggests to me that you are aware of what the "real risk" is - is the word CURRENTLY, which you capitalized.

I'm not talking about the "real risk" of getting infected with COVID, I'm referring to the real risk of getting trapped inside a country a long way from home if the infection situation suddenly gets worse and countries start imposing travel restrictions, quarantines on new arrivals, etc.

On March 3rd this year, when things didn't look too bad, I traveled to Tunisia. About a week after I got there, when infections started to pick up, the Tunisians imposed a "14 day quarantine in place" on all recent arrivals. By the time I finished doing that quarantine in a Tunisian hotel, all the borders were closed, there was no way to get myself and the bike (or even myself without the bike) out of the country, and I wound up spending almost a month stuck in a hotel before I could get on a repatriation flight.

I don't think it would be wise to get more than one country away from your home country this summer. In other words, if you are based in Germany, you might want to restrict your travels to Germany (heck, there's lots to see there), or at most, to directly adjoining countries (Austria, CH, etc.) where you know you can get back into Germany within 12 hours if things start to go downhill and travel restrictions appear to be coming. I don't think it would be prudent to put yourself in a position where you would need to pass through a third country to get back home.

See this post that I made a few months ago - they will give you an idea of what can happen when border closures are suddenly imposed:

Tunisia Closes Maritime Borders

Or, better still, see this post, which I made in the early days of the pandemic, when I was in the same position you are in now, wondering if it was prudent to head off to far distant shores:

The novel Coronavirus & travel planning

Consider also the many travelers who got trapped in Morocco for months.

Keep in mind that when governments impose travel restrictions in an effort to control infection spread, they don't give any advance notice. If you are really lucky, they might say the restriction becomes effective at midnight tonight - but don't count on that.

Michael

Michael,

Great comments and I appreciate your insight and experience. My original post didn’t go into all of our details because it’s complicated and I’m just looking for real-time details on anyone who has traveled recently to Croatia from Western Europe.

We have actually been full-time motorcycle since late February. We are well aware of the risks since we ended up spending three months quarantined in the region of Murcia, Spain. As of June 21st, we’ve been traveling again, but don’t want to be caught in a Schengen country (like Germany) with the impeding deadline on a tourist visa as American citizens. Our plan it to get to Croatia where we can stay for up to 90 days and then work our way around the Balkans.

As far as “heading off to far distant shores”... Too late, we were already on distant shores since February. We are not interested in returning to the USA right now since we don’t have anything to return to. Our lives are on two motorcycles for the moment.

Has anyone recently crossed the border into Croatia? Thanks.

Travis and Chantil Gill
www.viajarMOTO.com

As of Monday, Croatia is on the list of "dangerous countries" and there will be a 14day quarantine when you want to go back to Austria, Germany etc....

Update:

We’ll make our way to Croatia via France, Italy, and Slovenia. From what I’ve read online it seems there are two outcomes once we reach the Croatia border:
1) Showing US passports will require us to have a negative COVID test within the last 48 hours and proof that we have accommodations in Croatia. If we don’t have a negative test prior to entering Croatia, we will have to self quarantine, get a test in Croatia, have the negative test verified by a doctor, and then register with the police before we can travel again.
2) Although we have US passports, we should be able to show that we live in a EU country (Germany). This will grant us free access without a test.

We’ll keep you all updated...

Just matters how long you stay.

If you come back, you need a test too, or quarantine.

I live in Italy (US Passport holder on a work visa). We travelled to Budapest a few weeks ago and only got stopped for passport checks at the borders. I'm not sure that is the case now. We had considered going on holiday again out of Italy but have since decided to not only stay in Italy but also in our Regione for the next few months.

Here in Veneto, they just enacted a mandatory mask order from 1800-0600.

You should be prepared to be barred entry to any country while you quarantine...that's just my two cents opinion.

Crossing the border on Friday. We’ll see how it goes...

Probably only tangentially relevant, but I just did 3 weeks - UK->France->Italy->Swiss->Germany->France->UK and found no border issues at all, other than the UK's France quarantine arrangements.

From keeping an eye on developments and comments from the various Governments during that time, my sense is that there is little political appetite for any barriers to go up within the Schengen area ATM, despite the recent increase in infections.

Ed

Done deal. Crossing the brother from Italy to Slovenia and then to Croatia was a non event and not worth the worry we had. Welcome to Croatia and another 90 days of travel freedom!

It is not the problem of getting there, It would be more interesting, what happens if you come back from Croatia.

Austria ( and I think Germany too ) has travel restrictions and if you enter, you need a test ( not older than 2 days ) or quarantine.

I think they are full time motorcycle travellers and not particularly bothered about going back to Germany for the foreseeable future.
Well done for getting to Croatia Travis - don’t forget to update your blog bier