Romania 2008
 

My girlfriend and i are planning next year's trip across the Alps through Switzerland,Italy,Slovenia,Croatia,Romania and on to Romania then after a while back via Hungary,Slovakia,Austria,etc...for roughly 5 weeks on our bikes(XL600 and Pegaso 650).Any up to date-ish info would be appreciated on borders between Croatia,Bosnia and Romania(specific paperwork requirements/bribe attempts/etc...) and more importantly camping situation in these countries as we're not rich enough to hotel it! I'm quite an old-hand at wild camping and can usually find somewhere to hide but would like to know the legal/accepted ways in these countries.Also,the Rough Guide to Romania(2004 issue) says the speed limit for motorcycles is 30kph in built up areas and 50kph EVERYWHERE else......is this still correct??? Seems a bit dangerous as all other traffic is allowed 90kph on open roads.We are both rather fond of unsurfaced roads and tracks so any reccomencations of good,long,interesting mountain trails would be gratefully recieved.....
Regards to all......Jon and Angharad.

Romania
 

Hi,

my name is Mihai and I live in Romania.
The speed limit is the same for the EU (city 50 km/h, outside 90 km/h, expresway 130 km/h).
If you have any questions about Romania don't hesitate to contact me.

Mihai

Camping in the wild is no problem in Croatia and Romania. There are lots of empty backcountry areas where you'll always find a nice spot for a night. In Croatia it might prove difficult in the northern coastal region (Istria), but further south as well as in the mountainous bachcountry this isn't a problem. Besides that there are alot of nice official campsites along the coast.

Romania offers superb landscape and very nice dirt roads, usually well gravelled. In the Carpathians you still find lots of pists crossing the mountains going well over 2,000m asl. One pass that immediately comes to my mind is the Urdele Pass (2,228m) turning off from the 7A roughly 34 kms east of Petrosani, leading south to Novaci on the 67C.

Make sure to buy a detailed and up-to-date map. The best currently on the market is IMO the road atlas of Freytag & Berndt (freytag & berndt) 1:250,000

As Mihai says, the speed limit is identical for motorbikes and cars. Just make a point of driving carefully - nobody takes an oncoming biker seriously when busy overtaking. So you should always be ready for an emergency stop or a detour onto the green ;-)

Rooms are abundant and fortunately quite cheap, whereas official campsites are scarce. But then I never had any problems finding a nice retreat for a night.

Austria and Switzerland are more of a challenge, but even there I usually found a nicely secluded spot just for me & my tent.

Hans

Just be little careful if you go via Bosnia, Serbia (not sure about Croatia) as there are supposed to be lots of personnel mines still not cleared up. So I believe it is recommended not to go off piste in these countries if you value the use of your legs..!

Rod

You obviously never visited mentioned countries! Where will you find mines in
Serbia ? Answer is simple - nowhere. In Croatia and Bosnia mine fields do exists,
but you need to explore very out of paved roads to find mines. As long as you stick
to roads , no problems at all.

To JonStobbs - be my guest !

Rod

in Croatia I have only seen mine alert signs on one piste across a mountain pass. There of course you shouldn't aleave the road - even for a pee ;-) For Bosnia I cannot say, because I haven't just been passing through several times.

Dangerous areas are all signed out, so that shouldn't be a problem anywhere on the Balkan and shouldn't stop you from visiting this beautiful part of the world.

Thanks for the info guys,much appreciated especially the speed limits part!

Mihai,will probably need info on things as we get nearer to the time,thanks for your offer.Where abouts in Rom do you live?

Vaufi...thanks for the tip about the Urdele pass,will be looking that one up at some point.Actually i had ordered the excellent Freytag & Berndt road atlas a few days ago,which arrived yesterday,and damn good it is too.Beats GPS any day from an exploring point of view! We'll probably not venture too far south in Croatia this time(i did a couple of years ago),but will keep to the North-ish parts this time(good excuse to bump into Ante,good to hear from you again!).Austria and Switzerland should'nt pose a problem camping,i've already found my own little quiet spots from previous trips that have served me well in the past.

Ante...good to hear you're still about! This time we'll be travelling in your direction,any chance of meeting up with you for a beer?We'll be leaving UK 9th August and taking our time through the Alps so will probably be near you somewhere around August 17th.Any campsites in your area?

Jon & Angharad

Romania
 

Hi Jon,
I live in Bucuresti.

There is some info on parts of your route on my trip blog - still shown as Kevin Payne I think. Romania was great - no problems a bit of common sense can't deal with. I took a wide berth around mine fields so I can't help you on that ! Feel free to email if you have questions, and have a great time.

Hi Michael,

i will wait you with a big one.

Mihai

Hello Mihai
We should be arriving in Oradea on or about 16 May from Budapest.
We intend to spend about 8-10 days in Romania and ride the following route:
Oradea – Cluj-Napoca – Sibiu – Brasov – (Bran) – Predeal – Sinaia – Ploiesti – Bucharest - Constanta – (Mangalia) – Tulcea – Galati – Odessa.
Apart from the obvious tourist attractions along the way (castles and churches etc); do you have any suggestions?
Where are you and when could be catch up for a beer etc?
Regards
Michael & Colleen Tharme
michaeltharme@bigpond.com

And if you will pass near Rijeka (or if you want to visit island Krk, not far from Rijeka, and connected with mainland with bridge) we can meet for beer, too.

Hi Michael,
for the moment I am in holliday. When I will come back (to the end off the next week) I will made few suggestions.
It is wery important what kind off bike do you have.
Mihai

Mihai
2005 1200GS.
Cheers
Mick

Hello Mihai,

I'am planing a trip to Sibiu area end of May this year. Maybe you can give me some hints for this area too? Thanx

Carsten

Hi Carsten,
try on this:Sibiu Hermannstadt Umgebung
Mihai
PS. If you are interesting about a very nice offroad tell me and i will send the map.

Hi Mihai,

thx for the link. Usually I'm interested in offroad but I'll drive with my R1150 Adventure. For real Offroad way to heavy. Two other guys will join me with normal street bikes (Triumph). But if you have some roads or poi's we should see, please tell me. I was looking for a Romania-map for me Garmin GPS. I couldn't find anything until now. Even tracks or routes will help. Anyhow, thank you very much

Carsten

PS: How are the temeratures end of may?

Make sure you do the Transfagarasan. See below, and youtube etc - also some pics on my blog - http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tst...yne/001411.php

Transfăgărăşan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Have fun.

Hi Carsten,
We have many interesting roads, but in my opinion the most beautiful are Transalpina and Transfagarasan, and both have the start points in Sibiu (and both are accessible with your motorcycles, Transalpina only the driver).
Pictures from Transalpina
http://sabin.ro/gallery/statiunea_ranca/011_statiunea_ranca
Regarding the map try this:
http://www.garmin.com/cgi-bin/mapgen/webmap.cgi?p=61014017&u=1&z=7&w=480&h=360&rz=0&k=1 &sc=1
it is only a demo, but if you will made the route I will transform you for a Garmin device.
The temperature to the end of May is OK for riding (around 25C more or less).
Mihai

Hey Guys, thanks a lot. I could find both roads in my map. Both are excellent, but i fear that the other two guy won't follow me thru the Transalpina. StreetTriple is the wrong motorcycle. But wait and see ;-)
Temperatures about 20 degrees are perfect. Mihai, today they had Bucuresti in the news on TV. Minus 25 degrees.....thats fu..... cold!

Carsten

Hello everybody,
I am reading your thread with interest, since I am also planing to do a tour to romania this year at the beginn of September. Well since I will be on the road with a KTM 990 Advenure and Off-road wheels, I am looking for some nice legal dirt tracks and even off-road. Well not too heavy, since we will have ten and stuff with us.

Any suggestions from your side?

Thanks in advance for your recommendations
Burnout1

Romania map
 

Hi,
if you are interesting about the map:
Proiectul Romania Digitala: Motivatie
Mihai

Hi burnout1,

maybe I can tell you some nice tacks end of june when I'm back from romania :-)

Would be very nice, since it is very difficult to get good info for that kind of thing.

Have a nice trip and I am looking forward to hearing from you :-)

Hi! everyone,

just discovered this forum and the site and I am happy to be around

For the people that travel to Romania, we have a good (very detailed!) digital map of the country (including also some off-road routes) . It is available in our shop (or dealers) from Bucharest, which is the representative office of GARMIN (GPS and maps producer). Please visit our site for more details: (click on the links bellow)

http://www.romaniadigitala.ro/en/index.php

http://www.garmin.ro/

cheers! and ride safe!
Cria

P.S. thanks! mae for introducing me in this forum ;-)

Tip Stay view nicht in Enduromaniacamp! You can there very nice offroad riding From easy till very heavy. Vilage Brebunou (Very nice erea forests etc..

EnduRoMania

I'm intending on visiting Romania in mid/late July. Pls see this post:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-romania-32528

Planning to have a roadbike and a DRZ400e with me in the van.

I've entered the July 20th-26th EnduRoMania. I'm in a team of 1 at present...:helpsmilie:

It's likely that I'll be in Croatia/Serbia for the 10 days before that.

Anyone around that part of the world then?

Ride safely,
Chris

If you will pass near Rijeka (Croatia) I would be very glad to have a beer with you :thumbup1:

Romania 2008
 

There's plenty of camp sites along the coast of Croatia, some through the centre of Slovenia....ditto Romania - but you won't find many in Bulgaria apart from on the coast (if you get that far) - the one's in-land leave quite a bit to be desired!

Camp sites I stayed in last year included,

Vampire Camping - Bran in Romania - the castle is theoretically the one upon which Dracula is based but there is some pretty countryside around and Tony is great especially if you have problems (like we did!) , in Romania we also stayed in Carta, Cluj Napoca and Sibiu.....the alan rogers website has a range of good quality campsites.

Wild camping is part of the social scene in Romania and accepted - but if you go into Bulgaria, the same is not true so take care!

If you go into Croatia, if you get time, do try to get to the Plitvice Park - they are stunning. I know some people have mentioned "mine field" signs - if you go off the beaten track between Plitvice and the coast, you may well come along a single track road with mine signs on both sides - we certainly did last September.......not a problem as long as you stay on the track and the scenery is certainly worth it. There's a couple of campsites near to Plitvice - and one does have cabins (but you need to prebook).....alternatively, you can get a room pretty cheaply (I think ours was about £20 for one night for two) ....in low season you can pick and choose and get a nice one!

Also in Croatia, I'd recommend the ampitheatre in Pula.....I never did do the collaseum in Rome, but this was pretty special...not over-run with tourists, quite charming and with parking right outside!....plus there's a decent campsite about two miles up the road who does a good line in sunsets! (I think it was Stoja - but don't expect much from the on-site supermarket!)

Favourite place in Slovenia was Lake Bohinj and the campsite about 6k's up the road was quite decent, as long as you go in good weather (the shower/toilet block is cold otherwise).

Hope this all helps!

romania 2008
 

hi Roodeberg

I am planning to travel through Romania in August 2008, is it safe enough to wild camp if I cant find a camp site

cheers Eric

Romania
 

Hi Eric,

I was only in Romania for a couple of weeks last year (July) - but it certainly appeared to be perfectly safe to wild camp.......indeed the problem wasn't safety - but (particularly at weekends) finding a spot that wasn't choc-a-bloc with everyone else doing the same thing!

I'm sad to say, you'll recognise the spots regularly used for wild camping - because the people will have left behind piles of rubbish:censored:

romania 2008
 

Hi Roodeberg

thanks for the reply

Eric

Romania
 

You can find a lot of info about Ro, questions and answers here:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...hlight=romania


For other questions, feel free and ask.


Best wishes,
Szabi

Altough it is a website done by a German guy, it is the one i like most about my country :

Rumänien / România

Go to the "FOTOS" on the upper middle portion of the front page.
Enjoy !

Also, i think that one of the interesting things in Romania would be the Unesco World Heritage sites :

Romania - UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

I recommand you this road map (has even all the forest and mountain road) - costs about 13-15 Euros and you can find it in the libraries :

Cartographia - expert în hărţi. Hărţi, hărţi digitale

Have a nice trip here in Romania :mchappy: :Beach:.

To said it again, in Romania it's safe to camp and you can do it anywhere outside the cities. You can do it in the wild, besides the road or in a peasant's garden in some village. I've never had a problem anywhere. Official camping sites.. nope, I doubt you'll find any since nobody's gonna pay to stay there as long as they can camp anywhere-else for free.