Hi.
I am currently trying to work out my route back to the UK from Bulgaria.
Does anyone have recent experience with crossing Serbia? I have no green card and have been led to believe that I will need to obtain third party Serbian insurance at the border? Is this correct and does anyone know how much this is likely to cost???

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Andy L

From the midnight sun to the silk & rhubarb roads, 2014
I am not an adventure rider, just a biker that has adventures.

See the reply I made to your similar question at the post Macedonian & Albanian insurance.

Also be aware that if you are going to visit Kosovo (a very pleasant country to visit), you cannot enter Serbia from Kosovo, and you should ask the Kosovo border police to please not stamp your passport, as that will piss off the Serbs.

Michael

Thankyou for your replies. Do you know how much the Serbian insurance would be? If it is too expensive I will ride through Hungary instead.

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Andy L

From the midnight sun to the silk & rhubarb roads, 2014
I am not an adventure rider, just a biker that has adventures.

I don't know from personal experience, because Serbia was the one country I skipped. I had Kosovo stamps in my passport, and after having visited Sarajevo, Mostar, and Srebrenica in Bosnia, I had seen enough of Serbian cultural impact...

I do believe that the cost of temporary 3rd party insurance in Serbia is consistent with the rest of the Balkans - typically €15 or so for a couple of weeks. Macedonia is the only exception I know of to the €15 average, in Macedonia, it's €50.

Michael

Pity, its a lovely place with lovely people. I doubt all Bosnians and Croats are saints nor all Serbs evil. You can still much of the 'good work' NATO/USA did in Belgrade.
Do you avoid Germany by the same logic?

I probably would have were this the time period shortly after the Second World War.

Likewise, after spending several days in Kosovo, where I was very impressed with the country and the people, I cannot comprehend the intransigence of Serbia of not recognizing Kosovo as an independent country, and that did not predispose me well to visiting Serbia.

Mind you, my final decision to skip Serbia may have been unduly influenced by the visit I paid to the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial (and cemetery of over 7,000 people) in Srebrenica the morning of the same day that I had to make a routing decision to go via Croatia or Bosnia.

Michael

If we were to avoid all places that had been nasty to one another since the dawn of civilisation then you wouldn't venture out of your own home.

My perception of the good / bad guys is coloured by where I live and my memories of times I lived in. Two years ago I had the pleasure of traveling in Croatia, and the scars still showed on some buildings, and the memorials by the side of the road still had fresh flowers placed on them. I'm sure that if I'd visited any of the other countries caught up in the horror of those times they would have similar scars / memorials, and nice folk who make your stay a pleasure. From what I've read / seen on the media no one side / country was 100% good or 100% bad, but one side certainly seemed to be able to gather more negative press than others.

BTW looking forward to visiting BiH and Montenegro next year, and widening my views on the world and its peoples.

That is very true. But, unfortunately (in this context), I spent most of my professional career flying humanitarian aircraft in war relief in the midst of various conflicts (Angola, Mozambique, South Sudan, Somalia, Liberia, Western Sahara, and Rwanda, to name just the African countries), hence, I guess all my tolerance for disregard of the Geneva Conventions by combatants has been used up.

I found both of those countries to be very pleasant (also very inexpensive), although I thought the capital city of Montenegro was kind of dull and boring.

The road network in both countries is laid out in such a way that it is fairly easy to move across the two countries in one direction (for example, perpendicular to the coast), but difficult to move 90° rotated (for example, parallel to the coast, except along the coast itself). For me, this meant I had to do a heck of a lot more route planning - in order to visit all parts of the country - than I would normally do.

Oh well, the route planning will keep you active during a future winter night. I do recommend the Michelin maps of the area, I found them to be quite up to date and accurate. I did discover that the GPS cartographic databases listed all the roads, but did not distinguish well between very rough dirt roads vs. paved roads. In other words, the roads are all there in the GPS cartography, but the road attributes are not enumerated. So do be very suspicious of any GPS-based route planning.

Michael

And this is why i could never visit the USA!

All the Balkans are lovely, but for me Montenegro is the real gem.

As the title says - if you have an eu insurance policy you are automatically covered for serbia. the guys on the border will check the details of your policy against logbook and possibly vin number on bike - but it is simple and easy. Enjoy Serbia and if you need any advice on Novi Sad region or Romania - msg me.

Best
Gavin

Spent last weekend partying in Novi Sad with all ethnic groups - and no hassle at all!! Just extreme meat eating and drinking.... and there are also some amazingly beautiful women!
Biking is part of the culture - so if you come across patch wearing clubs - they are all friendly! They might force you to drink but you will make life long friends!

Thanks for that information, I've got the Freytag-Berndt maps for BiH and Montenegro, seem to be quite detailed, and have the Michelin green snakes alongside some roads. From reading other threads on here and other forum, the average speed seems to be about 50kph, with pleanty of police speed cameras to keep you legal as well. Best I keep an eye on the scenery, to keep the speed down, and spot the cameras

Gavin:

That is not always the case. Have a look at my 'green card' below, where Serbia is excluded (crossed out).

Michael

Green Card issued Summer 2014

Archival Note:

Information (as of summer 2014) about insurance prices and availability in the countries of former Yugoslavia can be found at this discussion:

Balkans Insurance - Here's the story, with details & sample documents.

Michael