I did that with Carole Nash too. Romania, at least for me, was much MUCH more interesting than Bulgaria. No police issues there, but Bulgaria is crawling with them. Check out my blog 'Kevin Payne' for more detailed info. Happy to answer specific questions once u have looked at that.

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Honda CBR 1100 XX, Yamaha XTZ 660, Harris Special

Hi mickba,

I am planning a similar solo trip, starting (hopefully) with LeMans 24 in April, then heading East, no timescale or ties, only timeframe is the International Transalp rally in Austria, May 15th for a few day's.

If you fancy meeting up for a while, feel free to contact me.

Phil

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650 Transalp

Welcome to Romania!!!!

As a romanian I will recomend you to stay in the north and west region of Romania, roads are more suitable to enduro than to street bikes. In north regions you can enjoy beautifull lanscape, virgin nature, monuments, nice people. In south and eastern romania you should be aware of gypsies - take care of your pockets . people are still nice but not like in north.

Also keep your eyes open on the roads .... drivers don't often respect bikers and don't respect driving rules so you can see a driver turning in the middle of the street even if he has a continuous line, road signs for priority are not respected and treated as they should ... slow down before cross-roads.

If you are in rural zone and is almost night take care and look for cows and horses because is "coming home hour".

Truk drivers are crazy and especially look out for cars with foreign numbers from Spain and Italy ..... 90% of them are romanians .... and they have to prove what car they bought from their work abroad ... so they are driving like sh**.

Don't expect to meet ATM's allover or exchange houses - allways change your money on city at a bank or at a trusty exchange office ... not on street.
Also be aware on small motells or hotels that accept credit cards but they don't require pin authorisation for tranzactions .... allways look at the person who handels your card.


Maybe I scared you .... but is better to know.

It worth to visit Romania, and you will see that you will wish to come again.

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See me,
Feel me,
Touch me,
BEER ME!

I`m from Serbia and I`ve been in Bulgaria last year on the road from Turkey, and my friends from my club were in Romania two years ago. Romania have a good landskapes but roads are so,so, very cheap country, friendly people. Bulgarian roads are better every year, either cheap, better landskapes are on the north of the country. On Bulgarian seaside you can have good time, good food, accomodation, every for a little money. Don`t worry about safety anywhere. Sorry for my not so good enlish.

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Bikers work is never done!

Hi Mickba

I wondered whether you are still planning to make this trip? If so how is the planning going, as I am contemplating riding to Bulgaria via France, Italy, Greece, in May.

Romania won`t adopt euro curency until 2014 ... Bulgaria maybe in 2009-2010. The exchange rates for Euro->Ron you can find here : Info financiar . Alsa 1 leva is about 0.5 euro.
The major roads in Romania are decent, but they pass through every village posible with speed limit of 50 kmh ... There are many radars in towns/villages so speeding would not be a good idea Outside town there are usualy no radars.
Be carefoul to secondary roads as they are very bad ... Potholes everywhere ... But for a XTZ 750 i think would be ok I would recomand you Transalpina (links Sebes to Targu Jiu), it`s an unpaved road that goes over 2000m in altitude. Also, Transfagarasean is ok (links Curtea de Arges to Fagaras).
In Bulgaria the roads are ok, maybe a little worse than in Romania, but again, for an enduro-touring bike they are ok. The police in Bulgaria is a little less opresive from my experience , less radars ... A problem in bulgaria is also the cyrilic alphabet ... But on major roads they have signs in latin alphabet so it`s ok. With a gps won`t be any problem ...
As for clearing customs, now with the entry in european union it goes quite fast ... The only check your passport ... From my experince the crossing from Romania to Bulgaria didn`t took more than ... 30 secons ?

Just to share my recent experience in Romania (11 days) and Bulgaria(only 2 days):
Border Crossings - no problem, only needed ID (german)
Police - no problem in Romania, have rarely seen any, was never stopped. In Bulgaria I've seen lots and was once pulled over, obviously because I'm on a bike. But when they saw I'm german they laugh and wave me on. From Romanians I've heard there's a lot less hassle with Police in Bulgaria since it's EU now.
Roads Romania - bad to very bad in the north (still lots of fun!). OK to excellent in Transylvania and somewhat inbetween in the south.
Roads Bulgaria - were all OK, but I'v been only on major roads travelling through.


cheers Andi

Hi ptr10001,

When exactly are you going? I'm planning to ride via Romania/Moldova to Odessa at the very end of May/beginning of June. I'd be pleased to meet up with someone.

Hi All
We are travelling down to Romania in a few weeks time, does anyone know what the campsites are like down that way? Is it better to look for sites or is wild camping ok? Any info would be great.

Debz

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www.sidecar-vagabonds.blogspot.com

We are considering the same thing.. How long are you going for and when? And what ferry are you thinking about taking? And will you ride directly to Romania or are there stops planned? Sorry for all the questions, but we have left the planning a bit late and are trying to see if it is worth it /possible on a two week trip.
cheers

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2000 Africa Twin
http://two-up-ona-twin.blogspot.com

Hi Xander, we are sailing from North Shields to Amsterdam on Sat 26 May and returning Sat 16 June, so we have 3 weeks. Originally we only had 2 weeks but were still looking at same trip but spend less time in Romania. Our plan (I use that word loosely) is to ride through Germany into Poland, have a day or 2 around Krakow then down towards Romania. We'll spend 4 or 5 days down there and then travel back up perhaps through Hungary/Austria/Germany. When are you travelling? We are planning to camp all the way.

Debz

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www.sidecar-vagabonds.blogspot.com

hi, I am going to do the same thing. Did you get any replies fro your question? If so could you pass the information on to me?

My email is martinblizard@btinterent.com Thanks Martin.

Hi Martin

I am setting off on Sunday for a trip to Romania via Greece & Bulgaria, so if you want I can check it out as we will be mixing camping & B&B's.

Cheers
Martyn