Istanbul to London. Best Route?
 

We are currently in Istanbul at the moment looking at the map and trying to figure the best route back to London.

We kind of wanted to see Greece but this time of the year we are thinking may not be the best time to visit the Islands.

The original plan was to drive from here to Greece and up along the coast of the Balkan countries back into western Europe. We were kind of thinking the same thing that its not really the best time of year to be visiting the sites along the med.

Instead we thought Bulgaria, Romain and Hungry then Western Europe may be better routes at this time of the year.

We were pretty keen to see Athens and have looked at ferry services from Turkey into Athens then heading into Bulgaria and Romania etc.

Its looking a bit expensive just to see Greece though, particularly since we have a heavy 4x4 and fuels not cheap.

Is Greece really worth going to all the effort and expense for? Are the Islands still good this time of the year or are they just massive tourist traps?

Can anyone who's familiar with these parts of the world give us some recommendations please.

Thanks

Hey Handy man,
We are looking to do something similar in May 2015 and was scouting for routing options.

Initially i had thought of routing from Istanbul into Hungary, Romania and further. And now thinking of actually driving from Istanbul to Athens and then ferry into Italy. Did you research on ferrying from Greece to Italy aswell?

Fastest route; Istanbul-Sofia-Nis-Belgrad - Budapest -Austria...
You may start through Greece to Macedonia and then Belgrad.
Or through Dubrovnik instead of Belgrad.
Greece to italy by ferry another option.