Family drive to turkey
 

Hello,
Planning a return drive to Turkey from London in summer 2017 for around 5 weeks.
Hoping to drive casual from London through Europe...
vehicle is a 2015 mpv

Questions:
1-
As well as having the car serviced just before the departure, anything you suggest to do or have for the car to last the trip of around 7K miles?
2-
We all have british passports, any other documents we require?
3-
Which route do you suggest to go through for a family with young teenagers?
4-
Is it safe to go through Serbia and Bulgaria?
5-
Thinking to get a return train (optimaexpress) with the car from edrin (east of turkey) to Austria. Has anyone done this?

Anything else you can comment on please?

Thank you

1. AA/RAC European cover.
2.No. Unless you plan to visit some of the minor Balkan countries, in which case you can get insurance at the border. But check your own first. Maybe health insurance. Be aware that some countries you will need a vigette if you plan to use motorways.
3. At five weeks, pretty much any route you want.
4. What makes you think its NOT safe?
5. Pass, cant help on that one.

You did'nt mention anything about accomodation? Hotels or camping?
The only downside, teenagers. God help you :innocent:
Just go and enjoy.

Thank you for your reply...

Regarding accommodation, any suggestions? campsites, hotels, etc.
I am thinking to just drive and using the latest satnav i.e. tom tom, to look for a place to stay i.e hotel or campsite. Stay for a day or two before driving again to the next destination...
Any suggestions on this and if we should pre-book or just follow sat-nav, etc.?

Thank you

We always use hotels. My other half would never camp. But feel free to pack the extra stuff if you want to do it. Eastern European hotels tend to be a fair bit cheaper, that's not to say that you can't find cheaper in Western Europe. The French Formula 1 chain springs to mind, very basic though. We never book hotels, I just use the POI facility on the satnav. It can be a bit hit and miss in large towns/cities occasionally to find space. But we have always found something. Remember that it will be worse during the traditional summer months, especially August, when most of the northeners migrate south.
Brings me to my next point, I don't know Tom Tom, so I can't really comment too much, but check your map coverage. Garmin, certainly, and I think Tom Tom used to have fairly poor coverage in Eastern Europe. Garmin used to term it "major roads only". That would also affect the number of POI's. So check what coverage you have. I ditched my Garmin a few years back in favour of IGO primo.

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merhaba,
Edirne TR- Villach A. havent done it yet..by train 32 hours..all information available on the link.
Optima Express
All the best.

This is useful. I think with our teenagers, we should just look for hotels after each drive from A to B until we get to Turkey...
Any suggestions on the route to take ?
Thank you

I'll leave that for someone else to chime in. I still want to know what the problem was with Serbia and Bulgaria though. :whistling:

Hi,
I guess I may have been mis-informed.
Thank you for keeping my mind at peace

Take a good look at your tires - if they're worn at all, consider replacing them. They will wear out much faster when you're driving all day. Other than that, yes, get continent-wide breakdown coverage and you're set.

Travel insurance. Can't overemphasize the usefulness of good travel insurance. Never a waste of money.

Looking at a map, your choice is to go via France and the western Balkans, down the Croatian coast (beautiful and cheap, but probably lots of traffic) or via Germany and Austria into Hungary. Budapest is probably Europe's most underrated tourist destination and amazing value for money. Romania is also cheap and its central mountains, and places like Cluj-Napoca, are very cool.

I've taken a car train in Finland. If the price is right, it can be a very good option to skip boring parts of the drive. In your case, if you take the scenic route down, might as well take the fast option back up.

Unless you're going at the absolute height of the season, then from Austria on you will always have local accommodation (B&B, guesthouse, small hotel) available at the end of the day. Any village you choose to stop in.

While you're still in the EU, no point in using TomTom. Data roaming is cheap enough to use Waze, which gives you realtime road hazard/police warnings. Or Google Navigation, which will always have more up-to-date road info and accommodation/sightseeing info, including user reviews.

I'm a pre-booker by nature, but after going around Southeastern Europe by car and bike, I'm confident in saying it's not a necessity.

Routes to Turkey and Return
 

arkiboys,
if your screen name means what I think it means you are headed to
Gobekli Tepe: The World's First Temple? | History | Smithsonian

Arki " archeologist in my lingo. Correct?
rosa del desert and I on two BMWs G650-gs rode from Spain to Turkey and return a couple of years ago and here is how we did it.

Spain riding to France,
Switzerland
Austria
Italy
Slovenia
Croatia
Bosnia & Herts
Albania
Greece
Istanbul, Turkey - Black Sea Route via Zongulddac, Inebolu, Sinop, Samsun and Trabzon,
(previous three cities were NSA/military listening bases during the Cold War)
I graduated High School in Ankara in 1964 (speak some Turkish) and my Dad worked in Turkey.
From Trabzon we rode the back roads toward Golbekli Tepe but were turned back due on approach due to bombings at the border with Syria.
We rode the southern coast of Turkey (Mercin was interesting with off shore Roman castles) all the way west to Izmir where we, (and I suggest this route for return) boarded a ferry to Greece, rode Greece and then boarded a ferry for Italy, rode Italy and then boarded a ferry for Spain, disembarking in Barcelona.

Our biggest threat were the big, really big, sheep dogs with spiked colors we encountered riding the back roads (farm roads) from the north coast to the south coast of Turkey. Remember we are on two motorcycles.... Other than that - see previous post - we were stopped by an Italian Candid Camera crew posing as border guards Italy/Slovenia, but we saw through the rouse - we live in Buenos Aires , Argentina, so EU pranks seem rather transparent.

The mint tea (chi) houses in larger cities...feature older men who appear to be the living dead. No woman allowed - they have their own tea houses. I have joined the living dead for some chi and discovered they were doing more than tea. Anyway, Turkey is a destination of choice, just do not visit any city/attractions listed in the guide books. These will be filled with tour bus loads of Russians on vacation. Select places - out of the way - like Golbekli Tepe. you will not be disappointed.

Traffic and tourists in Istanbul are unbearable.... Best bet is to get out of town fast...

xfiltrate

PS Camping along the Black Sea Route is available, but not structured campgrounds, look for small signs saying Camping - usually locals offer "camp grounds" in their back yard. Some back yards front the Black Sea and are a great bargain. We bush camped 20% of the time in Turkey, and stayed at very inexpensive "unofficial" hostels more often than that. Cities, like Istanbul have very expensive hotels - or alternative is generally in unsafe areas.

Thank you

Easy Drive
 

I have been to Turkey many times and beyond its dual carriage way most of the time
try Hungary Rumania Bulgaria out Greece Macedonia Serbia Croatia Austria on the way back
Serbia is now in the euro insurance zone so only Insurance to sort is Turkey Don't forget the E visa on line use Turkey embassy for online visa

ROADS IN RUMANIA CAN BE VERY BAD TRY NOT TO DRIVE AT NIGHTkeepcalm

The Adventure is
 

we are going to black sea coast 15 September in our FORD F350 with the 1250 bandit in the back
Life is short get hold and don't let go

I am the restless traveller

:stormy:

The roads in Turkey are pretty good, esp. the main roads. Even the gravel roads are usually in a fairly good condition.

Accommodation is cheap compared to Western Europe. Camp sites are rare, the further east you get.

Turks are very friendly and helpful people. I always enjoyed their company. Further east you'll encounter more and more road-blocks. The police are polite and friendly, but often you'll see people without uniform along with them. I reckon they must be guys from the secret service. I have seen them bullying civilians in Kurdish regions. And I never felt comfortable with them. So, be careful there.

Car tyres won't be a problem if need arises. The further east, the more difficult it becomes to get m/c tyres :(

The Balkans have no safety issues. Alternatively you could take a ferry from Venice to Greece and further from Piraeus to Turkey. Saves lots of kilometers....