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anonymous
Traveller
2461 comments

Posted 12 years ago

Hi all, I'm planning a trip to Eastern Europe next summer and could use some advice.

I'll be in Kiev for the Euro 2012 final (evening, July 1), after which I intend to spend the next few weeks traveling around the Balkans and areas to the north. Here's my rough itinerary:

7/2 - Kiev-->Bucuresti (~27 hrs)***
7/4 (23:22) Bucuresti --> Sofia 7/5 (9:22)
7/7 (12:25) Sofia --> Belgrad (19:47, time zone -1)
7/9 (22:00) Belgrad --> Bar 7/10 (7:59)

This is where it gets tricky. I'd like to spend a couple days on the Adriatic Sea, but transportation I understand is difficult, and I can't just look up times on the Eurail site because there is no connection to Dubrovnik. Ideally, I'd like to stop in Kotor and/or Budva en route to Dubrovnik, then catch the train at Split and continue north to Zagreb.

[b]Question:[/b] can anyone provide advice for going from Bar-->Kotor-->Dubrovnik-->Split? When I get an understanding of that, I'll be able to plan the rest of the trip.

7/16 (8:50) Split --> Zagreb (15:21)
7/19 (4:42) Zagreb --> Budapest (10:54)
7/23 (11:30) Budapest --> Wien (14:25)
7/27 (10:40) Wien --> Praha (15:30)

Also, you can see I'm planning on traveling a lot at night. I figured this would be the best way, minimising expenses on hostels and being efficient with the time allotted for vacationing.
[b]Question:[/b] Is it advisable to travel at night on the Eurail? How much should I be worried about others stealing things from a bag if I keep it in my hands while I sleep??

***I can't find any details (cost, schedule) on Kiev to Bucuresti via train. Any info/advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

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anonymous
Traveller
2461 comments

replied 12 years ago

Hi,

there are busses from budva or kotor direct to dubrovnik.
This summer there was 3 every day.
We paid 17€ for one ticket from budva.
I can't tell you the exat times, because the timetable is very often changing.
Buy a ticket 2 days in advance and it's ok.

From Durbrovnik to Split there are busses every hour
[u]http://www.libertasdubrovnik.com/voznired.pdf[/u]
This is the Timtable this year.
I can't tell you the price, but i can say that a bus to Ploce costs 9€ this year.

If you have more questions to the busses just ask again

Best whishes

Jaykob

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anonymous
Traveller
2461 comments

replied 12 years ago

Thanks for the quick response, Jaykob!

One question: I see the time of departures from Dubrovnik to Split, but do you know how long the trip takes?
www.libertasdubrovnik.com/voznired.pdf

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anonymous
Traveller
2461 comments

replied 12 years ago

Calculate with 4 hours.
There was one bus that takes only 3,5h.
But some busses have stops on the way so it takes a little bit longer.

The bus from Budva to Dubrovnik takes 3h.

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anonymous
Traveller
2461 comments

replied 12 years ago

Just be sensible about your possessions whilst travelling on board at night, I've travelled between Stockholm and Oslo, Moscow and St Petersburg (and back) and Amsterdam - Berlin - Vienna - Rome on night trains, all on my own (except Russia and Amsterdam to Berlin when I was with 2 girls I met), and I was fine. Keep all valuable stuff actually on you like passport, money, camera etc.


Not to be a scaremonger, but I met an Australian brother and sister who were on the Prague to Warsaw sleeper (which I believe is notorious for getting robbed on...! so I ended up on a 13 hour bus...) and they were apparently robbed in their sleep by having their suitcases sliced open, other bags taken to other carriages and ransacked. Lost laptops, iPods, money, the works. However I suspect that they did something not quite right even though they said they had done all the things to prevent anything happening.

Like I said, just be sensible. I mean, do you REALLY need to be carrying a laptop with you? take spare memory cards for your camera if it DOES get stolen or lost? etc

Happy travelling!

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nltrainer
Traveller
1316 comments

replied 12 years ago

no-that wont help. Rossye is NOt Ukrayna. PLUS that currently UZ=rthe state railways are reorganising all their foreign links and scraaping many, many sleeeprtrips. AND you CAN only even try to reserve 45 days before.
PLUS that it will be highly likely that they will have special arrangemtns for those heaps of footballfans, to be published only later. xxxxx

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anonymous
Traveller
2461 comments

replied 12 years ago

Thanks for the help, Jaykob, UKGlobetrotter and nltrainer

Nitrainer, when you say Rossye is not Ukrayna, do you mean that I should be more worried about being robbed in Ukraine or Russia?

Also, you make a good point about reorganisation of railways before Euro 2012. Is there anywhere I can look to find more information on changes? This trip from Kiev to Bucharest is really in question now.