Great video! You have earned a new subscriber. I just wonder why did you pick Romania instead of Serbia? Serbia has motorways the entire length from their Hungary border to the Bulgaria one. Driving through Romanian villages is picturesque as you wrote, but it can be long and exhausting, while stuck behind lorries, busses etc.
Hi! Thanks for the kind words and the subscription. I’ve done the trip before (there and back) going through Serbia and personally didn’t like that part of the trip. I found the toll station workers quite rude. I was driving with a rhd car and with the toll booths on the left side not one of them would extend their arm the slightest when I came to pay (I mean on the way there by that time I’m pretty tired and irritable anyways). There were some large queues at certain toll stations/borders crossings for Serbia. Also when I travelled with a friend through Serbia he got stopped after a toll station by the police for not having his lights on during the day (I wasn’t aware of this law at the time). He had to pay a fine but he couldn’t do it on the spot he actually had to be driven by the policeman to the police station and be brought back...which took overall an hour. The first time I travelled to/from Bulgaria I didn’t have a trailer. The 2nd time I took a trailer and posted a question on a forum for advice. What I got back was a lot of responses of people telling me they were stopped in Serbia/Austria and told to unload their trailer for an inspection or taken to a weigh station. So I chose Romania! I would most likely avoid Serbia in the future if I ever do the trip again. But now I’m quite happy in Bulgaria and don’t plan on moving anything else over here from the U.K.
@@craftycouple8283 You're welcome. Keep up the good work. As person who does a lot of driving, I enjoy seeing other people's experience on roads. After reading your reply, I now understand your point of view. I personally have never had a single issue travelling through Serbia. I often do trips Bulgaria to Czech Republic and back. Sure, sometimes traffic forms at toll booths and border crossings, especially during the summer, but there are less busy alternative border check points. Driving a rhd, however, I imagine can be a pain. Not only toll booths, but also entering shopping centres etc. Also, I do not pull a trailer so I don't worry about that either. I really do understand why you avoid it though! I was very curious and I thank you for taking the time to answer. Enjoy your time in our beautiful country. Regards
I boarded the ferry at 5pm and arrived at 8am the next morning. Set off driving around 9:30am after the ship tied up and drove through the port gates etc. The journey took me just 2.5 days roughly but I didn’t push myself to go super quick. I’ve done the journey before I made this video and I made it from Amsterdam to Sofia in 36 hours but that was with minimal stops and 3 hours sleep (never again!). Good luck if you’re doing the journey!
What time of the year did you drive ? I’m set to drive to Antalya south of Turkey this Thursday from London and wondering if should set snow tires on or snow chains would be enough
I did it in November. There was only some slight snow going through Slovakia if I remember rightly. If I was you I would get winter tyres fitted because it is the law to have them fitted after a certain date (October maybe? Until spring time). I know this is correct for Bulgaria and would assume other countries you will travel through will have the same rule. So in my opinion, winter tyres, better to be safe than sorry in case you get stopped by Police.
@@jerevanski Ik ga altijd door servie, alleen ben je altijd heel lang vast bij de grenzen tussen Bulgarije en Servie, en Hongarije en Servie, meestal 1-3 uur. Ik ben nog nooit in Roemenie geweest, want ik denk dat je een vignette moet betalen voor dat. Je kan ook door Slovenie en Kroatie, de route zelf is langer maar de grenzen duren minder lang.
I had put an offer in on a house in Bulgaria we were supposed to go over to finish the sale and we got held up q week which was kind of lucky because the airports closed the day we were due to fly out of Ireland, now I can't afford it .. is it a handy drive, we will revisit the house in Bulgaria deal at some point but will want to drive as we take our macaw everywhere,..
I've done the trip before through Austria and Serbia WITHOUT a trailer. A lot of people who've done the trip before warned me that they've had problems in those countries with a trailer; they said things like they were taken to a weigh station or were made to unload the trailer for inspection and have to load it all back again themselves! Also you have to pay for a vignette in Austria and Serbia has a lot of toll roads. I spent a lot of time waiting at border crossings in queues on either side of Serbia and found the people at toll/border points very rude. Good luck with your trip!
@@craftycouple8283 the border between Serbia and Bulgaria is horrible. One time (I think it was in 2018) it took us 2.5 hours to finally get out of the border cross area.
NikoStats I believe David spent a long time queuing at the border the first time. This is one of the reasons he chose a different route the time after that.
I’m not sure, I think you have to spend a certain amount of time in a country that isn’t on Bulgaria’s red list before you attempt to enter Bulgaria. Unless you’re a citizen of Bulgaria or have a residency card. They will still require PCR tests to avoid quarantine.
The toll "police" (it's hard to call them any kind of police, they just look at vignettes) are such a joke here in Bulgaria! As a local always with a vignette I don't get stopped by them, but I did once and I have a hunch it's because I have an American license plate on my rear window just for decoration. I was surprised and only managed to stop 50-100 m from them as I was driving 80-90 km/h when they randomly waved the stick at me. Then they looked at the back of my car, probably saw the extra plate in the window, and just waved me off.
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Thanks so much for sharing this, its just want I needed to get an idea of the journey.
I loved the Romanian part, we gotta learn to appreciate our country more! Greetings from Bucharest!
I m hoping to drive to Bulgaria early 2020. Found this vid very helpful, thanks
I wish you best of luck! It will be a cold journey if you sleep in a car!
Appreciate the time it took you to put this together, thanks
Great video! You have earned a new subscriber.
I just wonder why did you pick Romania instead of Serbia? Serbia has motorways the entire length from their Hungary border to the Bulgaria one. Driving through Romanian villages is picturesque as you wrote, but it can be long and exhausting, while stuck behind lorries, busses etc.
Hi! Thanks for the kind words and the subscription. I’ve done the trip before (there and back) going through Serbia and personally didn’t like that part of the trip. I found the toll station workers quite rude. I was driving with a rhd car and with the toll booths on the left side not one of them would extend their arm the slightest when I came to pay (I mean on the way there by that time I’m pretty tired and irritable anyways).
There were some large queues at certain toll stations/borders crossings for Serbia. Also when I travelled with a friend through Serbia he got stopped after a toll station by the police for not having his lights on during the day (I wasn’t aware of this law at the time). He had to pay a fine but he couldn’t do it on the spot he actually had to be driven by the policeman to the police station and be brought back...which took overall an hour.
The first time I travelled to/from Bulgaria I didn’t have a trailer. The 2nd time I took a trailer and posted a question on a forum for advice. What I got back was a lot of responses of people telling me they were stopped in Serbia/Austria and told to unload their trailer for an inspection or taken to a weigh station.
So I chose Romania! I would most likely avoid Serbia in the future if I ever do the trip again. But now I’m quite happy in Bulgaria and don’t plan on moving anything else over here from the U.K.
@@craftycouple8283 You're welcome. Keep up the good work. As person who does a lot of driving, I enjoy seeing other people's experience on roads.
After reading your reply, I now understand your point of view.
I personally have never had a single issue travelling through Serbia. I often do trips Bulgaria to Czech Republic and back. Sure, sometimes traffic forms at toll booths and border crossings, especially during the summer, but there are less busy alternative border check points.
Driving a rhd, however, I imagine can be a pain. Not only toll booths, but also entering shopping centres etc.
Also, I do not pull a trailer so I don't worry about that either.
I really do understand why you avoid it though! I was very curious and I thank you for taking the time to answer.
Enjoy your time in our beautiful country.
Regards
Thank you for the journey, how long did the ferry take and the full drive time including stops please?
I boarded the ferry at 5pm and arrived at 8am the next morning. Set off driving around 9:30am after the ship tied up and drove through the port gates etc. The journey took me just 2.5 days roughly but I didn’t push myself to go super quick. I’ve done the journey before I made this video and I made it from Amsterdam to Sofia in 36 hours but that was with minimal stops and 3 hours sleep (never again!). Good luck if you’re doing the journey!
What time of the year did you drive ? I’m set to drive to Antalya south of Turkey this Thursday from London and wondering if should set snow tires on or snow chains would be enough
I did it in November. There was only some slight snow going through Slovakia if I remember rightly. If I was you I would get winter tyres fitted because it is the law to have them fitted after a certain date (October maybe? Until spring time). I know this is correct for Bulgaria and would assume other countries you will travel through will have the same rule. So in my opinion, winter tyres, better to be safe than sorry in case you get stopped by Police.
@@craftycouple8283 Thanks à lot for the reply, winter tires it is then, quite annoying as I’ll have to buy summer tires again once in Antalya :((
Or just duct tape your current summer tyres to the roof so you can change them back when you get there 😂
Coincidentally, I live in The Netherlands but every summer vacation i go to Bulgaria
That’s amazing! Do you normally take the car there?
@@craftycouple8283 yes
@@iamdarthvader998 hey ik ben van plan deze zomer naar Sofia te gaan met de auto. Welke weg zou je aanraden? Moeten we Servië vermijden?
@@jerevanski Ik ga altijd door servie, alleen ben je altijd heel lang vast bij de grenzen tussen Bulgarije en Servie, en Hongarije en Servie, meestal 1-3 uur. Ik ben nog nooit in Roemenie geweest, want ik denk dat je een vignette moet betalen voor dat. Je kan ook door Slovenie en Kroatie, de route zelf is langer maar de grenzen duren minder lang.
I had put an offer in on a house in Bulgaria we were supposed to go over to finish the sale and we got held up q week which was kind of lucky because the airports closed the day we were due to fly out of Ireland, now I can't afford it .. is it a handy drive, we will revisit the house in Bulgaria deal at some point but will want to drive as we take our macaw everywhere,..
I'm making the same trip in 4 week's time what was your reason for not going through Austria and Serbia?
I've done the trip before through Austria and Serbia WITHOUT a trailer. A lot of people who've done the trip before warned me that they've had problems in those countries with a trailer; they said things like they were taken to a weigh station or were made to unload the trailer for inspection and have to load it all back again themselves! Also you have to pay for a vignette in Austria and Serbia has a lot of toll roads. I spent a lot of time waiting at border crossings in queues on either side of Serbia and found the people at toll/border points very rude. Good luck with your trip!
@@craftycouple8283 the border between Serbia and Bulgaria is horrible. One time (I think it was in 2018) it took us 2.5 hours to finally get out of the border cross area.
NikoStats I believe David spent a long time queuing at the border the first time. This is one of the reasons he chose a different route the time after that.
@@craftycouple8283 ok but who is David
NikoStats Hi, this is David speaking...I did the driving and previously you were speaking to Nadya.
Can I travel to Bulgaria by road even UK is on red list for them? Will they send me back?))
I’m not sure, I think you have to spend a certain amount of time in a country that isn’t on Bulgaria’s red list before you attempt to enter Bulgaria. Unless you’re a citizen of Bulgaria or have a residency card. They will still require PCR tests to avoid quarantine.
Will Romania ever have a proper highway?
Maybe in the year 3000?
What is the music called but lovely places
What time in the video does it play and I’ll look the music up for you.
@@craftycouple8283 like driving in Slovakia and Hungary
ruclips.net/video/noBR-_edToA/видео.html
Thank you
The toll "police" (it's hard to call them any kind of police, they just look at vignettes) are such a joke here in Bulgaria! As a local always with a vignette I don't get stopped by them, but I did once and I have a hunch it's because I have an American license plate on my rear window just for decoration. I was surprised and only managed to stop 50-100 m from them as I was driving 80-90 km/h when they randomly waved the stick at me. Then they looked at the back of my car, probably saw the extra plate in the window, and just waved me off.
I can imagine them calling themselves the toll police to try and sound cool 😂
@@craftycouple8283 Yeah, pretty much :D