Riding to Greece.

A friend has bought a house in Greece - a free holiday and I fancy riding
there. Autoroute suggests that Piros is about 3000 km from Builth Wells and
would take me 3 days 8 hours or so. Their route involves a ferry from
Southern Italy to Butrint in Greece.

Has anyone been on this route? Do you know of a better way?

John

 

Butrint is in Albania. You might want to 'score' another country, but
Albania is fairly primitive and you could have bureaucratic hassles;
unwelcome if you're in a hurry. Furthermore, many of the roads are bad.
There are ferries from Bari to Igoumenitsa and Patras, both in Greece.
Dunno where Piros is, so can't advise which is best.

 

Eatmorepies emerged from their own little world to say

Like VR, I can't find Piros on a map.

http://www.aferry.co.uk/UKFerry/ferry-to-greece-ferries-uk.htm has details
of ferries from Ancona, Bari & Brindisi

The alternative is to go through the Balkans. Slovenia and Croatia are
fine. I was there earlier this year. There's a good standard of road to
Split. Your insurance will cover you in Slovenia as it is in the EU. Many
companies also cover Croatia now.

However, the problem comes when you leave Croatia. You will need to buy
insurance at the borders, jump through whatever bureaucratic hoops are
presented and ride on very bad roads through Serbia/Montenegro, Albania and
maybe Macedonia.

If I wanted an interesting trip that was my holiday I might be tempted to
take this journey on. If my plan was to get to a friend's place in Greece
then I'd stay in the EU and take the ferry from Italy. There are plenty of
places to take an interesting detour on that route.

 

Could be because I am using my 1962 Bartholomew's Advanced Atlas. It calls
Athens Athinai. I imagine Piros has another name. My pal's house is in
Stoupa - not on my atlas so I used a largish town on the same peninsular.
Sorry to have caused confusion.

Thanks for the suggestions - I like the sound of staying in the EU for my
first long distance trip.

John

 

Eatmorepies emerged from their own little world to say

Definately get a ferry - it's right in the south of the mainland. SW of
Athens and SE of Kalamata. Get a ferry to Patras.

 

In

I went from Liverpool to Zakynthos in a Range Rover a couple of years ago,
and I recommend the trip.

I went Liverpool - Hull > ferry to Rotterdam> then just wandered across
Europe to Ancona in Italy > ferry to Patras > then from Patras to somewhere
else in mainland Greece then another ferry to Zante.

The Ancona to Patras ferry takes 23 hours though and it's really not that
nice a place to be. Food isn't that good, there's not that much to do other
than collect the messages from weird countries' mobile phone networks as
you pass them by "Welcome to Croatia" etc.

Still, lovely scenery, and make sure you pass through the best bits [1] of
Northern Italy on the way, Modena etc.

[1] Where they make fast stuff and things.


--
Pete M

Alfa 155
Ford Capri (still broked)
Porsche 911 3.2 (For Sale - ebay soon)
COSOC #5, OMF#9
Scouse Git extraordinaire. Liverpool, Great Britain

 

Supposed to be the most lawless country in Europe. Take a FOAD lock.

 

What the hell, go overland through the former Jugoslavia, you'll have
an adventure...

 

Owen emerged from their own little world to say

The former Jugoslavia is fine as most of it would be in Slovenia & Croatia.
Albania is the fucker.

 

You only live once...