Hello everyone !
I am doing a tour of Europe with 2 of my friends, from January to June 2016 : we travelled across Portugal and Spain, and are going to Italy. For the rest of the trip, we would like to continue through Slovénie, Croatia...and the Balkan countries.
The only point is that : some people told us it was not safe because of what we call the "migrant crisis". Do you think we might have some trouble, since we take secondary roads, travel through small cities, and of course will have to cross many borders by bike ?
Do you have any recommandation or experience of what is happening now ? We are lacking some objective informations i think :)
Thank you !
Cécile
Hi,
I suppose someone from each country will have to pitch in and tell what the situation is. Currently in Bulgaria traveling is as usual. There might be some hot sports on our border with Turkey, in the most eastern area - people use the mountain to cross the border. Also in some of the bad neighbourhoods of the big cities there may be trafficants and gatherings of immigrants waiting to be sent to the west, but those places are easy to avoid. The Crossing the border shouldn't be a problem - you have your passports so you don't have to worry about that. We are a bit outside of the so called "European route" of the immigrants, but the situation might change. These are my 5 cents on the subject.
Cheers,
Georgi
P.S. Today I saw an article about Macedonian army moving to their border with Greece regarding some immigrants attempting to force their way in the country - perhaps someone from Macedonia can shed more light on the subject.
Hallo. I made a trip last summer on june from Athens to Hungary across Greece, Turkey, Bulgary along he black see coast and, Romanie, Serbia, Croatia and Hungary along de Danube river. I didn´t have any problem to cross the borders, but please make sure that you get your passport well sealed before you came in or go out UE countries. I had an "interview" at 1 am in my camping place with the border croatian police! But when they realised that I was a UE citizen the situation came to a happy end. The previous summer I travelled from Italy to Albania across Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro without any problem at all
Anyway I suggest you to visit the oficial web site from your Foreign Office. http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Portal/es/SalaDePrensa/Paginas/FichasPais.aspx#
Hi,
You will have no problem at all at borders.
I passed some of these borders last summer and everything was fine. The flow of immigrants use highways and trains. So you will be away from this border trafic. You also don't look like illegal migrants.
The only thing is that there are some border crossing points for locals only, and others for everyone. Some maps have outdated border control information. This information is easy to find anyway. If theres a big road or city its usually an international crossing point.
You know which route you will take? Seaside or mountains? There are really nice places from italy to croatia.
Have fun!
Hi All
Tomorrow ( March 17th ) I will start a cycle from Thessaloniki, Greece across into Macedonia , Albania, Kosovo until I reach Serbia. I have obviously had the same thoughts / Paranoias.
I am taking the Niki Border. I think as long as you avoid the Gevgelija border you should be ok.
I can update you in a few days
Iann
Hi Iann,
I should cross the Niki border from Macedonia to Greece in about a week. Would you be so kind to update the thread once you're on the other side?
I'll share my story too, obviously :)
no trouble at all crossing from FYROM to Greece at Niki border