After at least 10 trips from Amsterdam to Athens (or the other way) via the Balkans since 2017 we took the last trip in our beloved stealth camping “vannaki” last summer.
Almost every trip, we took a different route. Here’s a few of the best ones – I really enjoyed remeniscing!
The fastest (land) route
During early Corona times, we fled from The Netherlands to Greece. where the government hadn’t started going nuts (yet).
just before many European countries started closing their borders, we passed them. During the drive, we were in touch with Spotters in Prague, Belgrade & Skopje to check the latest news on if we could pass their borders.
We made it, in a record 36 hours which we hopefully never have to beat again…
By ferry – fewest kilometers
The ferry between Ancona and Patras takes about 22 hours. In the last years we usually chose to drive to/from Igoumenitsa, which is 2 hours more driving from Athens but it saves about 8 hours of time on the ferry.
The ferry is pretty nice. There are good huts, but you can also opt to sleep on the floor or a couch somewhere. Off-season it’s usually pretty quiet.
By ferry – via Southern Italy
This is a much faster ferry trip, but a lot of extra driving. It was a great opportunity to visit Southern Italy (Napoli).
Via Kosovo & Bosnia Herzegovina
My favorite route! Read more about our wild camping trip there here.
Via East Croatia
This year, we took this route where we focussed on the non-touristy Eastern side of Croatia where during the Balkan wars there’s been a lot of aweful conflicts. Especially visiting Vukovar and surroundings was a haunting experience. And a good lesson on how populists can make people fight their fellow-residents with their rhetoric.
Time to plan a next adventure on this route between Amsterdam and Athens I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time: taking the train.
