Croatia Greece , Italy trip next year

[Jewellbags]

Considering driving down to Greece next year and catching the ferry across to Italy for the return leg . If funsters have any experience then would appreciate any tips . I will allow 6-8 weeks , go via the fast roads in Germany to get to north Italy / Slovenia . Will be travelling early to mid September to avoid much of the holiday crowd .

Questions like , recommended shore line stops for a few days r&r, do we need to pre book the ferry and who with , and anything else to consider ?

I don’t want to plan the heck out of it but just to avoid the pitfalls I guess as the last trip (just finished) went very smoothly .

Thanks I’m anticipation

 

[Soycd]

Just green card for the month we were there

Which insurance company are you with? So far I've only found Caravan Guard will issue a green card for Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia.

 

[Baggydave]

Which insurance company are you with? So far I've only found Caravan Guard will issue a green card for Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia.

We were with Adrian flux but can’t remember which particular insurance company

 

[Mad dog]

Brill thanks for the replies re the dogs, I've always fancied doing spring in Greece before the holiday makers all arrive and watching it come back to life and hadn't considered that was also something we can now do in our own Motorhome so this is great!

To add about dogs. When we entered Montenegro, Albania & Greece, etc we didn't offer our pet passport. Mabel was sat between us, they didn't ask about a dog, so we didn't offer! No point complicating things! It shouldn't be no problem tho. In Albania there are lots of street dogs in the towns, we were wary to start with, but in the main they're very friendly & well looked after by the locals. Our dog played with plenty of them!!

 

[Ziggy123]

To add about dogs. When we entered Montenegro, Albania & Greece, etc we didn't offer our pet passport. Mabel was sat between us, they didn't ask about a dog, so we didn't offer! No point complicating things! It shouldn't be no problem tho. In Albania there are lots of street dogs in the towns, we were wary to start with, but in the main they're very friendly & well looked after by the locals. Our dog played with plenty of them!!

That's good to know. I was worried about travelling to areas with street dogs as dominate males often take a dislike to our boy, I say its because he is handsome and the girl dogs all love him so he is competition lol!

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[Nick wright]

Considering driving down to Greece next year and catching the ferry across to Italy for the return leg . If funsters have any experience then would appreciate any tips . I will allow 6-8 weeks , go via the fast roads in Germany to get to north Italy / Slovenia . Will be travelling early to mid September to avoid much of the holiday crowd .

Questions like , recommended shore line stops for a few days r&r, do we need to pre book the ferry and who with , and anything else to consider ?

I don’t want to plan the heck out of it but just to avoid the pitfalls I guess as the last trip (just finished) went very smoothly .

Thanks I’m anticipation

Considering driving down to Greece next year and catching the ferry across to Italy for the return leg . If funsters have any experience then would appreciate any tips . I will allow 6-8 weeks , go via the fast roads in Germany to get to north Italy / Slovenia . Will be travelling early to mid September to avoid much of the holiday crowd .

Questions like , recommended shore line stops for a few days r&r, do we need to pre book the ferry and who with , and anything else to consider ?

I don’t want to plan the heck out of it but just to avoid the pitfalls I guess as the last trip (just finished) went very smoothly .

Thanks I’m anticipation

When I went to

Considering driving down to Greece next year and catching the ferry across to Italy for the return leg . If funsters have any experience then would appreciate any tips . I will allow 6-8 weeks , go via the fast roads in Germany to get to north Italy / Slovenia . Will be travelling early to mid September to avoid much of the holiday crowd .

Questions like , recommended shore line stops for a few days r&r, do we need to pre book the ferry and who with , and anything else to consider ?

I don’t want to plan the heck out of it but just to avoid the pitfalls I guess as the last trip (just finished) went very smoothly .

Thanks I’m anticipation

When we went to Croatia I headed for lux

Considering driving down to Greece next year and catching the ferry across to Italy for the return leg . If funsters have any experience then would appreciate any tips . I will allow 6-8 weeks , go via the fast roads in Germany to get to north Italy / Slovenia . Will be travelling early to mid September to avoid much of the holiday crowd .

Questions like , recommended shore line stops for a few days r&r, do we need to pre book the ferry and who with , and anything else to consider ?

I don’t want to plan the heck out of it but just to avoid the pitfalls I guess as the last trip (just finished) went very smoothly .

Thanks I’m anticipation

when we went to Croatia I headed for Luxembourg/Saarbrucken then on the national 10 road past pirmasens then all the way to Munich then headed for the Austrian border at kufstein but came off before the border at I think it’s junction 59 oberaudorf and headed for the grossglockner ( no gobox required) but you pay about €20 for the grossglockner well worth it. From there headed for lienz, udine, trieste then used the national road 7 to Rijeka and did some Croatian for a month. If I was doing Greece I’d use the boat from Ancona both ways. Regards nick

 

[nicholsong]

It has just occurred to me that when we were on the Ancona-Patras ferry we were outside the territorial waters of both Italy and Greece, so were we covered under EU insurance cover?

If not, were we covered by the ferry company's insurance - as a lawyer I should have checked.

 

[Joethejoiner]

I think people need to be told about it.

For the majority of Motorhomers going to the mainland anywhere in Eastern France, Italy, Germany etc it is the logical route.
The only other logical route is the tunnel.
The Dover/Calais ferry route should be last on most motorhomes options.

However if you Google a route London to Hoek, the 'preferred' route, which is over 300 road miles further and at least a couple of hours slower is via Calais, therefore people don't think to even look at the best route

If you left London at the end of a working day, you would be in the Netherlands by 8am the next day, having slept all night in a bed.
Unless you drove all night no way you could do that via Calais.
But Google does not tell you that.

View attachment 831808

Why would the tunnel be so much better than Dover Calais ferry ?
Wee bit quicker but , easily , twice the price

 

[Brains]

Why would the tunnel be so much better than Dover Calais ferry ?
Wee bit quicker but , easily , twice the price

It's all about where you are going.

Ignore distances and times given by Google maps, as they are not accurate.

If you are going to Germany, Italy or Eastern France then the logical crossing is Harwich/Hoek of Holland.
If you are going to Spain or Western France then the logical routes are from Plymouth/Portsmouth/Southampton etc. to Santander/Bilbao or St Marlo, Cherbourg, Le Havre etc.

The tunnel is good for where speed (and less hassle) is more important than cost

The Dover/Calais route is cheap, but so is Poundland.
You pay for your cheap ferry cost with additional tolls, fuel, and probably more importantly for those that work, time.

The real shame is there are few ferries to the mainland from Northern England and none from southern Scotland

 

[Joethejoiner]

It's all about where you are going.

Ignore distances and times given by Google maps, as they are not accurate.

If you are going to Germany, Italy or Eastern France then the logical crossing is Harwich/Hoek of Holland.
If you are going to Spain or Western France then the logical routes are from Plymouth/Portsmouth/Southampton etc. to Santander/Bilbao or St Marlo, Cherbourg, Le Havre etc.

The tunnel is good for where speed (and less hassle) is more important than cost

The Dover/Calais route is cheap, but so is Poundland.
You pay for your cheap ferry cost with additional tolls, fuel, and probably more importantly for those that work, time.

The real shame is there are few ferries to the mainland from Northern England and none from southern Scotland

You make some fair points but in previous post you did a direct comparison with tunnel and Dover Calais ferry .
Just did price check for tomorrow afternoon .
Ferry £88
Tunnel £280

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[Brains]

You make some fair points but in previous post you did a direct comparison with tunnel and Dover Calais ferry .
Just did price check for tomorrow afternoon .
Ferry £88
Tunnel £280

Remember to add mileage, tolls, fuel and time to the working out.

To get Google to give accurate distances/times you need to measure from your home to the UK port and then from the EU port to your destination.

Do not include the ferry crossing with google maps.
Using the example of London to Dusseldorf

Google claims London to Dusseldorf via Harwich is 365 miles and 8.30 hours
Google claims London to Dusseldorf via Dover is it claims it 350 miles and 7 hrs
So it would appear Dover is faster and shorter

Both ports are about 80 miles from the M25
The real driving distances are 156 miles/2.30hrs from Hoek and 250 miles/4hrs from Calais

So Google is out by roughly 100%

 

[Joethejoiner]

Remember to add mileage, tolls, fuel and time to the working out.

To get Google to give accurate distances/times you need to measure from your home to the UK port and then from the EU port to your destination.

Do not include the ferry crossing with google maps.
Using the example of London to Dusseldorf

Google claims London to Dusseldorf via Harwich is 365 miles and 8.30 hours
Google claims London to Dusseldorf via Dover is it claims it 350 miles and 7 hrs
So it would appear Dover is faster and shorter

Both ports are about 80 miles from the M25
The real driving distances are 156 miles/2.30hrs from Hoek and 250 miles/4hrs from Calais

So Google is out by roughly 100%

Sorry you've lost me . You made a direct comparison between tunnel and Dover ferry . That is what I was referring to .
Tunnel more than 3 times cost of ferry.

 

[frwjd]

Sorry you've lost me . You made a direct comparison between tunnel and Dover ferry . That is what I was referring to .
Tunnel more than 3 times cost of ferry.

We still prefer the ease and speed of the Chunnel

 

[Joethejoiner]

We still prefer the ease and speed of the Chunnel

Moneybags !

 

[frwjd]

Moneybags !

We each choose how we wish to spend our cash. The additional cost of the Chunnel is relatively insignificant in the total cost of, for example, an 8 months trip.

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[frwjd]

I've never paid more than £170 for a one way chunnel journey.

Just used direct ferries for a Dover to Calais trip, one way, departing 7th March 2024
Cheapest ferry £100
Chunnel £168
A veritable bargain

 

[Ziggy123]

It also depends if you are travelling with a dog. The tunnel was brilliant for that, we only paid £130.00 one way but booked in advance by a month and used CAMC discount. I checked the Portsmouth to Caen ferry, with a pet friendly cabin which would have saved us a lot of driving time on our return, as we live on the south coast, but it was over £300.00 for same day and I would then have had the worry of bad weather...which ended up being justified when we returned just over a week ago in the storm!..and also whether our dog would be stressed on the ferry for 5 hours whereas tunnel was just half hour and so easy. Will definitely do again next time and maybe try ferry when its just us but I hate boats too!

 

[Mad dog]

The ferry works well if you've had a long drive & need a decent break, quick it isn't! However, now live in Devon, so it's Plymouth - Roscoff or Plymouth - Santander nearly every time now!

 

[Joethejoiner]

I've never paid more than £170 for a one way chunnel journey.

Just used direct ferries for a Dover to Calais trip, one way, departing 7th March 2024
Cheapest ferry £100
Chunnel £168
A veritable bargain

I was joking .
But I did price it for one day this week and it was £88 and £280 respectively.
Hopefully you'll have lots of giggles on your trip .
I will now search for a better scriptwriter

 

[vzac]

We did the trip to Greece earlier this yr. If you haven't look at our vids on Wend yer way. It shows the parkups we went to, and a map of the route somewhere in the series. It was great we thoroughly enjoyed it but did not do the ferry to Italy, drove round instead.

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[Brains]

Sorry you've lost me . You made a direct comparison between tunnel and Dover ferry . That is what I was referring to .
Tunnel more than 3 times cost of ferry.

Depends on which ferry crossing.

For a motorhome owner, the only real reason to ever consider the Dover/Calais ferry is if you are visiting Belgium or North east France.
If you are going anywhere else then there are better crossing options.

I used the comparison of a trip from the M25 to Dusseldorf:
A quick google would seem to show that going by the Dover/Calais ferry was the cheapest option and the also the fastest.
In reality it certainly is not the fastest and once milage, fuel, tolls, food and at least one night of camp site fees are added to the consideration, it's not the cheapest either.

The tunnel is the fastest crossing, which is why it 'appears' to be 3 times the cost, but again once you factor in all the other charges and costs, it can actually work out cheaper than the ferry's.

(The freight, Ferry and Tunnel companies all know this, hence the reason they can sustain what appears to be a disparity on the cost, as it isn't really)

 

[nicholsong]

Depends on which ferry crossing.

For a motorhome owner, the only real reason to ever consider the Dover/Calais ferry is if you are visiting Belgium or North east France.
If you are going anywhere else then there are better crossing options.

I used the comparison of a trip from the M25 to Dusseldorf:
A quick google would seem to show that going by the Dover/Calais ferry was the cheapest option and the also the fastest.
In reality it certainly is not the fastest and once milage, fuel, tolls, food and at least one night of camp site fees are added to the consideration, it's not the cheapest either.

The tunnel is the fastest crossing, which is why it 'appears' to be 3 times the cost, but again once you factor in all the other charges and costs, it can actually work out cheaper than the ferry's.

(The freight, Ferry and Tunnel companies all know this, hence the reason they can sustain what appears to be a disparity on the cost, as it isn't really)

Anywhere East of Calais the DVR-Dunkirk crossing on DFDS makes sense since it is only 45 mins. longer and the fares are normally the same. Much less hassle disembarking and embarking on return.

 

[Joethejoiner]

Depends on which ferry crossing.

For a motorhome owner, the only real reason to ever consider the Dover/Calais ferry is if you are visiting Belgium or North east France.
If you are going anywhere else then there are better crossing options.

I used the comparison of a trip from the M25 to Dusseldorf:
A quick google would seem to show that going by the Dover/Calais ferry was the cheapest option and the also the fastest.
In reality it certainly is not the fastest and once milage, fuel, tolls, food and at least one night of camp site fees are added to the consideration, it's not the cheapest either.

The tunnel is the fastest crossing, which is why it 'appears' to be 3 times the cost, but again once you factor in all the other charges and costs, it can actually work out cheaper than the ferry's.

(The freight, Ferry and Tunnel companies all know this, hence the reason they can sustain what appears to be a disparity on the cost, as it isn't really)

Can only assume we are talking at cross purposes .
Just been to Dusseldorf recently .
Wouldn't exclude other ports but , for this journey, Calais suited .
Always check the tunnel prices but , even though I've travelled through it , have never got a decent price compared to the ferry . Once in France I see no advantage. Financial or otherwise.

 

[MOLO]

You've had some good advice. I concur that Via Mare is excellent, speak to Dale. I booked with them Italy/Greece and Pireas/Souda {Crete) and Greece/Italy in late August this year. Not surprisingly I was unable to get Ancona/Patra at such short notice, but Dale managed to find me Camping on Board Bari/Patra. My return journey, in early November, he was able to book me Patra/Ancona but as they do not Camping on Board that late in the season I've booked a cabin.
I was due to sail Souda/Pireas on 10th November {this Friday} and Patra/Ancona on the 11th. Unfortunately due to a mechanical problem with the MH, since diagnosed as a faulty ABS control unit I have been delayed. Because of the age of the vehicle I've been told from the UK that they probably won't be able to obtain the part. Mercedes here in Crete said they could get the part but it would take 10 days to arrive. The part came yesterday and I took the vehicle to Mercedes today to have it fitted. I will find out tomorrow if they have been successful.
I went to the ANEK main agent in Souda and explained the problem. He cancelled both of my ferry journeys and re-issued 'Open' tickets, valid for one year. He explained that the Souda/Pireas route was 'no problem' and he could book a MH anytime. However the Patra/Ancona was more difficult but there was some availability in November. As soon as I know when I can leave I must contact him and he will try and find me a crossing.
When I get my, hopefully repaired, MH back I will try and make that booking.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
My fall back position is to leave the MH here and fly back, returning in the Spring to drive it back. This presents a few difficulties, no MOT and the fact that a 'foreign' vehicle can only stop in Greece for 6 months. But this is Crete.
I'm applying for a 'Residence Permit' so the 90 day rule will no longer apply

Can I ask what do you mean by camping on board please?

 

[nicholsong]

Can I ask what do you mean by camping on board please?

'Camping on board' is for living in your own motorhome or caravan on a deck which is partly open to the sky or partly just ventilated with open spaces instead of windows.

On that deck there are showers and toilets and enough EHU points for all.

One has access to all the ship's facilities.

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[MOLO]

'Camping on board' is for living in your own motorhome or caravan on a deck which is partly open to the sky or partly just ventilated with open spaces instead of windows.

On that deck there are showers and toilets and enough EHU points for all.

One has access to all the ship's facilities.

Oh wow that's handy and good to know thank you.

 

[Soycd]

Further to Ziggy123 above.

We are heading to Greece next April with Doggo and have decided to ‘stick to’ the Pet Passport countries ie Slovenia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria on the in - bound journey. Exiting Greece we would like to drive up through the ‘Balkans’ to Dubrovnik, but it appears that not many people take dogs on that route, preferring the Ferry to Italy.

If anybody has done the ‘Balkans‘ Route‘ we would be grateful for any information about your experience.

Many Thanks

Robert

We are considering the same return route, through Albania-Montenegro-Croatia. Ive just booked a Black Friday deal with Grimaldi Lines for September. Brindisi-Igoumenitsa, €350 for 2 people, outside cabin and 6.4m van. They don't do camping on board, hence the cabin.