A Motorhome Tour of the Balkans in the Summer of 2015
Italy – Croatia – Bosnia-Herzegovina – Croatia – Slovenia - Italy
Keith and
Jenny Dear
December 2015
Travelling in their beloved Autosleeper Symphony, a 2.5L diesel-powered
Peugeot Boxer-based Campervan, Keith and Jenny make an 11-week summer tour of
the Balkans.
Accounts of previous journeys by Keith and Jenny can be found on this
website:
“Our summer trip this year lasted for 11 weeks and took in mainly
Italy, Croatia, BiH and Slovenia. We left Calais on 19 June 2015 and travelled
down through St Quentin and Reims as usual, but then went on via Lorraine and
Alsace to the Swiss border near Basel. We realise now that these areas of
France are very good for Aires. Then it was on through Switzerland to Como in
Italy using the A2 motorway, at a cost of CH40 (£28 to us this year) for a
vignette lasting until 31 January 2016 and used for one day!
At Como we settled onto our favourite small campsite at Menaggio
where the temperature suddenly shot up to the upper 30s. We didn't realise then
that it would stay that way for most of the rest of our trip. But we would
rather that than English summer weather, in the main.
After Como we moved on and spent a few days on Lake Garda before
moving eastwards to Udini, then northwards to Treviso through the Giulie (Julian)
Alps. A violent thunderstorm there seemed to last most of the night, on and
off. We turned south into Slovenia and stayed at Camping Bled, another old
haunt of ours. Then Ljubljana for a couple of days, followed by Trieste, where
we visited another of our favourite sites, the high and mighty Camping
Obelisco. The terrain here made for hard going in the intense heat; we had to
walk around at a snail's pace. But for us the coffee culture in Trieste
certainly made it all worthwhile.
Next came the long, long uninteresting motorway south in Croatia
terminating, for us at least, a few miles north of Split. A great favourite
watering hole of ours is Camp Bilus, at Kastel Stari, where we stayed for
around three weeks, in two sessions.
In between we got to Sarajevo in Bosnia, also to Mostar. Despite
all the terrible things that went on for years here in the 1990s, the city
presented itself marvellously with the only bullet holes to be seen on the wall
of the city museum - presumably left there for that reason! Totally different
to Mostar, but then it had been a different kind of war for the unfortunate
inhabitants. Camping Oaza near Sarajevo was excellent, including the
inexpensive (to us) restaurant. It was a short walk to the train station, from
where we got to the centre.
The roads were very good in BiH, at least the ones we used were. Almost
an anti-climax as we had expected to struggle here! Biggest problem was the
long delay at the border to get back into Croatia, due to the lack of shade in
the unbearable heat. Once again we found BiH to be more gentle and scenic than
its larger neighbour, Croatia.
If anyone out there is interested, there is a good camp site guide
entitled 'Camping in
Bosnia & Herzegovina' available from the grandly titled 'Association for Support and Development
of the Camping Industry of BiH' . They give their website as Telephone +387 30 654 008. We
were given a copy by a lovely Dutch couple who we met on the Sarajevo campsite
(Camping Oaza). The guide gives 8 sites in BiH and our friends were very
complimentary about the Jajceone. Certainly the Sarajevo one is
fine. In addition to these is the 'Half Island' site near Mostar which we
reported on last year (see link above). Additionally, we found the BRANDT guide
to BiH very useful and absorbing.
After BiH we went back to Kastel Stari in Croatia for a few
relaxing days (we couldn't do anything else but relax in the torrid heat!) Then
it was up-anchor and travel up to Zagreb and the Motel Plitvice campsite a
little south of the city off the A3 motorway. We have stayed on this site
previously and have not yet had any trouble here, unlike one of your other
correspondents, I note. (We had a report
of a motorhome break-in on this site in summer 2007, while the owners were
there, but have no personal experience.) We always take the van into the
city, although not everyone did. Zagreb is an airy, interesting city and we
always enjoy a short time here.
After Zagreb we travelled up into Slovenia and back to Camping
Bled before going on through the Karavanke Tunnel into Austria. Eventually we
reached Germany and had a couple of nights on the very good Camping Cannstatter
Wasen, east of Stuttgart. We visited the Porsche Motor Car Museum, housed in an
ultra-modern building. On another day we visited the Pig Museum, housed in the
former city abattoir and having thousands of plastic pigs it seems!! Anyway, it
was a lovely day and the coffee was excellent (for Germany!) The city transport
card is good value at 12 Euros per person for three days travel anywhere on the
excellent city transport network. There is a train stop not far from the site.
After this we travelled up via Luxembourg to Mons, then back to
Calais.”
.JPG)
