Driving to Greece

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galleni

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I am thinking of driving to Greece staring from Dover .Would l need to down an app for my iPad or buy a Tom Tom? I am thinking of driving through Albania .If you have done this journey any suggestions for the best route, car insurance and advise ?

Alain ?
 
Normal route is to Italy and then ferry rather than driving all the way. Once you get to Slovenia the roads are slow, and you have to cross borders out of the EU and back again. Choice of routes across Europe depending on whether you want to stop or get there as fast as possible. You can do the whole route to Venice, Ancona or Brindisi on motorways so little need for a satnav - just get your route printed out from a planner such as Michelin and follow the instructions. Satnav useful though if you want to deviate from the direct route as you go.

The main ferry routes are from the 3 ports suggested to Patras, but some stop Corfu an Ignoumenitsa. There is a trade off in cost/time between Venice and Brindisi. Overall cost and time are much the same, but there is a better choice of better ferries from Venice.

You can extend your normal insurance to cover the trip, but probably worth getting breakdown cover if you don't already have it.
 
Hi Alain, happy new year. We have driven out many times, always using the Ancona - Igoumenitsa ferries. From Calais it is almost a straight line through Luxembourg, Metz, Nancy, Basel, Milan and on to Ancona. Fill up with cheap fuel in Luxembourg, no French motorway tolls on this route, Swiss tolls very reasonable and Italian not too bad. At the other end only an hour from Igoumenitsa to Preveza.

I find that a gps such as Tom-tom makes driving navigation far easier, not to mention the speed camera warnings, but it is perfectly possible to do it with paper maps.
 
vyv_cox said:
Hi Alain, happy new year. We have driven out many times, always using the Ancona - Igoumenitsa ferries. From Calais it is almost a straight line through Luxembourg, Metz, Nancy, Basel, Milan and on to Ancona. Fill up with cheap fuel in Luxembourg, no French motorway tolls on this route, Swiss tolls very reasonable and Italian not too bad. At the other end only an hour from Igoumenitsa to Preveza.

I find that a gps such as Tom-tom makes driving navigation far easier, not to mention the speed camera warnings, but it is perfectly possible to do it with paper maps.
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I've also done this route via the gottard tunnel very scenic and would recommend. the ferry I caught from ancona took me to patras in Greece then I drove another 2 hrs to pireaus near Athens.
 
We drive down to Ancona and then either Minoan or Anek/Superfast to Igoumenitsa. The ferries take at least another 6 hours to reach Patras and disembarking there can take a lot longer. The road south of Igoumenitsa to Preveza was being upgraded when we last drove it in May. South of Amfilohia is a good section of motorway which is usually deserted. I would think that you could get to the Rio-Andirio bridge easily in 4 hours. Our boat is at Messolonghi so we return from Patras.
2015 prices and timetables have just come online but Minoan's early booking discount link is still showing 31/12/2014.
 
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Take the ferry from Italy to Greece.

Download 'Waze', free, speed trap data ( turn it off in France or be prepared to hide it ) traffic avoidance, online maps ( you need a data connection but the day or two to drive is reasonable on data, a couple of meg only )

Albanian roads are vehicle killers, even 4x4's and lethal ( literally ) at night.

This subject has been done repeatedly on the forums. Your route will depend on your time available and penchant for paying road tolls vs about 200 extra miles
 
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galleni said:
I am thinking of driving to Greece staring from Dover .Would l need to down an app for my iPad or buy a Tom Tom? I am thinking of driving through Albania .If you have done this journey any suggestions for the best route, car insurance and advise ?

Alain ��
Click to expand...

Driving all that way I think you would need an app for your ar5e!
 
With fuel costs dropping and ferry prices rising the overland route seems attractive again especially as the best price I can find for the Adriatic ferries is over 660 euros return. What about the old "Yugoslavia" route, Zagreb, Belgrade, Nis, Skopje, Thessaloniki? I drove that about 20 times in the 60s and 70s before the troubles. Anyone done that lately?

Cheers,
Mike
 
Tranona said:
Normal route is to Italy and then ferry rather than driving all the way. Once you get to Slovenia the roads are slow, and you have to cross borders out of the EU and back again. Choice of routes across Europe depending on whether you want to stop or get there as fast as possible. You can do the whole route to Venice, Ancona or Brindisi on motorways so little need for a satnav - just get your route printed out from a planner such as Michelin and follow the instructions. Satnav useful though if you want to deviate from the direct route as you go.

The main ferry routes are from the 3 ports suggested to Patras, but some stop Corfu an Ignoumenitsa. There is a trade off in cost/time between Venice and Brindisi. Overall cost and time are much the same, but there is a better choice of better ferries from Venice.

You can extend your normal insurance to cover the trip, but probably worth getting breakdown cover if you don't already have it.
Click to expand...

+1 Italy was the route Sunsail staff would take going to Vounkai for the season
 
If you want a tom tom alternative for your ipad, I had a good experience last summer with sygic navigator. Bought the world maps licence ($A75) and used it in france spain portugal and UK. You download the maps into the phone so you don't need a data connection and the attendant roaming data charges. It beeps when you approach a known radar spot which saved me a few times in france.
 
We have just done Greece (Aigina) to the UK. With Minoan from Patras to Trieste which BTW is the same price as Ancona. You can apply for a Minoan club card which we've had for a few years now and gives us 20% discount for the booking and 10% on any purchase on the ferry.
We prefer this to the Ancona route and is about the same driving times and distance. This way we start the driving day at about 4am instead of 4pm. First leg to Luxembourg, second leg UK via Dunkirk DFDS (ferry) Tolls where €11 for Italy and €10 for Austria. We run a diesel car and fuel prices where Greece @ €1.04 pl, Germany €1.12, Luxembourg €1.00. Topped the tank in Dunkirk @ €1.22. Be careful with the Italians, €1.47 was the cheapest we saw.
 
Mapping app: we use maps.me (used to be called maps with me). The app uses the ipad gps signal to put a cursor where you are on the map. Mapping is downloaded to the ipad, so no data charges; you select countries to download and can delete them once you've gone through if you're worried about data capacity. It doesn't do any route planning, its simply a map but we find it works well, as the level of detail is excellent.

As others have said, don't do Albania. My cousin is there at the moment working with the US Peace Corps. Before she went there, we were planning on visiting on our trip back to Greece this spring. She has told us not to bother, as the roads as simply too nasty to make it worthwhile! And that's before you start looking at getting insurance and the rest.

We worked out that it was cheaper to get the ferry from Anconna to Igoumentisa than it was to pay for accommodation, petrol and tolls to get to Bari or Brindisi for the shorter (cheaper) crossing. Well worth getting a cabin for the trip and taking food with you if possible, as we didn't think much of the on board stuff last time we did the trip.
 
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