rrg149

I am going on a week long Croatia boat trip with a group of friends in June for a friend's 30th birthday, and am eager to try to travel around the region a bit before and after as I am able to take off work the entire month of June.

I currently am scheduled to fly into Vienna, Austria on the night of June 2nd, the trip to Croatia is June 7th through 15th, and my return flight home is out of Athens, Greece on July 5th.

My current rough plan is as follows, let me know if any of this sounds unreasonable:

June 3-6 - Vienna with a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia
June 7-15 - Boat trip with friends, Split to Dubrovnik and back to Split
June 15-18 Mostar and Sarajevo, Bosnia
June 19-22 Montenegro Coast (Herceg Novi, Kotor, Budva)
June 22 overnight train to Belgrade
June 23-25 Belgrade, Serbia
June 26-27 Pristina, Kosovo
June 28-Jul 1 Macedonia (Skopje, Ohrid)
July 1 - July 3 Albania (Kruja and Tirana)
July 4: Flight Tirana to Athens
July 5: Flight Athens to Home

Is this pace too much or workable? What is the border between Serbia and Kosovo like, is there any issues crossing?

I am an American male expat living in the Middle East in my late 20's if it makes any difference.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

julia_t

A few years ago a young man posted a link here to his blog/diary about travelling through central and Eastern Europe. It was very memorable. He took buses and trains, and crossed into Albania and Kosovo.

I thought it might be interesting for you to read, but I can't find it here. However I have found his photographs...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/82296453@N00/

If you can track down his diary, it might help you in your planning and detail. Maybe you can message him on facebook if you like his pics and want to know more.

Whatever, I hope you have a great time, and enjoy this beautiful and relatively undiscovered part of Europe.

If you click on my name, you'll find links to my trip reports of my travels in Bosnia & Herzegovina, in particular Sarajevo and Mostar as well as some off-the-beaten-track places.

Vttraveler

I am not sure from your itinerary that you are building in realistic travel time. For instance I was looking at the part of the trip right after the boat trip. You say the boat trip will be through June 15 arriving in Split, then list June 15 to June 18 for Mostar and Sarajevo and June 19 to 22 for the Montenegro coast.

Getting from the coast to Sarajevo and back again will take quite a while whether you drive or take public transportation (those plans are not clear in your post). I do encourage you to spend some time in Bosnia & Herzegovina which are fascinating and different from the other parts of your trip, but I think you would need more time than you are listing. I am not really familiar with the other places you are planning to visit but the pace there may also be too fast.

My husband and I visited BiH in 2010 and and 2012 I did a detailed trip report on the first trip.

It sounds like a great trip and I hope you have a wonderful time