I haven't for ages: not since Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU. But thousands of lorries do it every month: it's the basic route from Turkey to Britain, and all those 7 tonne white vans with Romanian plates you see round North London take much the same route the same route as far as Budapest.

From Calais head north to Belgium: cross on the motorways to Nuremburg, then Vienna, and Budapest. Then Debrecen, Oradea, Bucharest and Rousse. The lorries we deal with still avoid the Szeged, Belgrade, Sofia route: partly lingering concerns about safety and corrupt Serbian officials, but also because it involves non-EU borders, and therefore Customs queues and opportunities for Customs corruption (more of a risk if you've got 40 tonnes of sellable merchandise in the back, and a royal pain in the arse to explain away if the TIR seal gets broken). I honestly don't know how well-founded their worries are, or how specific to lorries.

There used to be a cult among our Romanian team of driving non-stop from Romania's southern border to Greece in the mid and late 1990s, because there were all sorts of rumours about vehicle hijacking in Bulgaria. This seems no longer to be an issue: the biggest safety risk for most commercial drivers is catching something from the roadside hookers, or having them nick the lorry keys while pinching their wallets.

Just work out the E numbers from your good continental atlas (DON'T even dream of relying on fancy trechnology alone) and follow them. All intercity roads, once you're at Calais, on this route carry E designations

Make sure your insurance covers you for the trip. Even though they are now EU not all car insurers cover you.

Is it your own car or are you hiring one for if the latter it would make more sense to get across to Europe and hire one in France to at least be doing all that with the steering wheel and you in a more comfortable place relative to other traffic and turns etc.

I'd just suggest that you could also stay in France and head down through to Munich then Linz Vienna Budapest and Bucharest and onto Rouse and Bulgaria.

Thanks for the input on my questions re uk to bulgria by road.
I am taking my own vehicle,actually a large van come camper,very comfy etc,im fully insured etc,be nice to follow someone for most of the way?thanks all.

You'll probably find the Michelin route planning site a good aid - http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/gbr/dyn/controller/Itineraires?strStartAddress=&strDestAddress=&strStartMerged=Calais&strDestMerged=Rousse&strStartCityCountry=1424&strDestCityCountry=1025340&empriseW=600&empriseH=310&intItineraryType=0&caravaneHidden=false&vh=CAR&distance=km&strVehicle=0&devise=1.0|EUR&carbCost=1.3&isAvoidFrontiers=false&isFavoriseAutoroute=false&isAvoidPeage=false&isAvoidVignette=false&isAvoidLNR=false&autoConso=6.8&villeConso=6&routeConso=5.6&dtmDeparture=26%2F2%2F2009&indemnite=0

It actually gives you the cost of all the tolls and looks like heading into Belgium is way to go to maximise use of toll ways.

But unless you're in a mad hurry, I'd imagine putting in various shorter destinations for a step by step route would give you something of a parallel routing with less tolls.

Hi Richard, please tell me how you got on driving to bulgaria!! I am driving over 17th july and would love to know the best route please help... i have been advised its best to go via romania? I am heading for lyublen,near ruse,popovo etc, would be great to hear some feedback,from anyone who has done the journey,many thanks shazza 999.ps do i need idp and vingette for tolls?