We are travelling to Europe (ex Australia) in May and intend driving through parts of Eastern Europe. We had intended to fly to Bucharest from France and pick up a car there but that is impossible - as I have discovered from other readers on this forum. The only option open to us, it appears, is to do the leasing thing - i.e. lease a new car from Renault Eurodrive which we have done before. The insurance covers all countries including Romania. My problem is that we will pick the car up in Milan and we need to make our way to Bucharest.

I was thinking of going Milan to Ljubljana and then from Lubljana to Budapest and from there drive to Cluj or somewhere, then to Brasov, Bucharest and Sibiu and back to Hungary before heading up to Vienna, Prague and so on.

Can anyone advise me the best way to drive ex Milan into Romania? I am not that keen to drive through Bulgaria unless it is a huge time saver.

As for time - we have about 20 days to get from Milan, through Romania, Hungary, Vienna, Prague, Luxembourg and back to Paris. Are we stretching it a bit?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

How does Bulgaria get into all this?

The general view - among both lorry drivers and civilians - is to avoid Serbia, though its road system looks on paper a bit better than going through Hungary. The view is partly because of Cyrillcophobia (navigation can be a nuisance if the signs are in a different alphabet), partly because of police corruption - though that's more a problem for lorry drivers - and partly because it means negotiating non-EU borders, which can involve lengthy queues.

So motorway to Zagreb, then Kaposvar, Pecs, Szefed, Timisoara. Returning: diverting on the route from Prague to Paris to take in Luxembourg just limits the time you've got to see interesting things in France and Germany. There are no borders, so you don't even get a stamp in your passport. There's no "best" route: decide what you want to see.

Do remember, though, that the major roads from Bucharest to NW Europe constitute the main lorry corridor from Turkey. Don't expect some Ruritranian idyll: EU imports from Turkey amount to roughly the entire GDP of Australia, and they all arrive on those lorries.

Thank you for your valuable comments and suggestions. Pecs was certainly on our "to see" list for Hungary and if we do what you suggest, we can fit that in and go to Sibiu via Timisoara, then to Bucharest and return via Brasov and Cluj to Budapest.

I have to say that the "lorry corridor" is a worry but I am sure we will find some smaller roads which may take longer but which will avoid the onslaught of lorries.

We decided to go to Luxembourg from Prague as I have never been there, even though I lived in France some years ago. We have friends in Reims and would like to visit them on the way to Paris. As you say, there are interesting places to see and we may well change our minds en route.

Regarding the border issue - I assume we will have to show passports and may even need visas for Eastern Europe? We have Australian passports. It would be wonderful if we could just drive through!

Thank you again for your reply - I do appreciate your help.

Within the Schengen zone: Czech Rep, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovénia and western Europe of course you dont need to stop while at the Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian borders theres still border controll in operation.

I THINK Australians don't need visas for any EU country. But your inhospitable insistence that we have visas to visit Oz is bloody irritating, and some countries may well think they're avenging the insult by imposing the same pointless bureaucracy on you that you impose on us. So you need to check.

The point about borders between EU and non-EU countries - especially in the Balkans - is that, even between EU countries which retain passport control, there's no check on merchandise, so lorries sail through. Typically, land borders between the EU and non-EU have long (often a mile or more) queues of lorries waiting to be checked: private cars have a separate lane, but it's still possible in SE Europe to get stuck in the congestion leading up to an EU/non-EU border.

Thanks, flanneruk, for your comments. Don't hold me responsible for the "inhospitable insistence" on visas - I am a Pom from way back and I know what you are saying, it is bloody irritating. I have a dual passport but because my other half is from Oz - when with him I travel on the Oz one. I will, of course, check on the requirements as they seem to change from month to month.

Thanks, zalap - we will be prepared for the Romanian and Croatian border control.

Romania may well have changed their policies since joining the EU, but as of '05, they would have charged my wife a fee at the border for being Australian and Australia's visa scheme, had she not had dual citizenship in an EU country and her passport along. She used that to get in. They did not charge me, as an American. Otherwise, our entry from Hungary to Romania was simple and quick.

Don't know about the balance of your drive, but the Hungarian road from Budapest to Szeged and Mako, in the southeast was fast and good condition. From here we crossed to the Romanian side and on towards Arad. Arad did *not* impress and was a bit tricky to locate the road out of the chaotic center and on to a highway heading south. One had to find a couple of narrow lanes to come through to the highway to Timisoara. Timisoara is a Hapsburg city with character, if not also a bit of dust and age (it is Romania after all), but well worth a closer look. Read up on the revolution, the priest and Ceausescu's demise.

From Timisoara, we found it easy to make a path through Hunedoara to visit it's nearly empty gothic castle, the bizarre country church at Densus and the Roman and Dacian ruins at Sarmizagetusa while enroute to the big ticket sites in the heart of Transylvania.

Thank you so much, Clifton - I actually did read your report from '04 and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have looked at your photos as well and they are inspiring and have made me really look forward to this part of the trip!

Your tips regarding the roads are most helpful as well. Thank you again.