Driving UK to Bosnia in October - looking for advice and guidance
 

My partner and I are setting off from the UK and headed to Bosnia in our Campervan. We will be driving during the month of October through BELGIUM GERMANY AUSTRIA SLOVENIA and CROATIA. We are looking for advice on:

- road / weather conditions
- local things to avoid / look for
- driving necessities (i.e winter tyres etc)
- places to work in return for food (such as found on workaway.com)
- campervan friendly places to stop at

Many thanks in advance!!

www.viamichelin.com takes into account seasonal road closures if the date of the trip is specified.

If you want to get there quickly take plenty cash for the toll roads. We have done UK to Italy twice. First time in cost 12 euros in total. Second time morse recently, we stopped adding up the toll costs as it was ruining our holiday. It would have been far cheaper to buy Ryanair tickets.

Plan your route carefully to avoid the tolls.

Take a look at www.visitcroatia.proboards.com
I recall seeing this subject discussed in detail on their forums.

October road conditions will be normal, snow really isn't going to be a problem unless you want to drive over some high Alpine passes like the Grossglockner Road along the way.

All of the countries you plan on driving through are safe, just make sure your insurer covers Bosnia as some in the UK may not, also roadside assistance cover is a good thing to have just in case.

As for driving necessities, winter tyres shouldn't really be needed that early, of course that does change if you plan on extending your trip into November, when they become obligatory in some countries. Just have a set of snow chains with you in the unlikely event you get caught in snow.

Make sure you buy a vignette for Austria and another for Slovenia. That is basically a toll sticker that you put on the inside of your windscreen. You buy one depending on the amount of time you wish to drive on the country's motorways, the cheapest for Austria is a 10-day vignette (€8) and the cheapest for Slovenia is a 7 day vignette (€15). You can buy the vignettes at petrol stations driving towards each country, make sure you purchase and apply it before driving on the respective country's motorways, the fines are steep if caught without, even if you purchased one but haven't applied it to the windscreen. Some tunnels in Austria are tolled separately with regular toll booths, that's how toll is collected in Croatia and Bosnia as well.

Also make sure you have a reflective vest somewhere close to you like in a glove compartment, it's useful for safety purposes and in some countries mandatory to put it on in case you have a breakdown on a motorway.

Don't choose the road to Montenegro. M-20 Foca-Niksic. It's really dangerous if you are driving a camper. Road is narrow and winding. During the cold moths it could be really dangerous to travel there. I recommend you avoiding!