ragenmt

We are planning a trip of 3-4 weeks with friends. We will be going mid April from Seattle and we want to travel from south to north as the weather warms. We would not mind a Greek island stop but our main places we would like to visit are Albania(our friends have a home there), Dubrovnik, Split and Budapest. Maybe we are missing must see stops along the way and would appreciate suggestions. Our main concern is distances and modes of travel(train, ferry, car, fly?) We like to stay at least three days in a city and we do not like to spend all of our time in a car. We also appreciate suggestions on what city to fly into that will be both economical and set us up for the journey.

thursdaysd

Where in Albania? You will most likely have to fly into Tirane. One option is to spend some time on Corfu, and take the ferry to Saranda.

I traveled through Albania and Montenegro and on to Dubrovnik by bus. There is no good routing from Split to Budapest, even by plane. There is a train from Zagreb but it takes most of a day.

If you are going to Croatia you should consider visiting Plitvice.

kja

Although 3-4 weeks might seem like a lot of time, IME, that time would go very quickly if you try to cover so much territory.

If you haven't already done so, I would strongly encourage you to consult some good guidebooks to see what else you might want to visit in the area and then make a choice about what you can all agree to view as your "core" destinations and/or agree upon what to cut so that you can see a bit more of this huge region.

As you develop ideas, you can use rome2rio.com to identify transportation options -- just be sure to check the links to which it directs you, as the main rome2rio site is not sensitive to seasonal variation.

There are MANY interesting places in this area -- good luck narrowing your options!

neckervd

There are 3 main itineraries from Greece to Albania:

Athens/Patras or whatever - Igoumenitsa - ferry - Corfu - ferry - Saranda - bus/furgon - Vlore .....

Bus Athens - Ioannina - Gjirokaster.....

Thessaloniki - train or bus - Florina - taxi - Bitola - bus - Ohrid - Elbasan .....

There are domestic flights from Athens to Ioannina and Corfu (most poeple use the direct buses, however).

There are many buses and minibuses along the coasts of Albania, Montenegro and Croatia. Regular catamarans from Dubrovnik via Korcula Island to Split and slow ferries from Korcula Island to Split.

Wizzair has cheap flights from Sarajevo and Tuzla to Budapest.
Tons of buses - Dubrovnik - Split - Zagreb. Some trains (one overnight) Split - Zagreb too.

Flixbus has 2 daily buses Zagreb - Budapest (5 hrs, fares start at 17 EUR).

thursdaysd

Turns out that Croatia hasn't loaded the new train timetables yet, and I was looking at a date beyond the current ones. You can connect Split and Budapest by train, changing in Zagreb, but looking at the times I wouldn't want to do it without stopping off in Zagreb.