Poland, Czek, Slovenia, Hungary

[Domino]

Just wondering about travelling to one, two or more of the above countries for 2 months. Any suggestions much appreciated. We use Lonely Planet for 'sites' but would really like to hear about country routes/ places to camp - any aire' equivalents or safety of wild camping. We (I) am thinking about next mid April to mid June or all of May/June (yes next spring) as will be in Egypt in October and Mexico in February. I am used to planning when I worked - and am gently getting out of the habit.

Look forward to hearing from you all.

[w1ntersun]

Contact Don Madge he is the expert. his posting is locked at the top of the forum and tell him he owes me a pint

 

Richard

[mel wood]

Domino - 2010-07-19 3:37 PM

We use Lonely Planet for 'sites

 

Fine if you like it and find it has sufficient sites.

 

We, and many others, find Caravan Club Europe books indispensible - thousands of sites all with a comment from a CC member. Book 2 covers the countries you mention (and many others).

 

ACSI card and book provide extremely good value for money.

 

[Bulletguy]

I have been in all four countries you mention but toured Poland extensively from west to east into Ukraine and far south from the border of Slovakia right up to the most northerly on the Baltic coast.

 

POLAND

 

Polish roads have a notoriety of their own and some surfaces can be really bad.....infact very bad! The infrastructure is still ongoing with road repairs in many places, at times it would appear from the ending of the second world war, but then Hitler drove his tanks down many of Polands roads.....he never got here!

 

Cities such as Krakow or Warsaw are busy.....VERY busy, and driving through can be pretty unnerving and hectic, particularly if like myself you are on your own.

 

Krakow is a 'must see' and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Auschwitz is close by and well worth a visit but it is huge and you need to allow yourself a whole day to see it properly.

 

Polish people are very friendly and welcoming. Many younger people can and will speak english, particularly in tourist areas like Krakow.

 

Campsite I used each time I visited Krakow is Camping Korona

N 49.96255° E 19.89064° an excellent site, very quiet and peaceful.

 

The further east you travel across Poland the more rural it becomes and in places quite desolate. You can find yourself driving for miles and hardly see any sign of human life and when and if you do......they will look at you as though you have just come from some inter-galactic planet! People here speak not one word of english......nothing. Whatever you do, you do NOT want to breakdown out east so if you do travel this far....make sure everything is running right first!

 

Don't be put off when your satnav goes all haywire showing you have have just left the road and are now driving across a field! This often happens in Poland wherever they have stuck a new section of road in and you just have to keep going until eventually it will come back 'on route' again.

 

Heading north up to the Baltic is a long haul drive. I've done it once in a day but it took me twelve hours (inc breaks) and i'd recommend you split something like this into at least two days.

 

CZECH

 

Only spent a few days driving through Czech. After a few miles of driving along the autoroute I came off and began pottering around the rural countryside which is very beautiful. The small villages you pass through are by far the best places to locate camping sites. Very simple as locals with any land space simply stick hand written signs out by the road.

 

SLOVENIA

 

Best sticking to the west side of Slovenia.

 

I stopped a week at Campingplatz Radovljica N 46.34771° E 14.17236°

very quite and peaceful, excellent shower block, plus a large outdoor swimming pool with Cafeteria.

 

Radovljica is a medium size village/town which is only a 10 min walk from the campsite and well worth seeing. A 'must see' visit when here is the short drive to Lake Bled which is an amazing blue/green in colour. Property here is amongst the most expensive in Slovenia.

 

Ljubljana is the capital city of Slovenia and also worth visiting.

 

Travelling east of Ljubljana and you begin to see a very different country. Spartan looking houses there is an air of poorness in the east almost like 'left overs' from it's days under communist rule.

 

There is a toll fee payable which comes in the form of a screen sticker to use the motorway. Cannot remember how much it cost but it wasn't much.

 

HUNGARY

 

Head for Lake Balaton. This is the largest lake in central europe and just has to be seen. It really is an amazing sight and is more like being beside an ocean, it is that vast. Needless to say you will find plenty of campsites around the lake too.

 

I had one of my cheapest meals ever at a campsite here. Burger with side salad and chips (the burger was excellent.....best i''ve ever had!), beer and two espresso coffees......£1.40!!! I am STILL convinced i was undercharged but didn't complain!

 

Considering Hungary was the first communist country to open its borders, I found it very odd that at each campsite I would be presented with a ream of paperwork to fill in, part of which required me to inform 'the authorities' on what date and time I had crossed the border into Hungary. I just picked any date and then wrote 1406hr 34min 25secs!

 

There is a toll to use the motorway network based on how many days you require. You pay at any motorway service area and just get a till receipt which you MUST keep as if you are stopped, this is your ONLY proof of payment. They do not issue screen vignettes like other countries. Also it is not worth trying to dodge payment as they have anpr tracking all over the damn place!

 

Driving through Budapest is best avoided if possible. I can only describe it as trying to drive through London for the first time in your life......except you are on the 'wrong side' of the road and, (in my case) sitting on the 'wrong side' of the vehicle. My nerves were shredded by the time i'd got through!

 

In the time you have allowed yourself you could tour all four, but Poland is a much bigger country than I imagined it to be. I've been back there twice now but still need to go again as there is much more I want to see.

 

Hope this post has been of some help to you and I hope you have a good trip!

 

I forgot to mention.....I made good use of eastern europe satnav mapping along with the ACSI dvd which is well worth buying. Don't bother with the book...it's a waste of money.

[KeithR]

hungary do now issue a vignette, and if you have a garmin sat nav it now covers hungary. also had some excellent cheap meals at balaton, and im sure budapest will be better than you expect. try the nazi museum and margrit island. you can get a (very cheap) 3 or 7 day transport pass that gives you transport on the underground, bus, tram and in town train link.

to avoid the nightmare city traffic(and tram tracks) you can use zugligeti or haller campsites.

going again in sept, and possibly to slovenia/czech/rumania or wherever.

 

 

[KeithR]

hungary do now issue a vignette, and if you have a garmin sat nav it now covers hungary. also had some excellent cheap meals at balaton, and im sure budapest will be better than you expect. try the nazi museum and margrit island. you can get a (very cheap) 3 or 7 day transport pass that gives you transport on the underground, bus, tram and in town train link.

to avoid the nightmare city traffic(and tram tracks) you can use zugligeti or haller campsites.

going again in sept, and possibly to slovenia/czech/rumania or wherever.

 

 

[Brian Kirby]

Domino - 2010-07-19 3:37 PM Just wondering about travelling to one, two or more of the above countries for 2 months. Any suggestions much appreciated. We use Lonely Planet for 'sites' but would really like to hear about country routes/ places to camp - any aire' equivalents or safety of wild camping. We (I) am thinking about next mid April to mid June or all of May/June (yes next spring) as will be in Egypt in October and Mexico in February. I am used to planning when I worked - and am gently getting out of the habit. Look forward to hearing from you all.

Went around a fair chunk of Slovenia, Hungary, and Czech Rep in '08, with brief foray into Slovakia.  At that time Hungary did not issue vignette but, as Bulletguy describes, entered your vehicle details on a database.  Essential to ensure the numberplate characters are correctly entered on the system, or you appear un-registered.  The coverage was far more complex than just motorways, with many short stretches of ordinary two lane road also requiring the extra payment, so as to block HGV rat runs.  Signposting generally excellent: roads, apart from motorway type, generally shot.  "Pozor" means danger!  :-)  Weaving around while pothole dodging is well understood, even the HGVs indulge.  Budapest excellent, Haller camping near metro station.  Was free travel if over 60.  Hungary proper starts about half way to Bulgaria, the West end is really Austrian influence.

Slovenia was superb, we zig-zagged in from Trieste, passed through Ljubljana, and out into Hungary.  Best signposting in Europe, we thought, and roads generally fair to good.

Czech we travelled in from Vienna, up to Prague, back down via Ceske Budejovice, and out near Plzen.  Southern Czech small towns and villages beautifully restored, almost over-restored.  Big German influence: this was the Sudetenland, after all.

Was less impressed by the bit of Slovakia we saw, just around Kosice, and a bit further north.

All very friendly.  Campsites largely essential in all countries visited.  Nothing like aires available.  Wild camping not permitted in any.  Sites quite variable, many being remnants of communist era youth camps.  Bit spartan, spotlessly clean, well used, extensively bodged and repaired, but everything worked!  A lot of fuss about registering - old habits - and a certain amount of lingering fear of the local chief of police in most places.  Reluctance to act on their own initiative fairly apparent most places.  German more use than English except Slovenia, where Italian, German, or English seemed pretty interchangeable.

[Tony Jones]

We did 5 weeks last summer, covering all these except Slovenia. Go for it, and have a great time!

 

Because we were also spending some time in Germany, we bought both volumes of the "BordAltlas" as well as taking the Caravan Club book with us. The BordAtlas was far better, and more up-to-date, and easy to use even with my very limited grasp of German. The smaller volume, vol.2, covers "all other countries," which sounds unconvincing but we nearly always found somewhere from it to spend the night, whereas the CC book kept taking us to places which had closed down!

 

We found the roads very variable in all countries - some surprisingly good, some with deep ruts from lorries etc. Try to find out in advance where any major road works are - I found it very frustrating if I chose a toll-road for speed, and found long stretches of it limited to 50kph (yes, kph, not mph!) due to roadworks.

[KeithR]

now 60 so glad to hear about the free travel!!!

is eastern hungary (in your opinion brian) more interesting than west? hope to investigate more of hungary this time, we only did balaton and budapest last time (enjoyed our stay at zugligeti, but not the cheapest option, and no green for m/homes).

[Brian Kirby]

We entered via Lendava in Slovenia, Keith, then via Keszthely, Pecs, Kecskemet, Hortobagy, Tokaj, up into Slovakia (Kosice & Levoca), back down into Hungary - Borsodbota, Eger, Budapest, Szentendre, Estergom, and then to Vienna, stopping here and there along the way.  What I took from that trip was that thanks to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (which was really only Hungarian in name), the Western towns and villages all showed Austrian influence in their architecture and feel, whereas the eastern towns looked and felt different, which is what I construed as "Hungarian" in style and layout.  So, more interesting in the east?  No: just different in style and feel, smaller scale, fewer grand imposing buildings, fewer grand boulevards, that sort of thing.  Mind, the plain around Hortobagy is impressively flat!  :-)

[Bulletguy]

KeithR - 2010-07-19 10:30 PM

 

hungary do now issue a vignette......

 

Not since January 2008.

 

I was there last year and the guy simply logs your vehicle registration into their database, which of course the Police have access to via anpr and is how they catch the dodgers out.

 

You are now simply given a till receipt and can choose 4 days, one week, one month or a year.

[Bulletguy]

Brian Kirby - 2010-07-20 12:41 AM

 

Was less impressed by the bit of Slovakia we saw, just around Kosice, and a bit further north.

 

Next time you are in Slovakia Brian, give Poprad a go.

 

It's a weird experience of "east meets west" with huge blocks of flats on the outskirts, left overs from the communist era painted in strange colours like pea green, brown, yellow ochre, and a rather sickly looking mauve!

 

A short walk away is Poprad town centre which has been 'westernised'.

 

I like to visit these 'off beat' kind of places but there is one country I have yet to crack.........Belarus. You need a visa to enter but the big problem is ATTEMPTING to get a motorhome in. I doubt very much anyone on here has done it, but IF they have.....then I want to hear from them!

[Brian Kirby]

I believe Kosice is supposed to be the same, but the only overnight stopping place, claimed to be a campsite, we could find (ATC Salas Barca) was, more or less, a motel, but with a restaurant just outside the gates.  The motel/restaurant opened from one side of a dual carriageway, parking was limited, so the gates were permanently open so that restaurant clients could park inside - all over the "campsite".  Security thus dubious.  The facilities were fairly knackered, but you were given a key for everything, the girl in charge was clueless - and while showing us around managed to jam one of the ladies shower cubicles with Carole inside - the city centre was a tram-ride away, and the nearest tram stop was half a mile down the said dual carriageway which, of course, had no footpath or hard shoulder.  Slovakian driving being a little eccentric we decided the walk was too like a suicide mission, thanked the girl, and left for Levoca.  We had to drive through Kosice, though not the centre, and passed row upon row of the blocks you describe, although they were in poor condition, unpainted, all unmitigated concrete grey, and all the people we saw somehow seemed unhealthy and looked same colour!

On our way to Levoca we passed two large Roma settlements, which were like something from the middle-ages - truly unbelievable!  We'd gone mainly to look at Spessky Hrad, which is a huge, spectacularly ruined, crusader castle near Levoca.  Stayed the (noisy) night at ATC Levocska Dolnia, and left for the relative civilisation and calm of Hungary.

As an aside, when Czechoslovakia divided into the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, I can clearly see why the Czechs didn't put up too much resistance.  They were up the posh end, so the communist bloc spend money making their bit looking prosperous, to showcase communism, and crapped on Slovakia, where most westerners didn't/couldn't go!

[krusty]

Admittedly not in a motorhome but.......

 

We flew into Krakow in January for a skiing holiday in the Slovakian side of the High Tatras - Tatranska Lomnica - which was approximately a 3 hour drive on reasonable mountain roads across the border from the airport. The majority of the Slovakian people in the area spoke English, Poprad as previously mentioned is very accessible on good roads and food and drink was so cheap it was embarrassing. From what I remember there were signs for camping on both the Polish and Slovakian sides of the border.

[KeithR]

we went via graz, keszthely and stayed on the east side of balaton (somewhere near siofek) then on th budapest, returning via vienna. my 'boss ' said we got a vignette but i guess she was mistaken. i must admit, i dont remember getting anything??? 8-) nor even using the motorway (i must have from balaton to budakazi?). so my apologies, i was wrong.

i am hungry (hehehe) to see places as they were before the european union turns where into a clone.( thats why i travel, to see DIFFERENT, as well as sun). it may mean less facilities, but it makes life real, and to me, exciting.

[Bulletguy]

Brian Kirby - 2010-07-21 11:35 AM

 

I believe Kosice is supposed to be the same, but the only overnight stopping place, claimed to be a campsite, we could find (ATC Salas Barca) was, more or less, a motel, but with a restaurant just outside the gates. 

 

The motel/restaurant opened from one side of a dual carriageway, parking was limited, so the gates were permanently open so that restaurant clients could park inside - all over the "campsite".  Security thus dubious.  The facilities were fairly knackered, but you were given a key for everything......

 

Sounds just like the site I stayed on close to Poprad though the motel was really just a run down restaurant which served up rather bland and tasteless grub. But I was starving after a full days driving with just a couple of coffee breaks, so i'd have eaten anything!

 

I saw these concrete block flats as I was approaching Poprad and really should have stopped to get some photos, but I was running late and desperate to eat!

[KeithR]

according to wikipedia a vignette was issued , but only between march 10 2007 and jan 01 2008, so i guess my missis was correct (but i wont tell her that!!)'

pecs is the european city of culture this year, but is it worth a visit despite this???

[Brian Kirby]

We thought it quite interesting, with some very impressive ceramics, but the campsite was a bit eccentric!  Aldi at the end of the road, Tesco and Lidl nearby.  Everywhere is worth at least one visit!  :-)

[KeithR]

thanks brian. aldi, culture AND eccentricity in one place. must go then

:-D :-D :-D