Delawaredave

Newbie. Planning Eastern Europe "sampler" trip. Trying to understand how possible train travel is between Bar / Belgrade / Sarajevo ?

Understand Belgrade to Bar is a scenic route. How long does it take ? How often are trains ? I can't find a website I can understand with this information.

Possible also to do a side trip to Sarajevo also via train ?

Other cities we think we want to see via train include: Budapest, Bratislava, and Zagreg.

Reasonable to get between all these places by train ? Any cities you'd drop or add ? Not sure on trip length yet

Thanks for any input !!!

laurie_ann

Don't know the specifics, except that we had a great trip to Budapest two years ago. But are you familiar with Rick Steves rail maps. They are a rough guide with approximate time and cost between cities. There is a general Europe one and then more specific individual ones for countries or regions.

Here's a link.

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-ti...ains/cost-maps

bilboburgler

Slovenia not included??

oedipamaas

I'd highly suggest getting a good guidebook. There aren't a lot for this region, but Lonely Planet has a good multi-country one for the Western Balkans. It will cover transport options. Also you should take a look at the website http://www.balkanology.com/

One thing that's changed since both of their updates is that there are fewer rail connections between countries: none direct, for instance, between Belgrade and Sarajevo, or Sarajevo and Budapest. If you're going to Zagreb anyway, then you could connect through there. But train times are longer than you might think looking at a map. For many places, bus travel will be the better or only option. This region is best done more slowly.

Rick Steve's Croatia guidebook has a pretty good coverage of Mostar, but otherwise does not deal with Bosnia-Herz or Serbia. His train travel intro is good as a primer, but once you get into specifics you're better of with a site like http://www.seat61.com/ or http://europetrainsguide.com/

I'd add Mostar (overnight stay, not day trip). It's also worth getting to a second city in Hungary if you're going there. I loved Pécs but there are many other possibilities. For instance, Szeged if you're going Belgrade to Budapest.

How long do you have for your trip?

PalenQ

In adition to www.ricksteves.com also check these also informative sources - www.seat61.com and www. budgeteuropetravel.com for answer to those questions. And I think there is a Balkans Railpass that could be viable - not sure on its cost, etc.

oedipamaas

Fares are pretty inexpensive in those countries. On top of that, the Balkan railpass does not include Croatia and Hungary so would not cover much of the proposed trip.

oedipamaas

Fares are pretty inexpensive in those countries. On top of that, the Balkan railpass does not include Croatia and Hungary so would not cover much of the proposed trip.

kja

It would be helpful to know when you are planning to travel, for how long, and with what interests.

Delawaredave

Thanks for everyone's comments. Plan is a week "sampler" - goal to see as many countries as possible in a week.

We're looking for a Balkan flexpass for train and trying to understand what express trains connect various countries easily.

Thanks !

PalenQ

We're looking for a Balkan flexpass for train and trying to understand what express trains connect various countries easily>

For easiest online schedules to reference IME go to www.bahn.de/en - the German Railways web site that has schedules for all of Europe - easy to spot the fastest trains as they give how many hours each train takes and if it is direct or not - meaning not non-stop bu no cjhanges of train required.

PalenQ

a five-day Balkan Flexipass costs about $260 p.p. and only comes in first class - whereas 2nd class tickets can be cheaper fofr first class with the ability to hop on nearly any train anytime for just over $50 a day seems like a bargain - 35 euros a day - the pass does not come for adults over 25 in second class.

PalenQ

: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey are the countries covered but as oedie above points out does not include Croatia or Hungary though it will get you to the borders of those countries.

goodhikers

One quick note: Rick Steve's current guide on Croatia and Slovenia DOES have some BiH data in it: Sarajevo and Mostar. It's very good stuff. We just found that out from the man himself when he was in DC at a travel show and I complained about no BiH coverage in his books. Maybe next edition he'll put it on the cover. In particular, at his book's suggestion, we recently (April 2014) took the train from Sarajevo to Mostar and it was great. Yes, the trains are 1970s vintage but they were relatively clean, VERY inexpensive, and ran on time.