Driving from Germany to Croatia...

[Simmad]

Hi,
We´re in a 1.6 Diesel 1980 Hightop. Currently in germany and considering whether we should try going through Austria down to Croatia. I'm worried about the hills as we are struggling and she's getting a bit hot.. does anyone have any experience of the motorways? are the gradients very high? first big trip.. so being cautious.. Cheers - Simmad

[AngeloEvs]

Some time ago, but IIRC the Austrian motorways weren' too bad untill you approach Yogoslavia. If you buy a Pirreli map I'm sure the gradients are marked and there are various routes into Yugoslavia so worth checking them out as the one we used went over a fairly high mountain range. We travelled late at night over the mountains when the temperature was a lot cooler. Once you cross over the mountain regions into Yugoslavie the coast road down the Dalmation coast is flat as you would expect. Hopefully, someone has ventured that far recently and will give you an up to date reply.

[tipo73]

Hi,
if you are travelin on A10 (Salzburg-Vilach), have no vory, ther`s no hils that your van coldn`t make it.
I have travel this road many times with my 2 lit air cooled engine with no problems.
But if you avoid a higway than you may have a bit problem.
A vignette for Austria is cca 10€ for 7 days and for tunel (toers) 10€) and for Karavanke tunel also 5€.
Which part of Croatia are you gona visit?

[Titus A Duxass]

^^^^WHS^^^^
The A10 Villach route is a doodle, although you spend quite a bit of the time underground due to the tunnels.
Work on about 12 hours from Munich to Rovinj.

[Mudlark]

Just drove back from Dubrovnik via Split, Zagreb, Maribor to Graz and along the A3. There is'nt much to worry about on the Motorways from memory; the only killer was in the other direction at the climb from the coast road south of Split up inland to pick up up the motorway; that was long and steep and in 34 degrees heat !

I managed to drive through Austria without a Vignette !! Did not see any info on them anywhere!

The motorway in Croatia is new and pretty much runs down the mountain plateau inland. Id keep to the coast unless under pressure for time.

Great place to visit; and the coast road from Split down to Dubrovnik is stunning.

[Titus A Duxass]

I managed to drive through Austria without a Vignette !! Did not see any info on them anywhere!

You must have been having a blind moment - the signs are everywhere.
If you get nicked without one it can cost you 250 yoyos!

[Simmad]

Cheers everyone for the replies.. . we will go for it.. with a vignette I think! heading to Istra in Croatia, then over to Italy. thanks again - Simmad

[Mudlark]

I managed to drive through Austria without a Vignette !! Did not see any info on them anywhere!

You must have been having a blind moment - the signs are everywhere.
If you get nicked without one it can cost you 250 yoyos!

It has been known

[Epiphone]

for easter and the following week, will be doing the following:

Munich-Prague-Bratislava-Balaton Lake-Zagreb-Tirol-Munich

can anybody recommend some campsites.

for Prague, will go for this one probably
http://www.camp-sokol-troja.cz/en/index.php

FYI: not doing Budapest this time around cos will do that later in the year anyway, so swapped it out for Zagreb

[Titus A Duxass]

For Prague.
We stayed on a campsite near to that one, can't remember the name.
It was next to the river.
Very nice, clean & cheap.
You got the city by train.

I"ll be interested to hear about Balaton.

[Epiphone]

Hey all

So the trip is done and was a great success. Only a couple of issues was a that when I arrived in Prague after driving all day, I was sat in traffic and the temperature was obviously rising and then the idle started getting higher and higher until 3000 rpm, so pulled over and let it cool down for 30 mins and then it was fine again???

and a flat battery in Zagreb, maybe left the cool box plugged in all day (as I havent sorted the wiring out yet and its still through the cigarette lighter and starter battery), cant remember now, but jumped the starter from the leisure and all was fine. (see another post of mine questioning my starter battery's integrity, so could be time for a new one)

So here are the details:

Munich to Prague: Really nice drive in beaming sunshine in direction of the Bavarian Forest (as opposed to taking the Autobahn north going to Nurenburg and then Pilzen) we took the Autobahn towards Deggendorf and then A-Roads through the forest and up through the A-Roads in Czech too. Apart from the rising idling issue, there were no issues.

Campsite: Wanted to originally stay at http://www.camp-sokol-troja.cz/en/ but we turned up there and there was a queue to get in and it looked like a car park, everyone crammed in. I had sent them an email before, and they said, "ahh dont worry, we have lots of space" and then they turned us and everyone else away. So not very professional at all. Funnily enough though, one of the people in the queue had a T3 Multivan and also from Munich, they got an address of another campsite and we followed them to http://www.campdzban.eu/en/. This was fantastic, nice green spaces, the place only had a few campers. Driving range next door (bit pricey) and a tram stop to the centre of town. I really recommend this place and not the camp sites in Troja near the zoo.

Prague to Neusiedlersee (Lake in Austria near Bratislava) Drive: This is the famous Prague to Bratislava road, which has the surface segmented so that every 2 metres there is a gap/bump. Hell to drive, its actually less prominant on the left (fast) lane, so I always drifted out there when there was no traffic.

Campsite: Stayed at http://www.breitenbrunn.at/ which is next to a nature reserve lake. Was quite OK. Had to walk for 30 mins to get to train station, I would highly recommend a bicycle here.

Neusiedlersee to Lake Balaton: Easy drive along the motorway south and then cross country through another hilly region to Hungary.

Campsite: http://balatontourist.hu/balaton_campin ... nfured/en/, the season had not yet started, and the place was empty, even with a long sunny Easter Weekend on the cards. They were in the middle of renovating alot of the toilet blocks etc. This place is basically THE main place for Austrians to come to. The resort there is very nice and I can imagine it being very busy in the summer months.

Lake Balaton to Zagreb: As we were on the north of the lake, the quickest way south, is to take the ferry.

Campsite: http://www.motel-plitvice.hr/EN/motel.html quite handy being near the motorway but it was closed and me and a few other caravanettes were parked in the car park there. There is a bus stop to get into the town, but this camp site is quite far out. Also, its hard to find from the city, as you have to join the motorway near a main junction, 1st taxi driver couldnt find it but he was a right muppet, the 2nd one had trouble even, but got us nearby so that I could tell him the rest.

Zagreb to Ljlublana: Nice Roads here again

Campsite:http://www.ljubljanaresort.si/en/home_12/ nice campsite, on the north of the city, its on the quiet end of a street which goes right to the centre, so the bus just goes straight down to the centre.

Ljlublana to Lake Bled: Roads are all amazing here

No camp site as it piddled down here, quick stop for some food and photos before pushing on north looking for dryer weather

Lake Bled to Koenigssee:

Campsite: So on the north side of the Alps the sun started to beam again, so we found a camp site here http://www.camping-grafenlehen.de/frame_uk.htm a nice camp site near the lake, but it was freezing at 5 in the morning, end of April is not summer! We went looking for a downhill rollarcoaster (rodlbahn) thing and also went on a high rope park(hochseilpark). Drove the bus up to near the eagles nest (which is quite a gradient, wouldnt go up there with my bus again, as that gave it a good thrapping), but my friend wasnt interested in that, so will save that for another time.

Koenigssee to Munich: So just an hour up the Salzburg motorway back to Munich and then as we were back early we could take a visit to the Munich Spring Beer Festival for the evening. Every cloud an all!

Conclusiong: good trip, to and from Prague was a big drive, but the rest was approx 2 hours driving per day, simply making nice hops around Europe. Most roads were good, even in Slovakia, Hungary Croatia, it was only Czech where it was bad. The main routes and camp sites are fuelled by the Austrian and German campers, so any German language knowledge is to an advantage.

My Bus survived the trip again, so I think as a reward, will get some more aestheic welding done and then next year think about LPG

[Titus A Duxass]

Glad to hear that the trip went well.
Will bookmark that campsite as we plan to visit Prague in August after the MotoGP at Brno.

Re coolbox problems.
I run mine off the LB but I have an extra relay fitted so that the coolbox only gets power when the engine is running.
They can empty the LB very quickly and I run a starter battery as an LB, starter batteries do not like being deep discharged.