Hey guys,
actually I'm planning my South-east Europe Trip and I can't find any connection through the Balkan. It's not possible to Drive through serbia or into turkey.
For example is there no connection to Istanbul.
Is there any alternative to the missing trains? Or is it just impossible to visit this countries right now?
Is there an official website or somethingsomething where I can find some information?
Thanks for your support!
To Serbia there are currently only two daily international trains:
Bar/Podgorica (Montenegro) - Belgrade
Kelebia (Hungary) - Subotica
It is possible that in a few months the train Ljubljana - Zagreb - Belgrade does return.
If you count Kosovo as a part from Serbia, there is one daily train between Pristina and Skopje
There currently no trains between Europe and Turkey :/
In May, the Optima Express will make the route Villach - Edirne (not included in the Railpass)
The ALternative is quite easy: BUS. (or fly, of course, but then its better to fly from West-EUR and not shorter distance in the region).
The rails/trains were/are burocratic state-institutions, neglected for many years and demand fell so much that hardly anyone used them. Plus all the new made borders in what once was 1 country; Yugoslavija also did not stimulate travel. As for now a few major lines are being renovated and thats why there are no train at all-untill maybe a better future.
Exactly same Q has been posted here by now a few dozen times-just scroll down and read more.
Site seat61.com has in /en/ an overview of all current overland routes+Alternatives from UK to all EUR countries. Or change plans -EUR has still some 25+ other countries in the pass-scheme with much better links!
Good news. The Istanbul-Sofia route has officially resumed running on April 25th (yesterday)!
You can find the timetable here > https://www.bdz.bg/en/c/international-rail
Enter your username or e-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.
