This is basically a break down of how 3 friends travelled through 6 countries in Europe in 2 weeks, it may be of some help to anyone planning this type of trip or it may not!
Our initial plan was to hire a car one way and drive from Bulgaria to Poland. After booking a flight to Bulgaria and a flight back from Poland we discovered that it wouldn’t be as straight forward as we hoped.
Although when you google cross country one way car hire there are numerous results we could not find one company willing to hire a car to us for the entire trip or even cross border in most cases.
In the end we had to start the trip with no idea how we would get from one country to another. Planning each day as it came we gradually made our way through Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Austria and Poland.
Flight to Bulgaria
Ryan Air flight from London Stansted to Plovdiv, Bulgaria. 3h 25min.
Can’t remember the exact cost but it was around £100 per person
On the plane
Car Hire Bulgaria
Car hire in Plovdiv for 3 days including pick up from the airport. One way hire between Plovdiv and Sofia. Approx £100 + deposit of £35
S &Z RENT-A-CAR http://www.szgrup.com/index.php?lang=en
The only thing we booked before leaving the UK was our first hotel, having no luck with car hire ourselves we reached out to the hotel. They organised hire through this company who offered pick up and drop off in different locations but only within Bulgaria.
The car
Travel from Bulgaria to Serbia
Private taxi/transfer from Sofia airport to hotel in Belgrade, Serbia. Approx £180. Approx Journey time 5hrs. The border crossing can be slow.
http://www.choice-rent.com/i.php/index.html
We arranged to drop the car off at Sofia airport and thought there would be a fairly good chance of hiring another car to cross the border. None of the hire company’s could help. One company, Choice Rent said they could drive us to Belgrade. It would cost €260. For the ease of it, the extra expense over the train seemed well worth it. (I think the train would have been about €35 each+ taxis and approximately a 10hr 30min journey).
The driver
Travel from Serbia to Hungary
Mini Bus with Gea Tours from hotel in Belgrade to hotel in Budapest, Hungary approx £25 per person. Approx journey time 8hrs
http://www.geatours.rs/eng/index.htm
The company offers a door to door service so picked us up at our hotel in Belgrade and dropped us off at our hotel in Budapest. Being that cheap we didn’t expect a lot so couldn’t really moan but the journey seemed to go on for ever, it took about 8 hours. The border crossing took forever too. Stopped numerous times to pick people up and had a 45 minute stop at a petrol station so the driver could have his dinner!!
The rest of the countries we visited have no borders so travelling between then is a lot easier.
Travel from Hungary to Austria
Train from Budapest Keleti to Vienna ‘Wien Meidling’ Station, Austria. 2hr43 minute journey. Approx £28 per person.
If you buy a ticket from Keleti Station go to international journeys ticket office. There is a ‘grab a ticket and wait ages until it’s called system’.
The train
Travel from Austria to Slovakia
Car hire Austria to Slovakia. Car delivered to our hotel in Vienna. Duration 3 days. Dropped off in Kosice, Slovakia. Car One. https://www.carone.sk facebook Cost: approx £150
The first time in the trip where we were offered cross country one way car hire! Really good service, upgraded the car for free as the one we booked was unavailable, lent us a satnav to use and gave us a Slovakia guide book!
Guide book
Travel from Slovakia to Poland (need to ask friend about cost etc)
Private mini bus from Kosice to our hotel in Krakow, Poland. Approx 4hrs.
On the day the driver messaged us saying he would be an hour late as he was driving from Croatia. Luckily we did not have a set time to be in Poland so it didn’t really affect us.
Paying the driver
Auschwitz tour
The drive from Krakow is about 1hr30 mins. The trip costs approximately £25. You have a tour of Auschwitz 1 then a short drive to Auschwitz 2 Birkenau where the tour continues.
We got picked up and dropped off at our hotel. The coach was 30 minutes late.
Birkenau
Taxi to Krakow airport
Thought I’d add this in because we discovered Uber operates a service on Krakow.
We booked a cab through Uber, couldn’t quite believe the price, about a quarter of what the hotel was going to charge! 5 minutes later we loading our luggage into the boot, well after the driver moved his gym kit into the front!
Uber
Flight from Krakow to Stansted
Ryan Air flight from Krakow to London Stansted. Approx 2hr 30mins.
All I can say about Krakow airport is be prepared for a lot of queuing!
Can’t remember the exact cost but it was around £100 per person
Total travel cost……..will have to work out when I get the Slovakia mini bus details….
The route………
