People we know are going to drive to a place called Pamporova which is an hour or so south of Plovdiv and they will be towing either a caravan or a large trailer with their car ( don’t ask its a long story ) is there anything they should be mindful of ? I’m thinking Serbia might be a bit dodgy. Anybody out there got any experience of this route and any help gratefully received.
Thanks in advance.
Towing a van, do you mean Caravan or a vehicle, if its a van, avoid please, there must be all sorts of rules and risks out there.
Foreign office advice:
bald bloke:
I’m thinking Serbia might be a bit dodgy.
No reason to go via Serbia.
Austria, Hungary, Romania and straight into Bulgaria
Wilko:
Towing a van, do you mean Caravan or a vehicle, if its a van, avoid please, there must be all sorts of rules and risks out there.Foreign office advice:
Sorry yes towing a caravan or large trailer as they have to take a lot of stuff/ furniture out with them.
GBPub:
bald bloke:
I’m thinking Serbia might be a bit dodgy.No reason to go via Serbia.
Austria, Hungary, Romania and straight into Bulgaria
Could get Animal to help them through Rumo 
Question is… How safe is Rumo!
GBPub:
bald bloke:
I’m thinking Serbia might be a bit dodgy.No reason to go via Serbia.
Austria, Hungary, Romania and straight into Bulgaria
+1
you’ll need a vignette for austria, hungary, romania, and bulgaria.
carry your log book, driving licence, insurance, and mot.
it’s also a good idea to report your licence as lost to dvla. then you get a new one, but show the old one to the police in romania, and bulgaria. they like to keep hold of them. 
Most signposts in Bulgaria are written in Cyrillic (i.e. Russian) script, so it might be worth printing off a page of these so they can transliterate the address etc
Wilko:
Could get Animal to help them through RumoQuestion is… How safe is Rumo!
Nah, I wouldn’t recommend you do that, imagine if she needed to make a phone call… 
As for safety, in my opinion safer than many parts of Italy. If they take the usual sensible precautions, then doubt very much that they will encounter any problems.
^ I understand that she’s had a problem in the UK this week. The O2 network was down, not sure how far she drove this time to get a signal, last seen Watford Gap, Qatar. 
Harry Monk:
Most signposts in Bulgaria are written in Cyrillic (i.e. Russian) script, so it might be worth printing off a page of these so they can transliterate the address etc
Actually Bulgarian alphabet is slightly different from Russian.
As for Serbia, I was going to Plovdiv via Serbia in 2006, no problem.
i met a bloke last year on the hungarian/romanian border. he was in a transit van heading for greece. he’d sat for 2 days on the serbian border because they wouldn’t let him through due to them thinking all the furniture he had was commercial. it was in fact for his villa in greece.
there is another route. italy, then the ferry to greece.
orys:
Harry Monk:
Most signposts in Bulgaria are written in Cyrillic (i.e. Russian) script, so it might be worth printing off a page of these so they can transliterate the address etcActually Bulgarian alphabet is slightly different from Russian.
Slightly different but 95% the same, same as the Belarussian or Ukrainian alphabets. A Cyrillic alphabet.
I stand by my earlier statement that learning the basics of the Cyrillic alphabet would be enormously helpful for any British driver going to Bulgaria
Easiest way would be Italy-Greece ferry then up to the Greek/Bulgarian border (Kulata),haven’t been there for years so not sure how this would compare in price to going via Austria-Hungary-Romania-Bulgaria.I’m sure somebody on here would be able to give you an idea of the costs.Have fun,Bulgaria rocks!
Thanks for the replys so far, they have lived in Bulgaria before so have a basic knowledge of
the language but they’ve never travelled there by road before so I will pass on this information.
Harry Monk:
I stand by my earlier statement that learning the basics of the Cyrillic alphabet would be enormously helpful for any British driver going to Bulgaria
not really, the road signs have been bilingual for years now. as for serbia, I would definitely prefer it to transiting romania, but as has been said before, you might have trouble proving the customs, that the furniture is for your own use.
Forget this thread they’ve done it 5 times before and always go the same route via Hungary, Romania and Ruse crossing but they thought the Italy route would be worth looking into but it’s the cost of the caravan on the ferry aswell on top of that might be a factor.