In the Balkans with bicycle and public transportation: a guide for the cycle traveller

2023 update: almost 10 years have passed since this post was written. Unfortunately most links are broken and the information is generally no longer reliable. Sorry!

This little guide wants to be a help for all the cycle travellers who are interested in visiting the Balkan countries, perhaps using public transportation for some parts of their journey. It's based on my personal experience (October-December 2013) and on information found in the Internet.

To search for trains, I suggest starting from a map of European railways and from Deutsche Bahn's search engine (which however does not include all countries).

Ferries connect Italy (Ancona, Bari, Brindisi) with Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik, Bar, Durres, Vlore, Igoumenitsa, Kerkira, Patras.

Here are the most relevant pieces of information, divided by country:

SLOVENIA

Railway website

Bicycles are admitted on all the main lines that go from Ljubljana to Koper, Maribor and Jesenice/Bled. The additional fare is 3,20 €, no matter the distance you are going to travel.

Currently there are no trains that connect Italy to Slovenia. From Trieste you must cross the border with bicycle/bus to reach Sežana or Koper.

CROATIA

Railway website

There are local trains and Intercity trains (not high-speed though). Usually Intercity trains connect Zagreb to the other main cities and some of them allow to transport bicycles (you can verify which ones offer this service on the official schedules at the train stations, anyway there is at least 1 train per day on every line). New trains, both regional and IC, have a big space for bicycles.

The additional ticket doesn't have a fixed price: it costs 30 kuna for the IC Split-Ogulin (7-hour travel), 41 kuna for Ogulin-Rijeka (regional, 2.5 hours).

Regional train Ogulin-Rijeka with compartment for bicycles

Buses are also commonly used: from what I could find on the web, however, bicycles are only allowed if they are approved by the driver, based on the season and on the available space in the luggage storage.

HUNGARY

Railway website

The Hungarian railroad network is quite extended and regional trains also reach many very small villages. Bicycles can be carried in the dedicated space or in the head/back of the train, paying a ticket that costs 25% of the normal price for 1 person.

Budapest is also connected with international trains to Wien, Ljubljana, Prague, Belgrade and Berlin.

SERBIA

Railway website

Serbian railway service is not so good. The majority of the national trains (not many, to be honest) run on the north-south line Subotica – Novi Sad – Belgrade – Niš. Almost all of them admit bicycles, but actually there's no storage space: you will probably have to stay in the very narrow aisle near the entrance doors and move the bicycle at every station to allow people to get on and off.

Prices are very low: a one-way ticket Novi Sad – Belgrade costs 300 dinars (less than 3 €), with a 100-dinar additional fare for the bike.

International trains leave daily from Belgrade to Zagreb, Budapest, Bar, Skopje and Sofia (1 or 2 every day). The journey Belgrade – Sofia takes 10 hours (at the average speed of 50 km/h) and includes a stop at the Serbian-Bulgarian border (where the Police searches for smugglers). The ticket costs about 20 € and there is no additional cost for the bike.

Just be aware of the fact that I was travelling during low season, when trains were not full. If you travel in the summer, things might be different! Always check in advance if your bicycle is admitted.

BULGARIA

Railway website

Bicycles can be carried on all trains paying 2 lev (1 €), both on the modern trains (where there are more empty spaces for bicycles) and on the old ones (similar to the Serbian trains, with narrow doors and steep stairs). Normal train tickets are quite cheap in Bulgaria as well.

GREECE

Railway website

Due to the mountains that occupy most of the mainland, Greek railway network is limited to the main lines Athens – Thessaloniki e Athens – Korinthos, with a few additional secondary lines. On Athens – Thessaloniki high-speed trains bicycles are admitted only if dismounted and closed in bike bags, like in Italian high-speed trains. In the other lines they can be carried without paying additional fees.

However, be aware that there are no “low-speed” trains that connect Athens with Northern Greece. Also, regions like Epirus don't have railways.

The most common public transport mode is the bus, in which bicycles are admitted without additional tickets if there is space in the luggage storage. Personally, I used the bus to go from Delphi to Athens and I was recommended to take the first bus at 7.30 am to avoid the more crowded ones.

ALBANIA

The railway network is almost abandoned and the most popular mean of transportation is the bus. There are “official companies” that offer services with fixed schedules (even if “schedule” is a big word!), and there are also the famous furgons (10-15 seats) that wait at the side of the road until they collect enough people who want to go to the proposed destination. Obviously bicycles can only be carried on the big coaches. The cost of the ticket is ridiculous: for example, the route Saranda – Tirana (via Gjirokastër, Fier, Durres, about 400 km in 6 hours) costs 1300 lek (9 €) + 300 lek (2 €) for the bike. Shkodër – Tirana: 300 + 300 lek.

In Albanian cities there are not real bus stations: different lines can start/arrive in different places, which often are not indicated, so you must find out in advance where is the waiting place for the bus you are interested in. Anyway, even if there's not a German-like organization, the atmosphere of a bus trip through Albania is something unique!

Buses and furgons waiting to leave from Saranda

Finally, because of the huge number of Albanians who live in Greece, many bus lines connect Albanian cities to Athens, Thessaloniki, Volos, Patras and other Greek cities daily. Bicycles are admitted on these buses, as experienced by a couple of cycle travellers I met on the road.

MONTENEGRO

Railway website

The website lists all the daily local and international trains that travel across this tiny country.

The line Bar – Belgrade, which takes about 8 hours, is described as one of the most panoramic European railways, especially in the Montenegrin stretch that runs along Lake Skadar and then crosses the Dinaric Alps.

Buses connect the towns along the coast with each other and with the major cities in the surroundings (Dubrovnik, Mostar, Sarajevo).

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Railway website

The website lists all the local and international trains that travel across Bosnia-Herzegovina. Sarajevo is connected to Zagreb (via Banja Luka) and to Ploče, on the Adriatic Sea (via Mostar). The ticket for the train Sarajevo – Mostar (very beautiful mountainous landscapes) costs 9,90 Bosnian marks (5 €) and the additional fare for the bike costs 7 KM (3,50 €).

Sarajevo – Mostar on a Swedish train of the 1960s...

Very comfortable seats and huge space for the legs!

Countries I didn't consider in this guide: Macedonia and Kosovo.

Overall, when coming to plan a bike journey through the Balkans, the option of combining biking with public transportation should be considered: this choice can allow you to visit more places and/or skip some climbs, travelling cheap and in a sustainable way.

Even though the cycling infrastructures cannot be compared to Central Europe, the Balkans have much to offer to those who wish to explore this region, admire its naturalistic beauty and know more about the history and the culture of its peoples.

Biking through recent History

I had read some things about the Yugoslav Wars before the begin of this trip. After seeing the places with my eyes and hearing stories from people who were actually there in the years of the war, I'll try to write a few impressions about this topic with regard to Croatia and Serbia. If the journey goes as planned, I might visit Bosnian cities of Mostar and Sarajevo on my way back.

(It's not an "easy" topic, so any comment/correction is welcome, as always)

• Vukovar:
  I must start from here. This city is the symbol of the Serbian-Croatian war. I've been told that it was one of the richest city in former Yugoslavia. You might agree that it's true just by looking at the many big factories and industrial buildings that you see if you arrive in the city from the west.
  Then, the war. The population, which was evenly distributed between Serbs and Croats (who had lived together peacefully until then), has dropped from 45.000 to 25.000: many Serbs moved to Novi Sad or Belgrade, many Croatians started a new life in Zagreb, far from bullet-marked houses, mined fields and an atmosphere which is still filled with hate and contrasts between the two ethnical groups. For example, Serb and Croatian kids are in separated classes at school until college. The events of the past are still too recent to be forgotten, the difference is about how people look at them: someone remembers and looks at the future, many other people remember with their heads turned back to the past.
  
  
• Breaking news: my part in the history of Vukovar :)
  I arrived in Vukovar on October 17. On the same day the Prime Minister of Croatia, Mr. Zoran Milanovic, was in the city to talk to the nationalists and to the war veterans about the issue of cyrillic signs, which are to be installed because the Serb minority make up more than 1/3 of the total population of the city. High tension. In the previous days, 2-3 policemen of the special forces had to stand in front of every plaque written in cyrillic alphabet, because of people continuously trying to tear them down (big question: why?). So... this guy (me) who arrives on the bike seems an alien in this place at this time: is he a terrorist who hides a bunch of AK-47 in his panniers and aims at killing the PM? I don't know if they followed me or what, the fact is that the Police called Zoran, my Warmshowers host for the night, to make sure I was actually a normal traveller...
  Weird story, but it exemplifies well how the situation is around there.
  
  
  
  
• My meetings
  A girl whose family escaped from the Croatian part of Baranya because of the war and then returned when it was over. A professor in Vukovar High School who was studying in Novi Sad during the war, having his family in the middle of the conflict. Now the big old house of some of his dead relatives has almost no value, since the city is still under reconstruction and has high unemployment and very little perspectives for the next future.
  
  
• Yugoslavia and Tito: a compendium (trying to simplify complicated things)
  - Yugoslavia as known between 1945-1991 had never been a unique country in history, although some cultural traits are common to the people of the area. Parts of its territory were controlled until WW1 by Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire.
  - Croatians are mainly Catholic, Serbs are mainly Orthodox. In Bosnia and Kosovo there are big percentages of Muslims as well.
  - 1941-1945: Yugoslavia is occupied by the Nazis and other Axis countries. In Croatia there is a satellite fascist government (Ustaša), responsible for killing many Serbs.
  - 1945: Partisans led by Tito send away the occupants. It's the only European country which is not freed by the Allies, thus allowing it to take a Non-Aligned position and a certain independence from the Soviet block in the Cold War. Yugoslavia is organized as a federation, in which the regions are more or less those that now have become independent countries.
  - 1970s: Despite economic difficulties and rising requests for more independence from what has always been considered a Serb-centric nation (see Great Serbia), the country remains in peace until Tito's death in 1980. Tito was a dictator, but he represented at the eyes of most of the population a positive hero and a common symbol of anti-fascism.
  - 1980s: Changed economic balance in Europe (due to USSR's collapse), loosened grip of central government on peripherical regions, contemporary growth of nationalisms in Slovenia, Croatia and Kosovo.
  - 1990s: Breakup of Yugoslavian Communist Party. Referendum on independence in Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia. The former 2 states obtain independence "easily", Croatia and Bosnia fight for it until 1995, when NATO intervention put an end to the conflict.
  In 1999 other NATO intervention in support of Kosovo Albanians against Serbia.
  - 2000s: Montenegro and Kosovo form independent states.
  
  
• Consequences of the above:
  - Presence of nostalgia of Tito.
  - Serbians feel "victims" of US and Western European interests in the area (mainly regarding Kosovo, which they don't recognize as a country): good reason to "use" to raise Serbian pride, nationalism, etc.
  - Relationships among countries and among different ethnic groups in the same country are far from being stable (excluding Slovenia).
  - These problems stop Serbia from entering the EU. Macedonia has quarrels with Greece and Bulgaria as well.
  
  
• As said by a disilluded Serbian guy at the hostel in Belgrade:
  "There are 2 political parties: one of them is the party of the football hooligans (of every team) and of the nationalist idiots, which are often the same thing; the other one is the party of the people with a little bit of brain, but it's mostly made up by idiots anyway."