What is the preferred route if driving by car from UK

Interested in answer to this as we plan to drive out with our 3 next year

Hi I did it with our dog from uk a few years ago now, simple really. Took ship to France then off to Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and into Bulgaria. Ensure you have a valid and up to date pet passport and ensure regular breaks for the dog and you.

I cooked loads of chicken and had a cold store on board before I left uk which was essential for enticing our dog back into the cage after every stop as believe me she wasn’t too happy with me as was always happy to do short journeys but not such a long distance, the chicken worked a treat. Have driven it many times but only once with a dog in tow tho.

Not once at the borders where they were present did they check our dogs chip as could see she was a rather grumpy German shepherd and left her alone a very wise decision lol.

When queuing for what seemed ages at the Hungarian border as this was when covid hit and borders were stricter so queuing, she escaped the metal cage (she’s too clever and our brand new metal cage not sophisticated enough to outwit her) and broke out and landed on my lap smiling, it wasn’t something I was doing at the time. I had to abandon the line and found a farm track, it was snowing too at the time too, I fixed the cage with some wire and enticed her back in, it held for the rest of the journey luckily.

Good luck with your trip if you need anything else pm me. Rgds Ozzy

Thank you. My dog is used to long travel in the car. We done 2,500 mile trip  in France visiting friends, neighbours and dancing 😀 last year. We stop regularly and France is easy with aires.  Are there similar type stops en route?

Love German shepherd's i use to breed them had 5 at one time now have mum son & daughter english mastiffs. How long did your journey take in total uk to Bulgaria  ?

Hi, my journeys have so far taken no more than 3 days. There are some roadside motels at services but these are mainly up to from Uk to Austria fewer after that so plan the route and make pre bookings of places to stay if that’s what you are planning.

This was our first German shepherd which was from a rescue place in uk, she’s extremely protective of our kids and is constantly watching them, if they wander off she barks to tell them to come back and is a good guard dog too, a wonderful dog.

I have always done an early am crossing as it’s normally cheaper…. Then drive and get nearly through Germany before stopping somewhere for the night, next day is then rest of Germany, Austria and Hungary then a stop in Hungary then net day I try to cover all of Romania in one day I hope to tour Romania tho s the Transylvanian section is stunning but the road somewhat dangerous.

I recall telling my brother about this section being so dangerous and I think he thought I was exaggerating until he drove with my one year and saw so many crashed cars and trucks and had a near miss with a HGV overtaking on a blind bend…he nick named the road dead can alley. Another example was when I drove back one year and a dual carriageway opened up on a long bend so I moved out to overtake a HGV but he didn’t want me to pass and decided to move out and literally slide his trailer around the bend preventing me from passing it was like something from the movie Dual and true nutter.So take care if you go this route but all part of the adventure lol

Good luck with your trip. Ozzy

Anyone done this route towing a caravan? 

I posted my trip I have done a while back and have used since, I have used Romania and Serbia, and to be honest I will use Romania in future due to how easy it is and not having to stop at borders or if we did, it was only for a few minutes rather than 8 hours at Serbia.

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 11#5724249

If it's your 1st time driving the route make sure you have a vignette for each country that requires one.

The Vignette system is different from road tolls which are based on distance travelled. Vignettes are required for driving along certain roads, like motorways, in the following European countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Austria.

@joyburtonbewdley

HI I did it towing a 20ft twin axle trailer with a 2.5 ton digger on, all in was I think 3.1 tons as had buckets etc. on it, this was some years ago now,  but roads have since improved and when I went it was fine, my Landrover disco pulled it like a dream no issues.

@Ozzy183a

No pet passports in UK anymore, need to get an animal health certificate

@johnjameson1959

You can still use dog passports that were issued in an EU country or Northern Ireland.

@johnjameson1959You can still use dog passports that were issued in an EU country or Northern Ireland. - @SimCityAT

I think the problem there, or certainly for cats, is that it only works only if all the vaccinations etc are up to date. Four of our cats were adopted from a rescue in Cyprus so have EU pet passports which got them into the UK okay. But by the time we want to take them back into the EU to move to Bg, they'll need a rabies booster. We've been told UK vets can't enter that into an EU pet passport, so we'll have to get the full UK paperwork for them.

@janemulberry

That was our problem. Our old dog had the pet passport as we lived in France. The only way I could have kept it going was to travel to France or EU country to get the jabs before they expired. Ordinarily that would not have been a problem but we couldn’t travel during covid when it was due.

Covid and the on-off-on-off travel restrictions messed up so many plans - ours, too!

Back to the route,  we haven't done this drive yet, though will will be driving all our cats over when the time comes. The consensus on the forum seems to be that when travelling with pets, take the route via Romania so you remain in the EU the entire way, and avoid Serbia because there can be problems with pets at the border.

I have driven many times with my dog. Have been told many times not to go via Serbia due to scams etc. Although,  I have done this route twice with no issues.

Last time, I went via Romania and, on the way back was getting scammed by a very aggressive Romanian border guard. Luckily another official appeared and the border guard disappeared. Was upsetting for my wife.

I'm hoping that from this summer there will be fewer vehicles stopped as border controls become more relaxed