Hi, I went to Zante this year (July 2007) to meet up with my family who had flown over.
Travelling on my own I went across to Luxembourg; then down through Germany to Innsbruck area; then across the Austrian Tyrol to Slovenia and stayed in Ljubliana. I then made my way down to Croatia, I had a choice here whether to go right and down through Italy or left and down through the Balkans, I decided to go for the latter and headed down through Croatia to Dubrovnik using the Adriatic highway. I thought the high Alpine passes I had been across were stunning, but for sheer breathtaking views combined with mile after mile of twisty roads you can't beat the Adriatic Highway. Bedded down in Dubrovinik then down to Montenegro (a beautiful country) passsing through border points for Serbia and into Albania.
The roads in Albania are not good (the main road from Montenegro into Albania is basically a potholed track) and many of the signs are just metal sheets riddled with bullet holes, but the people that i met were lovely and helpful, there was a lot of poverty.
Roads in the South of Albania are being built as we speak, there are European flags in places but I must have done a 100K standing up to deal with the bad roads. The food I was offered was ghastly in albania so I just had Burrek (goats cheese in a kind of Filo Pastry), fuit and beer and water.
Arrived at the South Western tip of Albania. Could see the cars moving on Corfu and headed into Greece the following day.
Down to Patras and round to Kilimni the a ferry boat to Zante.
I booked nothing in advance, my insurance covered me for all countries except for Montenegro and Albania, I bought insurance at the border for 10 Euros each into Albania and Montenegro. I daren't think what that would have been worth if anything had gone wrong!
I struggled to find Travel Insurance that covered me for Albania.
The only trouble I came across was in a small town in Albania where a couple of drunken kids in a big black Merc were egging me on to go faster etc, constantly screeching up behind the bike , once they knew I wasn't playing they cleared off. I took Lonely Planet's advice and didn't venture into Albania's capital, Tirana.
I bought wanderlust maps as the European Sat Nav Maps didn't really cover the southern Balkans too well, to be honest I turned the SatNav off and used the trusty map with map pocket on tank!
I ride a 1200GS, I put Tourances on for the trip which worked fine, the bike didn't miss a beat, was fun on the twisties, capable on the rough stuff and day long comfortable on motorways.
Trip length: I left the Midlands on Monday Morning caught a lunchtime ferry, overnighted in or near 1) Luxembourg 2) Innsbruck 3) Ljubliana 4) Dubrovnik 5) Southern Albania/Greek Border and on Saturday afternoon arrived In Zante approx 2500 miles
It was my first ever solo trip and I would thoroughly recommend it. I warn you it will be VERY VERY HOT in August! So go equipped.
Return trip was a 20 hour overnight ferry from Patras to Italy (near Rimini) then a blast up to the Italian lakes stopping overnight in Switzerland then on into France through Alsace past Reims to Calais and home.
I'm sure you'll have great fun!
