Insurance at the Border

[KevinW]

Whenever we've been riding outside of the EU I've been on a hired bike so insurance hasn't been a problem but now it is.

Our starting point is Dubrovnik and we want to get to Istanbul. Crossing Bosnia and Serbia is the most direct option and it might be nice to pop into Montenegro but Norwich Union won't issue a green card for any of them. I can get round the problem by going over the top through Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria and that may be what we end up doing but I'd like the option.

I've seen posts mentioning buying insurance at the border (commonly called 'a worthless piece of paper'!) but not having done this before I don't know whether this is available at all borders. Does anyone know if bike insurance is available at the borders of Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro please?

Thanks.

Kevin

 

[markone]

I have spoken to police and a insurance broker in Serbia and they said the paper is third party insurance the same as the UK and it will work if you have an accident and is a legal requirement if the police stop you (very rare)

The insurance is available on all crossing points 24 hours a day however the smaller crossing points have to call an insurance broker out from a local town where the bigger crossings hace a office there.

Serbia costs 120 Euro for my car for 1 month (minimum time available) and the bike is less, Bosnia was 30 euro for my car for 3 days and 20 Euro for my bike, longer periods are available.

Its not cheap but well worth the effort as Serbia and Bosnia are definately worth visiting, there is a massive bike party in Petrovaradin Fortress next weekend !

 

[KevinW]

That's excellent news. Thanks for the confirmation.

I wish we were going earlier as the party in the Fortress is outside our schedule; we'll be hitting Bosnia around 8th June.

Kevin

 

[spot]

Just got back. The road from split up into serbia via mostar and sarajevo is a good ride. dont go round the top its a long boring dusty expensive ride. 80 euros for the bike insurance in serbia and not available at all border crossings although probably ok on the main roads. I was delayed 2 hours at a small crossing and then turned back as no insurance was available. its time uk insurers got their act together and issued a policy to cover the balkans. I didnt see any insurance office at the bosnia borders so rode through uninsured. My advice is to go for the direct route via montenegro and macedonia. Macedonian insurance is 50 euros. I turned back at macedonia as i thought it expensive and went all the way back to sofia then up the long main road through serbia before coming back down from the north to sarajevo. I wish i had gone through macedonia. In bulgaria there are radar traps everywhere. The "motorway" is lumpy and we lost a pannier off a k1200. We lost the top box in turkey but kind of expected the road there to be poor. It was actualy a better road in turkey than bulgaria. Insurance for turkey is cheap by the way, a couple of euros or so

 

[KevinW]

We want to go to Mostar and Sarajevo so I'm pleased it's a good ride. Through Servia is then the most direct route to Turkey.

Thanks for the forewarning about the radar traps in Bulgaria.

Kevin