1

Golly,this is an adventure :) My advice to you for the Turkey section is to allow a generous fuel budget for your time here as we have the worlds most expensive fuel prices and you have to drive clean across the country.Currently prices are 4.94TL per ltr for petrol and 4.31TL for diesel and I guess your 4x4 isn't a light vehicle.
It will be better for you to cross into Iran either at Doğubeyazıt or Van rather than the more southernly Hakkari.

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Verify previously if you could enter Iran overland as there are some infos suggesting it wouldn't be possible at the moment. Take a look at this thread for more info. You could also ask about it in the Middle East branch to see if there's more updated info about that question.

3

Double check my recollection but I think it may not be possible to travel from Kosovo to Serbia. Change your routing to Kosovo to Macedonia or Albania to Bulgaria and you should be fine.

Ruth

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#3
people and goods were traveling and are traveling between Kosovo and Serbia without slightest problem. Also, since recent adoption of IBM agreement, certain border crossings between the two are mutually controlled, making them the easiest and fastest border points in the Balkans. It will be nice for a change if you could speak from your first-hand experience, in order to give people on this forum valid info.

#backpackbirk
You should google it if you will have to buy third-party road insurance to transit through territory of Kosovo. This territory isn't yet a member of international road and insurance associations (like Green Card, or so), so it is likely that for foreign plates they charge their own third-party insurance. Double check that.
Of course, check if your vehicle insurance covers all countries you listed. For example, Bosnia and Hercegovina is still out of Green Card mutual no-extra-coverage zone, so I guess you'll need some kind of green card paper to transit through it.
Other than these, you can post your itinerary plans, so we can recommend places that are on your way.

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mpetrovic - I believe that I stated up front that I could not remember if this had changed. Either way. I believe that that it was good of you to clarify since obviously my recollection is outdated. And I have traveled in this particular area and it was difficult back then (2004). On more recent trips in this region, I did not cross between these two countries.

Ruth

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Guys, as always, thank you for your advice. Much appreciated.

Seems like most of Europe should be fine. The only challenge could be Turkey and Iran - especially Iran.

In terms of safety, none of you really mentioned any concerns around overland sleeping on the car. Eastern Europe is probably not the obvious candidate, but we'll give it a shoot unless I find any reasons not to.

Any last thoughts feel free to shoot them our way.

Thank you!

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I can only comment on then Turkey section of your trip.But I can say there should be no safety concerns for you.There are actually quite a lot of camping sites around the country where you could park up for the night-giving you access to showers etc. :)
Regarding driving here you need to be alert at all times as you will likely find driving to be much faster here than you may be used to.
In rural area's be aware of tractors turning with no indication and also the possibility of animals(cows,sheep,goats) wandering into the road at any time.
Try to avoid driving after dark particularly in these rural area's as often the smaller country roads are not in the best condition and hide things like pot holes plus again,wandering livestock.
Despite the fact that a majority of Turks still do not wear seatbelts be aware that wearing them IS the law.
Don't be tempted to put your foot down too much on remote rural roads as traffic police can hide waiting for you!
In urban area's you may get stopped by the police on spot checks and in rural area's by the jandarma for the same thing.This is nothing to be worried about they are just routine checks.Make sure you have the vehicle documents and insurance document together with your passports or ID papers all ready together to show them.
Once they see you are a foreign visitor they are likely to simply wave you on.However,if needed,they are also a good source of local information on directions,road works ahead etc.so don't be afraid to ask them if you need help or confirmation on directions.

Once you have decided on the route you will take through Turkey and also return route too then please come back to the forum if you need more detailed local information for any parts of it.Also an indication of rougly how much time you intend to spend on each leg in Turkey-I hope you do intend to spend some time here and not just rush through!

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Great sarikanarya - really appreciate your advice.

Very good points and extremely helpful.

Have nominated you to post of the day with LonelyPlanet ;-)

Again, thank you - we'll keep you posted!

Edited by: backpackbirk

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You're welcome...post of the day eh?Ohhh,gimme da badge gimme da badge,I wanna badge :)