Safety in Eastern Europe

If you are doing road trip you will also visit Slovakia (at least).

Hi,

There are no border checks on the Polish-German border either. I saw this a couple years ago at Frankfurt an der Oder, Poles and Germans come and go over the bridge over the Oder, and also at Küstrin an der Oder, same thing as a passenger in car then. Since I'll be visiting as a day trip again Frankfurt an der Oder in June, I'll see if anything has changed. The refugees didn't want to go to Poland anyway.

Hungary has closed up its southern borders to divert the migrants and I have no idea how that impacts driving across the border. I do sort of agree that I will be interesting if you can find a rental company that will give you a car for this trip. If you do the price is going to be very, very steep. Belarus I understand has some difficult and expensive visa applications.

Was there a typo and you meant a 2 month road trip, not 2 weeks? I assume you aren't planning on visiting any more than 2/3 countries in this timescale. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia could be squeezed into 2 weeks. Not as warm and sunny an option as some of your other options. I don't know anybody that has been to Belarus and this would be the country that I would need to research the most, as I'm not sure that English would be spoken that widely.

Covering Croatia properly is a 3 week road trip, as it is long and thin. If you just covered the northern part, it could be combined with Hungary. Great scenery.

The migrant crisis is very fluid and no one knows what the situation will be in the summer. It won't have been solved is the only certainty.

I guess I should have used the term "tightened up" the borders. When crossing from Romania the real interest was always ownership of the vehicle which took about 2 minutes and didn't require getting out of the car. Crossing into Slovakia has never required a stop and crossing into Austria had never required a stop prior to the migrant issue; but during it there were some lines. I do know that late last year they were checking vehicles in the south and a few people were detained for "human trafficking" meaning they were giving rides to migrants. Daily, PM Orban talks about toughening up the borders even more and at one point the Czechs and Slovaks were sending police to Hungary to assist on the borders. I am certain more to patrol the fences than anything else. At least one good thing came out of this; these countries are working together which isn't common.

All that having been said, how does that affect driving across any of these borders? My point was, I don't know, haven't done it since early last year before the mess exploded. Based on my experience with the bureaucracy and oddities of these countries nothing would surprise me. And if last year is any indication, things can change quickly. I had guests stranded all over the place and one poor individual got on the wrong train and ended up at an internment camp. I am going to have some faith in the Hungarians and say that at worst there might be some delay at the border, but I cant imagine it being bad; and once inside Hungary or Croatia or ..... things should appear as normal and it will be a wonderful trip.

Would I try and make that drive? Naaaaa. Not unless I purchased a Trabant and spent a lot of time figuring out all of the Vignettes between all the points. Remember in every major city you hit it will cost you $20 or more a day to park it.

BUT!!! Your question was "SAFETY" as much as check points. Croatia (if you avoid the land mines), Hungary, Poland are among the safest places in Europe. The crime rates are about the equivalent of a very nice upper middle class neighborhood in the U.S. I have found the people to be kind, generous and helpful beyond what I saw on average in Western Europe. Violent crime is exceedingly rare.

For those who are uncomfortable with the refugee migration it has been effectively stopped at the Hungarian border. Last time I asked they were still able to cross into Croatia but the Croatians were doing a good job of transporting them across the country to the border with Slovenia, effectively keeping them out of the heart of Croatia. Oh, and add Slovakia to your list.

If one wants to avoid running into the migrants at all, (I'm sure there are those US tourists leaning towards that), one can make the argument that it's better to go to Hungary and Poland for several reasons than spending the time in Germany where the likelihood of encountering them is a much greater chance.

Here I have owned a home in Budapest for nearly 10 years and never bought a car because I couldn't afford a place to park it. Help me Kaeleku, where is my free parking?

And help out the OP with the name of the rental company that you got a car from in Estonia, drove through Belarus and dropped in Croatia?

Till Kaeleku reveals his secrets I will have to continue to rely on Jeffries and his car for such trips.

Thank you. Inspiring look ino a travel style. A lot to think about. The hard work and detail is appreciated. So the OP has a workable answer, a circle tour from Estonia to Croatia and back to Estonia using Renault or Peugoet (I would still check with them about taking their car into Belarus); while avoiding staying in the centers of major cities unless you pay for accommodations that have "free" parking ... in two weeks. It worked for me till I had to double the driving to make the circle and deal with the accommodation limitations dictated by free parking options. But this might be just the ticket for the OP. Each to their own.

I will stick with Jefferies.

Interesting trip...Kleipeda, the former Memel of Memelland, is also a ferry port connecting Germany, ie, Kleipeda to Kiel.