# Greetings from Northern Greece



## Don_Madge

GREETINGS FROM NORTHERN GREECE

We are at present having a few days R&R at the municipal camp site at Alexandroupoli in northern Greece before crossing into Turkey on Wednesday after a very good trip across Europe. We used the tunnel for the first time and were very impressed with the service.
I’ve put together a few notes that some might find useful as I believe there are a few heading this way in the New Year.

ROUTE. 
Calais, Lille, Namur, Luxembourg (cheap fuel), Strasbourg, Basel, St Gothard Tunnel, Milan, Bologna, Ancona and Bari Port.

NIGHT STOPS. 
Fort Philippe Aire N51.00622 E2.11417 Large tarmac car park with toilets.

Arlon Aire N49.69024 E5.81882 4 places. Max 48 hours. Free electricity, water, grey disposal.

Chalampe. N47.81386 E7.54086 Rhine side parking on outskirts of village. Intermarche for fuel and shopping.

Somaglia Service area N45.14258 E9.63356 on A1 20 miles south of Milan. Autogrill restaurant, toilets and showers available.

Vomano Service area N42.67194 E13.93961 on A14 north of Pescara, Autogrill restaurant, toilet and showers available. 

Vergina Aire N40.48514 E22.31957 170 miles east of Igoumenitsa. Tarmac car park, owner very helpful. €4 per night, electricity available if required.

Alexandroupoli municipal site N40.84686 E25.85617. €17.50 per night. Free wifi in 30 minute sessions. Good site before crossing into Turkey. Easy walk into town from site.

FUEL DEISE PRICESL.
French Supermarkets €1.42 per litre

French Autoroute €1.55 per litre

Luxembourg €1.22 per litre

Italian Autostrada €1.66 per litre. Many people now using the self service option which can be up to 8 cents cheaper than the attendant service. LPG available on many service areas.

Greece €1.52 per litre this is just an average.

TOLLS.
France. A4 Strasbourg €19.10

Switzerland SF40 for vignette for vehicles up to 3500kgs, we paid €35 for vignette at a service station just north of Basel on the A5.

Italy. Swiss border to Milan €4.60. Milan south to Bari north €56.60 this included 2 night stops on Autostrada.

Greece. A2 Igoumenitsa to Alexandroupoli €30.20 this is a 400 mile trip across northern Greece.

FERRY. We used the Ventouris ferries overnight crossing from Bari to Igoumenitsa. Depart 19.00hrs arr at 0730hrs. They will allow you to use the van overnight. Just a tip when you board the ferry wait until the mad rush by the cars to get on board is over before you board. Make sure that you are on to top (open deck) and look out for the refrigerated trucks that also park there. We have used this service a few times and the loading crew have always been very helpful. This is mainly a truck ferry, food is basic but cheap. Book a deck passage and campervan 6 metres €146. Try to avoid a Saturday crossing in either directions as they get very busy with trucks, any other day is a lot quieter.

OBSERVATIONS. 
We have got to the stage in life were we do things for comfort/convenience rather than economy. The route is tried and tested over the years, we have only used it in December/January and have never had any security problems where ever we have night stopped. The lowest temperature we had this year is +4C so no problem with freezing water pipes/tanks. 

We plan to cross into Turkey tomorrow 14/12/2011 hoping that the Greek border is open, Greek customs are staging some industrial action this week we hope we won’t get held up too long at the border.

Will post an update when we arrive in Turkey.

Safe travelling.

Don


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## coppo

Great info thanks Don.

Paul.


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## PAT4NEIL

Hi Don

Hopefully youre get across to Turkey without any trouble.

Enjoy the winter

Pat


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## jonesy1

Full marks for effort.

If ever I travel that way I shall look to this post for useful information.

Les.


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## Grizzly

Have a happy and a warm Christmas Don. Thanks for the info.

G


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## MaxandPaddy

Great info Don,thanks for taking the time to log it all down for us.
Have a great trip and a very Merry Christmas  .

Val


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## GypsyRose

Yeah, keep enjoying!! Thanks for that valuable information ....now we have changed our motorhome, this is something we would like to do as we just adore Greece!  
Have a truly wonderful Christmas and New Year, Ana and Paul x


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## bognormike

good to see the report, Don. Have a relaxing winter!


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## tonyt

bognormike said:


> good to see the report, Don. Have a relaxing winter!


Doesn't he put us to shame sometimes!

Nice one Don - enjoy every moment.


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## aldra

Bookmarked

Brilliant Don

May follow in your footsteps

Aldra


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## nicholsong

Don

Thanks, keep it coming.

Kalou Taxidi and Happy Christmas.

Where on Christmas Day?

Geoff


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## sparky20006

Wow get you Don!

Sounds like your doing what we all should be doing.


And I thought I was kind of adventurous!
Godspeed mate.  

Paul.


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## Don_Madge

Glad you found the info useful.

Have arrived at our rented cottage at Keciler near Fetheyi. Had a very good trip out, will do a write up of the Turkey part and post it on the Turkey forum.

Don


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## barryd

Very useful Info Don as usual. Im pleased your posting on this as I reckon this trip might be our next adventure, hopefully backend of next year.

I would be interested to know what the weather is like along the way

Thanks again


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## mattnlaura

Tried to catch the ventouris bari to igoumenitsa ferry yesterday only to be told they have no boat today and tomorrow's has no space so we should use superfast instead. 
Superfast wanted 519 euros for the same trip! The difference being that they don't allow you to sleep in the van, you must book a cabin. 
We're now booked onto the ventouris service on Saturday so fingers crossed the boat turns up this time! For us it was a no brainer, pay 519 and go now or pay 147 and go on Saturday, so were now camped up on the beach! 

Just thought id share this experience in case anybody was thinking of using this route. Id recommend booking a day or two in advance instead of just turning up.


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