In the summer of 2019, we decided to go backpacking together. In the end, the choice landed on Eastern Europe. The “undiscovered” and adventurous Eastern Europe really attracted us and we wanted to experience this for ourselves. We list below our itinerary along with some practical tips.
Content of this blog:
Backpacking in Eastern Europe. You don’t hear that very often! A shame because it is really worth it. Therefore, below we share the route we took in 20 days.
Tip: We booked all of our accommodations well in advance through booking.com and airbnb.com. This was a good move because all hostels, hotels or apartments were fully booked all summer. All hostels and hotel stays are shared below.
Start backpacking in Belgrade (Serbia)
From Schiphol Airport we flew to Serbia’s capital, Belgrade. This is where our backpacking trip through Eastern Europe starts! Belgrade is a fairly quiet capital, where there is little chaos. Personally, we really liked starting in that kind of city. Here we spend a day and a half, and to be honest, this is just enough.
A must to visit in Belgrade is the fortress, in the Kalemegdan district. Here you can enjoy the view, and watch the Danube and Sava rivers converge. It’s also a great spot for a picnic, so be sure to bring some goodies. Many stalls selling souvenirs can be found in the surrounding park during the day. A nice place to cool off in the shade.
Furthermore, it is very nice to go out for an evening meal in the Skadarlija district. This is because many cozy restaurants are located here, also many musicians pass by, and there is even a real theater act reenacted on the street.
In Belgrade, we stayed overnight at Hostel Fair and Square. This was within walking distance of downtown and close to bus stops. We also paid only €20 for 2 nights in a double room in high season. For this price, you even have your own bathroom and toilet.
Train trip Belgrade to Bar
From Belgrade, we caught the train to Bar in Montenegro. This 12-hour train journey is labeled as (one of) the most beautiful train journeys in Europe. A train leaves in the morning around 9 a.m., as does the night train in the evening. Normally we are big fans of night trains but in this case you miss so many beautiful views that we really recommend traveling during the day.
Bar/Sutomore (Montenegro)
We chose not to spend the night in Bar but in Sutomore, a nearby village. The reason we chose Sutomore is because it would be a little less touristy than Bar. Once we arrived in Sutomore, it turned out that was no longer the case. There is a long promenade where all the restaurants are located by the water. Nevertheless, Sutomore is a wonderful place to stay.
In Sutomore, you can climb to a beautiful viewpoint and otherwise relax on the beach at the nice cafes. The best place to stay is at Sasa Appartments. Located 100 meters from the center, you have your own apartment with all the necessities and is available from €25 per night!
Kotor (Montenegro)
After the 48 hours full of rain, we looked forward to sunshine in Kotor. Fortunately, it was only a 2-hour bus ride from Sutomore so we were there in no time. For us, Kotor turned out to be the very best town of our trip through Eastern Europe. When you go backpacking in Eastern Europe, don’t skip Kotor! Also read this article with the 5 best activities in Kotor.
Accommodation in Kotor is expensive. For a nice double room, you will soon pay over €70. We chose Guesthouse Bit Accomodation where we paid €42 a night for a double room. It was a simple room but the location is perfect. Located in the middle of downtown between the city walls. Highly recommended to book here in Kotor!
Split (Croatia)
From Kotor we catch the bus to Split which leaves at 7 a.m. We have passport control a total of 4 times because we enter Croatia from Montenegro, then Bosnia and then Croatia again. As a result, the drive takes a very long time but around 3:30 p.m. we then arrive in Split.
What is fun to do is to take a ferry from Split to a nearby island such as Hvar, Brac or Solta. We ourselves have been on the island of Solta. This was very beautiful and undiscovered, but because of this, there were hardly any buses running and we were also unable to rent motorbikes or bicycles. So if you want to see more of the island than just the port, I recommend renting bikes in advance and taking them on the boat. We have listed the best activities in Split: from popular activities to unknown sights.
Another thing I really liked about Split was that there were finally large supermarkets. In the evening we bought a nice salad, some tomatoes and a sandwich that we could eat on the beach. So you can enjoy the setting sun and also play a game with a nice view. This was also good for our budget because backpacking through Eastern Europe is not as cheap as in Asia. For more tips, check out the best hotels in Split.
Krka National Park (Croatia)
After Split, we continued our backpacking trip through Eastern Europe further north, namely to the Krka National Park in Skradin. This is one of the most famous natural parks in Croatia and is flooded by millions of tourists every year. Especially in the summer it is bursting with people, but we wanted to take a look anyway. After all, if so many people visit it, it must be special, right?
We stayed overnight in the village of Dubravice, 8 kilometers from Skradin. The bus drops us off in Skradin and after enjoying an ice cream we want to get to our accommodation but how should we get there? There is only a bus in the morning around 7 a.m. and evening 6 p.m., and there are no (running) cabs in the area either. Fortunately, the host is willing to pick us up after we ask him for help over the phone. The following days showed that we needed it every time we wanted to go to Skradin (which unfortunately was often because there was no restaurant in Dubravice). This is why I recommend that people traveling around Croatia without a car look for accommodation in Skradin, so you don’t have to go back and forth that often like we did.
If you do travel by car, our accommodation does come highly recommended. We stayed in Guest accomodation Grozdanic. This is run by an incredibly nice family, they grow their own fruits and vegetables, which you get with breakfast in the morning. This breakfast is SO comprehensive and prepared with love. There is also a swimming pool with sun beds that you may use throughout the day.
The Krka National Park was really beautiful. Since 2020, due to destruction of nature, swimming in the famous waterfall below is no longer allowed.
To get to the Krka National Park, leave by boat from Skradin. During the boat trip you already get a small impression of the area. Beautiful green/blue water and lots of forests. After you arrive, you can embark on a small route through the park, where you will walk at a sucker’s pace behind all the other tourists. This can sometimes be annoying but yes, you are a tourist yourself! After half an hour/hour of walking, you will arrive back at the starting point. Here you can visit many food stalls and also get ice cream. If you don’t want to sunbathe on a towel like the rest of the crowd but want to see more of the park, you can follow a path that leads along the forest and where you eventually arrive at a large spot by a lake. Here you can’t swim but you can lounge on your towel without hundreds of other people around you.
We ended up liking having seen Krka National Park once, but we are looking forward more to our upcoming destination, which is the Plitvice Lakes!
Plitvice Lakes (Croatia)
So after the first national park, it was now time for the second. Fortunately, this was another good bus connection because after 2 hours we got off at the Plitvice Lakes.
To visit the Plitvice Lakes, you must purchase your tickets online (preferably) at least 48 hours in advance. Do so through this website.
All in all, we found Plitvice Lakes much more enjoyable and less crowded than Krka National Park. This is also because the Plitvice Lakes is many times larger and works with a time slot. As a result, you don’t just run with the flow. So even in the high season it is reasonable in terms of other tourists, whereas in Krka this was a big disappointment. In this article, read all the information about your visit to the Plitvice Lakes.
Bled (Slovenia)
After the beautiful hiking in the Plitvice Lakes, it was time for relaxation. We sought this out in the town of Bled in Slovenia where we slept in this too-crazy cabin at a glamping site and rowed a rowboat to Bled Castle in the middle of the lake. This was one of the highlights while backpacking in Eastern Europe. Curious about the tips for Bled and want to know more about this too-cute cabin with jacuzzi? Then read more about this romantic overnight stay.
Budapest (Hungary)
After our fine stay in Bled, it is already time for our last destination of our backpacking trip through Eastern Europe: Budapest. From Bled, we depart by train to Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana. Here we have 1.5 hours of transfer time before our Flixbus leaves for Budapest. Therefore, we eat a delicious pad thai next to the station.
At Bled station, don’t be told that you can’t go to Budapest via Ljubljana. In fact, they wanted to send us to Budapest via Vienna, which would cost us €75 per person and 1.5 days. Fortunately, we didn’t do this because we ended up spending a total of €25 per person and 8 hours for the train to Ljubljana and bus to Budapest.
In Budapest, we had a perfect hostel right in the center. The rooms here were very nicely decorated and exactly what you needed. We really liked the quality of the rooms, especially considering the low price we paid for them. Highly recommended is therefore Easyhotel Budapest Oktogon.
Because the hotel is right in the center, you can walk to most hot spots. Still, it is also fun and convenient to buy 1 day ticket for the hop on hop off bus. This way you can easily get to the Citadella (beautiful viewpoint over the city) and to the Széchenyibad (largest thermal bath in Budapest) which, by the way, is very nice, even though it is always enormously crowded.
The Great Market Hall is also great fun to visit in Budapest. This market is completely covered, but with so many cute stalls. Typical Hungarian products are offered here such as dried meat and goulash but you can also find many kinds of fruits, souvenirs, t-shirts and much more. Very nice to walk through for just under an hour and enjoy your surroundings. The location of the large market hall is near the shopping streets, so when you are looking for some new clothes you can still take a look here.
Return trip
Budapest is our last destination. A perfect end to backpacking through Eastern Europe. Look here for more inspiration and all our travel itineraries.
