Do you also hate being not independent and can’t travel exactly the way you should like to? Then you HAVE to try making your own roadtrip. You can choose your own path and travel each place on your own pace. You can choose to witch country of city you would like to travel and with who. Going on a roadtrip is the best way to discover each and every destination on your bucket list.

 In this blog I would like to inform you and give you tips from my own experience so that you can enjoy your roadtrip as much as I did.

Planning your ideal roadtrip

Planning your own roadtrip is not a joke, depending on how far you would like to travel it is very important that you can rely on your vehicle, you have the option to travel by car or by motorcycle. The first step is to choose how you would like to travel, I did it with a Honda CR-V, which was ideal for us, due to the fact that this car is a SUV, which comes in really handy when you are travelling through rough terrain. We started two weeks before our leave with the preparations on our car. It is really important to check the engine, tires, suspensions, all the liquids of the car and the brakes. Please check your car carefully because safety is the most important aspect during your trip. During your roadtrip you also need some products for your car, like engine oil, safety jackets, GPS-system, extra tire and lights. I personally also recommend having a front camera if you are in an accident then you can always prove how the accident happened, and a steering wheel lock, so it is impossible to steal the car. Please check this link for all the car preparations you have to think about.

Next to this aspect, now can all the fun begin!

From this moment on you are your own tour guide! You are the one who chooses the direction and destination. During my roadtrip we went from Oosterhout, the Netherlands to the capital of Armenia: Yerevan. The reason why we wanted to make this roadtrip is because we wanted to see more of Europe and some of its lesser known regions and travelling through Turkey, we had the opportunity to see old Armenian cities, that was our highlight of the trip.

Duration of the trip

As shown in the first picture it is possible to travel from A to B within 60 hours, this is something we didn’t do, because we wanted to take our time and enjoy every little thing on the road, we could stop when, where and how we wanted to. We spend over 13 days travelling from the Netherlands to Armenia, with some de-tours.

The roadtrip starts

The first day of our roadtrip was to my opinion the most boring, due to the fact that we had to travel to Vienna, this took us over 12 hours to be there, so when we finally arrived at our hotel we went to the city of Vienna to eat and have a goodnight rest. The next day we left the car by our hotel and we explored Vienna by foot. Our plan was to return to the hotel in the evening and travel the next day to the capital of Slovenia, due to the fact that this city is really close by Vienna, and really beautiful. Underneath are some pics of our stay in Vienna. For your information: you need a small license for your vehicle, otherwise it is not possible to travel throw Germany and Austria with your vehicle.

Visiting Bratislava was one of the highlights during this roadtrip, in the center of the city is an enormous citadel, with a classic museum within. It only took us 45 minutes to travel from Vienna to Bratislava. We were in advance of our schedule so we decided that we also could travel to a nearby castle on the border with Austria and Slovakia. We spend the night in already our next capital: Budapest.

When we arrived in Budapest we went to our hotel and have an evening walk through the city centre of Budapest.

The following morning, we spend the entire day in Budapest exploring the beauty of the city, and its friendly people. We travelled by metro which was ideal for us due to the fact that the metro stops near every highlight of the city. We didn’t expect that Budapest was such a beautiful city and so big, we really enjoyed being there and we would like to visit this country once more. We also spend a second night in the city, and in the following morning we decided to travel again to our next capital: Belgrade. This was to my opinion the least favorite city on our roadtrip, there is not much to do in Belgrade. The only highlight we visited was the old fortress of Belgrade with its military museum within, the weird thing was that there was also a dinosaur museum next to the fortress. We decided to change our schedule and drive a little bit longer that day so we could spend the night in Sofia, so we did. During this point we were getting a little bit tired of driving for such a long period, therefore we choose to book a little bit of a fancier hotel and slept longer so we had lots of energy for the following day. This was a good call and we felt much better the next day. That day we enjoyed visiting Sofia, with its beautiful church.

The next day we wanted to cross the border with Turkey, we found out that the normal borderline was really crowded and we had to wait for over 8 hours, so we decided to choose the borderline that is near the Black Sea, which also gave us the opportunity to experience the black sea by ourselves.  The funny thing was that we saw a small Armenian church on the tiny town that was near the Black Sea.

That night we also decided to travel throw Istanbul and sleep in a small hotel in the area, due to the fact that Istanbul was an enormous city where it was difficult for us to leave the car somewhere. The next day was the most difficult day of our roadtrip, we had to travel over fourteen hours to finally stay in Erzurum. We only slept in Erzurum, because we wanted to leave early in the morning towards Van. We spent a long day near the lake of van and also visited the small Island of Van.

In this area we almost spend a week, we really wanted to see as much as possible of this region, and its old cities. The following country we visited was Georgia, this is due to the fact that the border between Armenia and Turkey is closed, so we had to travel through Georgia to visit Armenia. This was not a problem for us because Georgia is a really beautiful country. We really enjoyed travelling through Georgia on our roadtrip, because of the really green and beautiful nature that region has to offer. After staying one day in Georgia, we finally reached our goal and we arrived in Yerevan, Armenia. After the roadtrip we spent two more weeks in Armenia, exploring the country and we joined a wedding there.

Evaluation of the roadtrip

We really enjoyed travelling so far by car, it gave us some much freedom and we were also able to make some changes during our trip, that was ideal for us. We didn’t have one moment that we didn’t like the roadtrip and we didn’t have any problems with the car. Therefore, it is really essential to be 100% prepared when you are planning to make your own roadtrip. We have enjoyed our stay and would like to make another roadtrip in the future, of course when there are no longer issues with the COVID_19 virus. I would like to plan a roadtrip in the future through Russia, I would like to explore more of the country and I also would like to learn more about the country, its nature, cuisine and different kind of people living there. I would like to visit St. Petersburg and Moscow during this roadtrip.

 

I personally really enjoyed writing this informative piece for you, and I really hope you have enjoyed it as well, please contact me if you want to make this roadtrip or if you have any questions regarding this roadtrip or making your own one. Please keep in mind that the sky is the limit during your roadtrip and that you are in lead. Always be responsible and take your time while you are driving. Stop sometimes next to the road and try to really take in the environment where you are at that moment, making a roadtrip is really all about the journey and not the destination. Also do not take your schedule to serious it is not possible to always be on time and you should never hurry while travelling your own roadtrip.

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