We decided to go exploring Greece by van in June, just 2 days before the end of school. First, it was necessary to check what conditions the Greeks have to enter their country. At the time, entry into Greece was limited to 4 border crossings: Promachonas, Ormenio and Nymfaia on the border with Bulgaria and Evzonoi on the border with Macedonia. However, not all of them were opened 24/7, so it was also necessary to plan the right time frame for arriving at the border. The openness of border crossings changes regularly, so it is mandatory to check this before leaving home.
To enter Greece, it was required to have either:
- a COVID-19 vaccination certificate showing completed vaccination (i.e., 14 days have elapsed since the last vaccination, depending on the doses required)
- a negative antigen (rapid) certificate from a test taken no longer than 48 hours before arrival
- a negative PCR certificate for a Covid-19 test taken no later than 72 hours before arrival
- a positive PCR molecular or antigen test result or medical certificate confirming that the holder was tested positive with SARS-CoV-2 virus infection (validity: 30 days after the day of the first positive COVID-19 test until 180 days after it)
In addition to the mentioned medical paperwork, you will need to announce your arrival in Greece through their online system.It is required for all tourists to fill in the so-called Passenger Locator Form (PLF) before arriving in Greece. First, you will be asked to register an account and then to CORRECTLY fill in the form (one form per family / traveling group). However, be aware that the form has to be submitted at least a day before your arriving date! An incredibly important info is also the fact, that you will receive your form with the QR code in PDF on your email account only after midnight, on the morning of your planned arrival to Greece. The good news is that it is not required to have the form printed on paper but is enough to have it in digital form on your phone/tablet/PC. However, as you will probably be already on the road by the time of the form receipt, downloading a pdf document from e-mail via mobile data in a non-EU country can cost you a lot (≈12 EUR per MB). Due to the proximity of the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, the mobile signal can jump to a non-EU network earlier - on half way on the Croatian highway. Some caution is advised, as we are all a little spoiled today and are used to have mobile data turned on all the time. So, how do you get the required document from your email without extra cost? On the Serbian motorway, quite a few petrol stations provide free WiFi connection. For this purpose, we stopped at an OMV service station, where we quickly and without worries downloaded the document.
What about transitioning through other countries?
Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia do not require any additional documents or certificates for transit passengers. They asked us where we were going and checked our IDs. Serbs and Macedonians really liked our BANDA license plate, and the Serbian customs officer even joked about how many of us were in the van😊
On the road
We decided to enter Greece via the Evzonoi border crossing (Gevgelija on the Macedonian side). Since we underwent a rapid Covid-19 test on Wednesday afternoon, we had to be at the Greek border by Friday by 2 p.m. There are about 1185 km of highway from Koper (Slovenia) to Evzonoi.
We left home around 2pm after the kids arrived from school. We had a stop in Ljubljana, where we handed over our Cotton de Tulear Smoki to Miha's niece. She looked after him during our road trip. Our dog did not take a rabies titer test jet, which is required upon entry into Serbia or. more precisely, when returning to the EU, and was not allowed to travel through this country. Later, the decision to keep the puppy "at home" proved to be a good one, as in Greece puppies do not have access to any archeological site, even though it is all outdoors. There are also many stray dogs wandering around in Greece and would be very stressful having him along.
Waiting lines at border crossings
We waited about 40 minutes at the border crossing with Croatia (Brežice). To enter Serbia, we needed only 10 minutes, probably because of the late arriving hour. We waited another 40 minutes at the border with North Macedonia. After two hours of driving across North Macedonia to the Greek border, we had to wait something less than 1 hour to enter. We arrived to Greece at 2pm according to Greek time (GMT+3), as the day in Greece ends and starts one hour earlier then in Slovenia.
What about stops?
In addition to a few shorter toilet stops, we made 2 longer ones, both in Serbia. On the Serbian highway rest areas are very frequent (one every 10 km). While looking for a place to stop for the night, we noticed that at each rest area there were police cars with blue lights on. At first we found this very unusual but then we became curious. The first longer stop was a little further from Belgrade, where we stopped at midnight near motel Jerina and a video-monitored parking (GPS coordinates: N 44 ° 34 ′ 59.09 ″, E 20 ° 48 ′ 45.54 ″). The children had been sleeping for an hour at the time. The night was very peaceful and above all very safe. We were parked between a German motorhome and a police car 😊. In the morning, Miha satisfied his curiosity and asked the police officer why are they present at every rest area with the lights on all night. To the surprise of many, they are there to protect tourists who stop to rest overnight - so they are literally there for us. Hats off!
We continued our journey early in the morning and stopped in Leskovac at 8 am to have some excellent burgers! This was our second longer stop, and we spent there an hour and a half. I really recommend this stop especially to barbecue lovers; the food is delicious and cheap, and you can easily change money into local currency at the exchange office on the main street next to many barbecue restaurents/fast foods.
How much does a trip to Greece cost?
We did not count the cost of the Slovenian vignette, as we already had it and it was not purchased for the purpose of this trip. Other tolls to Greece: Croatian motorway: 27.29 EUR; Serbian motorway: 15.67 EUR; North Macedonian motorway: 6.17 EUR. We paid the toll with bank card, as this was the most convenient in terms of currency conversion, and at the same time we did not have to carry along cash in different currencies.
During our trip, fuel was the cheapest in Slovenia and later in Macedonia. We quickly checked the prices prior the departure on the AMZS webpage.We filled the tank in Brežice, and next time in North Macedonia. For the whole trip from Koper to Evzonoi, we spent 100 EUR on diesel fuel.
Useful webpages:
Conditions for entry into Greece, openness of border crossings and access to the PLF form for entry into Greece: https://travel.gov.gr/#/
Fuel price comparison by country: https://www.amzs.si/na-poti/cene-goriv-po-evropi
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