My girlfriend and I have returned from our two-week trip. We visited 9 countries, covered 6,800 kilometers, saw plains, mountains, lakes, seas, caves, rivers, waterfalls, coliseums, ruins, a concentration camp and dozens of other places.
As you can guess, we drove these 6,800 kilometers by car. We spent about 50+ hours behind the wheel. We also spent three nights in a car, which was prepared for such events.
Our route
Along the way we also met our friend Edgars, who had decided to go from Rucava (small city in Latvia) to Rome by bicycle. When I meet him, I thought that traveling by car is not that difficult. It is definitely easier to fly to a destination and go on organized excursions than to plan your own route, places to visit and accommodation.
I wanted to write this type of article for several reasons:
To remember the different events, the route and what was seen;
To identify travel costs and possibly compare them to the cost of traveling by plane;
To share the route, visited places and costs of this type of trip with you.
We included two disc golf courses in our route, as this is my favorite hobby in last two years. We played disc golf at the Parco Lambro course in Milan, Italy, and at the Platak Disc Golf course in Croatia. In these countries, this sport is definitely not so popular as in USA or Latvia
Certainly the most interesting part for readers are the costs, which is usually either hidden or simply not counted after travel to save heartache for the money spent. So, our total spending was 2209 euros.
If we look at costs for each department, the costs were as follows:
- Fuel costs: 580 €
- Ferry costs: 80 €
- Food: 600 €
- Sightseeing tickets: 160 €
- Accommodation: 466 €
- Toll roads and parking: 137 €
- Currency exchange: 66 €
- Spent in cash: 120 €
Total spent: 2209 €
In conclusion, traveling by car is relatively expensive and a bit exhausting (I drove 500km on average) . The positive is that there is more flexibility – you can go where and when you want and see much more.
As I mentioned, we had prepared the car so that we could spend the night in it if necessary. We used this opportunity three times. We were very happy with all the places we found on the airbnb platform. We stayed in Rome at Hotel Chicago – a hotel of the 1990s style, because we could not “check in” through the booked apartments. We were not really to blame for this delay, so we got our money back for the reservation from Booking.com.
A very convenient thing nowadays is self check-in, when there are keys somewhere near the apartments and you can pick them up yourself. Arrival at such apartments cannot be missed, so it is a very convenient option if you do not know the time of arrival clearly.
| Day | Stops | km | Where we spent night | What we saw |
| Day 1 | Riga, Latvia -> Lodz, Poland | airbnb apartments in Lodz | Manufaktūra, pedestrian street | |
| Day 2 | Lodz, Poland -> Czechia -> Attersee, Austria | In car by the Atersee lake in Austria | Kreuzensyein CastleAttersee | |
| Day 3 | Attersee, Austria -> Lago di Braies, Italy | In car by the Lago Di Braies in Italy | AtterseeSalzburg
Hallstatt Eisriesenwelt Lago di Braies |
|
| Day 4 | Lago di Braies, Italy -> Lake Garda, Italy | airbnb apartments nearby lake Garda | Lago di BraiesCortina d’Ampezzo
Venice Lake Garda |
|
| Day 5 | Lake Garda, Italy -> Pisa, Italy | In car by the sea in Pisa, Italy | Lake GardaMilano Disk Golf
Genoa Pisa |
|
| Day 6 | Pisa, Italy -> Roma, Italy | Hotel Chicago Roma | PisaVolterra
Ficulle (Satikām Edgaru) Orvieto (saulespuķu bildes) Bsilica of Saint Praxedes Roma Coleseum Foro di Augusto Foro di Cesare Foro Romano Palatino Roma Arco di Tito Roma Altar della Patria Circo Massimo |
|
| Day 7 | Roma, Italy -> Ancona, Italy -> Split, Croatia | Ancona -> Split ferry | AnconaMaza pilsētiņa, kur kafiju padzērām, apēdām saldējumu | |
| Day 8 | Split, Croatia | airbnb apartments in Split, Croatia | Kasjuni pludmale
Splitas vecpilsēta |
|
| Day 9 | Split, Croatia -> Makarska, Croatia | airbnb apartments in Split, Croatia | SplitOmiš
Makarska Podgora Satikts vietējais draugs Nikola |
|
| Day 10 | Split, Croatia -> Senj, Croatia | airbnb apartments in Senj, Croatia | SplitSalona
Plitvica Senj |
|
| Day 11 | Senj, Croatia -> Platak Disk Golf, Croatia | Room in Platak | SenjPula Arena
Platak Disk Golf |
|
| Day 12 | Platak Disk Golf, Croatia -> Slovenia-> Italia -> Austria -> Bratislava, Slovakia | airbnb apartments in Bratislav, Slovakia | Platak Disk GolfSkocjan Caves
Bratislava |
|
| Day 13 | Bratislava, Slovakia -> Czechia -> Lodz, Poland | airbnb apartments in Lodz | BratislavaOswiecim (Aušvica)
Lodz Satikta vietējā draudzene Kasia |
|
| Day 14 | Lodz, Poland -> Riga, Latvia | Home sweet home | LodzLatvia |
If you have come this far, here are some pictures from our trip:
-
- Skocjan underground caves – the third largest in the world!
-
- Underground caves in Skočjan, Slovenia
-
- Hallstatt, Austria – This place was copied by the Chinese because it was considered the most instagramic place in the world
-
- Somewhere in Dolomite mountains
-
- Lago di Braies in Italy
-
- Venice, Italy
-
- Roadrunner, hillclimber
-
- Roman Colosseum
-
- Beautiful coastal views in Croatia, near the tourist town of Pisak
-
- Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland concentration camp
-
- An important meeting with local bosses in Łódź, Poland
-
- By boat along Lake Braies in Italy
-
- Who will be smarter at the Leaning Tower of Pisa
-
- Plitvice Nature Park, Croatia
We saw so much that after two weeks it is already difficult to remember all the places we were at. The most striking impressions have probably remained from the Auschwitz concentration camp. This place definitely makes you think about how good are the times that we live in, how comfortable we live, how safe we live and how inhuman people can be to each other.
Of the nature, I liked the underground caves of Skočjan the best. There, through a huge underground cave, flows a river. The moisture has formed huge stalagmite formations, which are quite impressive. I love the mountains – they are so different and so powerful! When we reached the mountains, I was fascinated even by the smallest ones, but when we came to the “real ones”, with summits decorated with a snow cover, I was totally excited! The crystal clear water in the mountain lakes, when you can see what is happening even 10 meters under water, now it is beautiful!
If I have to choose one favorite country, it is definitely Croatia. I was there for the first time two years ago, but I couldn’t wait to get back there because nature there is so beautiful!
