driving uk to burgas via italy/greece ferry any help?

Hi Jerry,
I did this about eight years ago in a high top Tranny but started from Brittany in France.
Look at Calais, Reims, Dijon, Lyon, Grenoble, Frejus tunnel, Torino, Piacenza, Ancona for the ferry to Igoumenitsa in Greece thenThessoloniki  and E75 to Bulgaria. It was a great trip and the ferry made a nice change. Good nights sleep, breakfast and seeing the sealife in the early morning through the Greek islands.
I have been thinking about doing it again from the UK but having a problem finding a ferry to accept the van this time. They seem to have camper vans and caravans but don't come back with a price for panel vans. The first time I just turned up at the port and didn't have a problem but it's a long trek to get there and can't get on.
Ian

hi ian
many thanks
where were the best places to rest up
is there a web site for the ferry for bookings?
jerry

Hi Jerry,
I only stop for fuel and food so I never needed any rest stops and knowing I would have a bunk on the ferry was enough. If you need hotels I used to use a couple in France on occasion I think there was Formula One and another that I can't remember at the mo.You shouldn't have a problem finding somewhere.
Here's the link for the ferries, the high speed seems to take only cars and the other wouldn't come back with a fare for the van. They have camper vans on there and minibus so I don't know the problem, maybe just their website playing up.

url=http://www.minoan.it/en/routes-fares-timetable-minoan-lines/timetable-ferry-ancona-greece]Ferry[/url]

Good luck, it should be a nice trip.
Ian

Hi Jerry,  I did this trip late May this year, driving from Dover across to Dunkirk.  As we were not in a hurry, we made it in to a sort of holiday.  We stayed the first night in Belgium, near the German border.  2nd night we stayed at Karlsruhe. Then we traveled to Lake Constance and stayed at Friedrichshafen.  We had arranged to travel with Minoan Ferries from Venice to Igoumenitsa and as we had to book in at the terminal about midnight we decided to travel all the way from Friedrichshafen to Venice .
We got to Venice ok, to find there was no ferry.  It had been canceled and we were told we could have a refund or travel further to Ancona, apparently this is not an uncommon thing with Minoan, so my advice here is do not travel with them.

From Igoumenitsa we traveled via the motorway across Greece and crossed the Bulgaria border near to Kirkovo, then on to Kardzali.  This was a long trip from Igoumenitsa, but we had to be at our house before 8 am the following morning so we weren't able to stop for the night. 

When you cross the Greek/ Bulgaria border you need to stop to buy a Vignette for use whilst you are in Bulgaria.  Hope this helps you, but if I were to drive this way again, it would not be into Italy.  Yes, you do need to change the beam pattern on your lights and in addition to the things to carry, you will need a fire Extinguisher.  There are no services between Igoumenitsa and Thessaloniki.

thats great
just found an auto route which looks easy enough
www.viamichelin.co.uk
going from dunkirk to bg via italy
many thanks for the info re lights etc

bought 2 lhd vans both packed up on me
so not sure of next step atm