Ferry to Bari Advice

Mikehi

Well-Known Member
#1
I need to return from the Greece RTE via Italy. As I need to visit Rome I am planning on a ferry from Igoumenitsa to Bari. I am though intrigued by the prospect of a visit to Albania and a ferry from Durres to Bari. Am keen to hear from anyone who has experience of /insights into either route (especially the Durres one).
thanks,
Mike
 

jaybee

Latvian rider transport!!!!!!
Premier Member
#2
Hi Mike,
I did this exact crossing about 5 years ago so it could have changed but:
- Albania is full of police using their own crap cars and hiding behind bushes looking to supplement their income.
- check your insurer covers Albania.....probably will but if not you can get your piece of paper at the border.
- mafia drive around at high speed in shiny new black SUVs.
- Petrol is plentiful with shiny forecourts only a few miles apart.
- watch out for abandoned crashed cars. This is the Albanian spare parts service.
- get a jet wash from a peasant with an old Karcher washer feeding from a dirty puddle.
- Durres used to have a gigantic trash mountain close to the centre of town because they had no way of getting rid of the rubbish.
- ferry booking office and terminal used to be a couple of battered portakabins in a dirt car park. This may have changed.
- watch out for aggressive locals trying to force you into buying smuggled cigarettes etc.
- ferry itself wasn't as cheap as I would have expected but the boats are modern and the crossing itself easy.
- timetable used to be quite limited so check that too.
- smile at all the uk registered cars with busted door locks. Nearly all used to be Mercedes.

Sounds grim and I thought it was but was never worried about personal safety just my wallet's.
 

Winglider

Ex-Wiinglider
IBA Member
#3
Hi Mikehi

I have done the Igoumenitsa to Bari crossing, when I done the RTE to Thessaloniki.

I am afraid there is nothing to write home about either port apart from that there is fantastic new Port building in Igoumenitsa.
That the very large stray dogs come into, to get out of the sun.

And a new motorway that has been built. (probably with European money) to get the lorries away from Igoumenitsa. Which was a mass of road works as they have dug up the main road through the town to resurface it, (to be fair, that was 3 to 4 years ago so if they are anything like the civil engineers in my home town of Brighton they should be getting very close to completion by now.)
The really really good news is that there in only a few trucks on the new motorway, and when you leave the port it doesn’t take long to overtake them all.

When you arrive at Bari once you are out of the town, again the roads on the south east coast of Italy are long flat and straight and empty. (What did the Romans do for us ?)
On my way back I made the mistake of cutting across to Naples and then taking the A1 & A2 motorways north. This was very busy especially near Rome.

If you have not ridden in Italy before you will soon find out that the Italians seem to like to overtake (what am I saying "seem to like to overtake")
I mean its not life and death, it's a lot more serious than that. To overtake to them must be like winning the FA cup or ??

( I am now sitting here thinking of what I can write just to try to explain how important it is that they have to get past you, and words are not enough. it has got to be an emotional or even a spiritual thing, I blame the Pope).

If you are riding at say 80 to 85 mph as I was, and have left a reasonable safety gap to the car in front. It seems that it is gods given right for them to get past you, to fill it straight away. The normal method of trying to achieve this is to sit within two feet to 18inches (sorry 609mm to 457mm sorry forgot we are in Italy) behind you blearing there horn and making lots of hand gestures (some I think were not very pleasant) to get you to move out the way. The strange thing is it actually works at first, but you soon get used to it. The horn tooting increases and the hand signals get more articulate.

The other odd thing is that when the traffic dose slow down (which it will especially around Rome) all the motorcycles/scooters ride on the hard shoulder, I did not know whether this was legal so I stayed on the proper lanes and listened to the medley of car & truck horns.
Also the way they have built the hard shoulder is on the wrong side of the motorway the right side ( if you get what I mean), very strange.

Oh and most important thing going back to the ferry, do not order a reclining seat in a sleeping lounge unless you are prepared to drink very large volumes of alcohol or sniff a cement bag size baggie of barbiturates (a drug that acts as a central nervous system depressant, and can therefore produce a wide spectrum of effects, from mild sedation to total anesthesia) I looked that up.
You will not sleep they are to full of noisy Italian Kids.

Get a cabin.!!!

Or pick a spot on a stair case, you still don’t sleep but it is quieter.

PS The ferry was 2 hours late arriving at Igoumenitsa and 3 hrs late arriving at Bari

Other than that it's fine.:cool::cool:

Have a great time
Steve (Winglider) :)
 

jaybee

Latvian rider transport!!!!!!
Premier Member
#5
Until Albania is part of the EU, it will continue to be a country with a chasm separating the haves and the have-nots. It will be an experience regardless and I would re-iterate: I didn't see any overt police corruption. What I said about using their own cars is true; there is no money for actual police cars. What I said about them hiding behind bushes etc., is also true but my buddy and I rode from Podgorica in Montenegro through to Durres at the speed limit and no one hassled us at all.......other than the smugglers in the ferry port.
However, I am sure that once Albania has sucked up a few billion of subsidy - more than some of which will find its way into mafia pockets - it might be different. Hopefully we will have long gone by then.
I don't regret doing it - put it that way.
 

JON12A

IBAUK's retired Shop Keeper
Premier Member
IBA Member
#6
Just booked Igoumenitsa to Ancona on the new Minoen super fast ferry.
Leaves 1.00 am and arrives in Ancona at 3.30 pm same day.
If you want a cabin its not cheap but it gives me the option of a different route home .
 

Mikehi

Well-Known Member
#7
Thanks for all the input. If I can sort out the insurance I will go via Albania. Will be good to see the place and looking at the schedules, it gets me into Bari 2 hours before the Greek ferry