The Trip: Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia

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This was published 6 years ago

The Trip: Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia

By Pat Gaudry
The Old Town of Dubrovnik, Croatia.

The Old Town of Dubrovnik, Croatia.

THE TRIP

NAME Pat Gaudry from Gordon, and Joy van der Poorten from Killara, NSW

THE TRIP Albania, Montenegro, Croatia & Slovenia with GATE1 travel.

Pat Gaudry.

Pat Gaudry.

ITINERARY

We flew via Abu Dhabi and Rome to Tirana in Albania. The bus trip with GATE1 started in Albania and went via mountains, forests, coast, caves and lakes to finish in Bled, Slovenia. We flew home from Ljubljana via Belgrade and Abu Dhabi. The connections were excellent and the whole journey took less than two weeks. In late May the weather was perfect and tourist numbers were manageable.

GATE1 is a large US tour company recently arrived in Australia. Its logo is, "More of the world for less". It achieves economies in costs by booking large numbers of tourists.

Our travel companions had used GATE1 numerous times as it offered good value with a quality trip.

We found GATE1 was very professional. The tour route was well planned, taking us to five UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We visited ancient Venetian towns on the Adriatic, national parks with stunning lakes in Montenegro, Postojna caves and Plitvice Lakes in Croatia and beautiful Lake Bled in Slovenia.

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The hotels were of excellent standard, with buffet breakfasts. Our bus driver was careful negotiating narrow winding roads. Our leader was organised, conscious of his schedule for meeting local tour guides.

The guests were rotated daily in seats in the bus. Bags were delivered to, and collected from, hotel rooms at no cost.

BEST BITS Outstanding old towns of Dubrovnik, Split, and Trogir on the Adriatic, caves at Postojna, Plitvice Lakes, and Bled in Slovenia. Excellent regional food at affordable prices.

WORST BITS Lack of public toilets meant finding cafes to use their toilets. Several changes of currency and many border crossings.

Passengers were 90 per cent North American, 10 per cent Australian.

BEST TIP Participate in the optional extra excursions as they take you to interesting places, that are not easily accessible. Optional trips could be taken on the day and paid for at the end of the journey with credit card if not booked before.

WHERE TO NEXT Uzbekistan.

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