Lessons learned
Seven mistakes we made on our first month-long rail pass
Reservation fees, wasted travel days, missed connections and a bag that was too heavy: what went wrong on our first rail pass trip and how to avoid it.
Topic · 4 stories
Budgets
Real trip costs, line by line, rounded and dated. Where the money went and where we would cut next time.
Budgets
What three months in the Balkans actually cost, line by line
Our real budget for a month each in Belgrade, Sarajevo and Tirana, travelling overland between them: rent, food, transport, work costs and the surprises.
Long stays
A month on the Alentejo coast, and why we went in June
Four weeks in a small Portuguese coastal town: getting there without a car, a week-by-week rhythm, the wind nobody warned us about and what the month cost.
Rail routes
Belgrade to the Adriatic by rail: eleven hours, 250 tunnels, then the sea
The Belgrade to Bar line, leg by leg: what the journey is really like, where to sit, what to bring and what it cost us in late spring.