Traveling Through Europe with Children

Traveling through Europe with children – a detailed itinerary, personal tips, recommendations. Milda’s family traveled with their two boys and described each day of their trip. Milda’s trip through Europe with children can also be your family’s itinerary for an autumn trip or a plan for next summer’s trip.

Traveling through Europe with children. Route: Lithuania – Poland – Czech Republic – Austria – Slovenia – Croatia – Bosnia Herzegovina – Montenegro – Bosnia Herzegovina – Croatia – Slovakia – Poland – Lithuania.

Due to the uniqueness of the route and the conveyance of emotions – we leave the text as Milda recorded the everyday. The route description is not short, but full of emotions and experiences – we hope you will like it, and it will also be very useful when planning a trip around Europe with children by car.

A trip through Europe with children is the beginning

I promised to share my impressions, observations from our completely spontaneous (a couple of weeks ago) “Eurotrip” trip. So I’m keeping my promise and writing a daily diary of our trip.

The final destination is Montenegro. Eight European countries are planned on the way.

The journey through Europe with children begins – we left Kaunas on a wonderful Friday evening. I was afraid of driving at night, but it really wasn’t as bad as I expected. I drunk too much coffee too late and music suitable for travel proved to be very useful, but such a small thing as uncomfortable (too warm) socks turns out to be very annoying. Driving at night is wonderful, if only because you have a lot of time to think. A lot of road works (both in Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic), so the road is not boring.

Instead, all possible difficulties are redeemed by the morning – at least on the first morning, it was so indescribably beautiful: the sky was dotted with various pink patterns, the lowlands were drowned in fog, only the tops of bushes or straw rolls scattered in the fields were sticking out here and there. And then the mischievous sun starts peeking through the side mirror and can’t look back, because whoever sees it – sees nothing else for a while…

This morning alone would have been enough for me to understand why we keep voluntarily leaving our comfort zone, keep moving somewhere. I drove and thanked everyone for the fact that I got to experience such a wonderful life.

The first stop is the Czech Republic

Lower Morava

The first pre-booked stop was Dolny Morava, Czech Republic. The earliest time to book tickets was 10 a.m., we were there before 9 a.m. in the morning, we freely parked the car in the nearest parking lot P5 and were the first at the lifts, which turned out to be open from 9 am. and works. It is enough to scan your ticket everywhere, they do not pay much attention to the registration time (as we understood).

We took the lifts (where skiers are lifted), they are open like that, the only problem is that everything happens very quickly, we barely had time to seat the children, jump in ourselves and pull the protective “frame” while moving up. I don’t know what would have happened if they hadn’t managed to lower him, somehow the guards appeared, because the height is really quite high, and Majus (our little one), if he was more agile/disobedient, could have safely climbed down through that guard. But still, a new experience for children is fun.

When prompted, there are three options.

• Skywalk, i.e. a large open tower, where you can go up a spiral unstable staircase, but it is possible (especially relevant for children) to speed up the journey with various intermediate nets, closed or similar tunnels. We regretted that we didn’t book tickets for it, but even with time, we were quite busy. There is a restaurant by the skywalk with a nice view, it only opens from 11 am in the morning, so it is not suitable for an early breakfast. There is also another restaurant, but the view is more focused on the trees and the bridge itself.
• The longest suspension bridge in the world.
• Sledding – Mammoth Alpinecoaster coaster;

Our experience

So we got up and went right to the longest suspension bridge in the world. The bridge itself is a public one. When you cross it, you have to go back on the forest road that goes around it.

It is important to go with not too many people and when there is not much wind. You walk between two mountains for 700 meters, well above the peaks of tall mountain fires. There is definitely enough time to enjoy the views, swings, etc. Our children were not comfortable, maybe even scared. I really do not recommend it to those who are afraid of heights. And for everyone else, why not?

The Mammoth Coaster

And here’s what I really recommend, it’s going down the Mammoth Alpinecoaster coaster.

We have been to Birštonas, Anykščiai and many other places. Here, everything is completely different. One thing for the amazing views. Second, this is a real ATTRACTION, only that you can adjust the speed. We all absolutely loved it.

I would have gone more than once, but the problem is the hiking. Although the price itself is quite small, you either have to hike 5 km up the mountain to get to it, or you have to go with the lifts. That already costs a lot. Plus, we only realized how right it was when we came back everything worked out for us here. That was because the line waiting for boarding was probably a couple of hours long.

All pitches were completely filled. Of course, the fact that it was Saturday, the weather was good, that alone had hundreds of mountain bikers waiting there.

Mladecki rocks

After that, according to the plan, we were supposed to stop at the Punkva caves (where you swim with the boat), but we didn’t have time to register and there were no places left. Therefore, we had to choose other caves (there are quite a few of them in the Czech Republic, you can see them on the website caves.cz), we chose Mladecki caves, because primitive people lived in them. After seeing “Krudžius” we had the opportunity to appreciate how they lived there (even without light), to see stalactites, stalagmites, etc. The downside is that the tour is only in the local Czech language (it gives information for reading and you can download an audio guide from the website) and it’s really cold (it was +30 degrees outside, 7 degrees at best inside).

Brno

After that, we still had to stop at Bouzov Castle, but due to road repairs, we couldn’t get to it comfortably. We stopped in Olomouc Old Town (very nice church!), and spent the rest of the evening in Brno. We did not spend the night for a long time, because the night passed without sleep after all. We sat down in the main square (they have added free chairs/beds everywhere – a very good idea), listened to the local “Sting” concert.

Booking.com

Second day – Austria and Slovenia

The Vienna Zoo

Today, the mileage is half as much as yesterday (only about 500 km), but we crossed the borders of three countries. First stop – the Vienna Zoo in Austria.

We went to the Zoo together with the crowd. We parked the car not at the main entrance of the Zoo, but in the parking lot on the other side and entered from the side of the park.

To be honest, when I think of Vienna, I associate it with wonderful parks, museums and opera. It is simply a sin to be in Vienna and not go to the park. So we shoot two bunnies, move past the Shonnbrun palace (it would be very nice to go there, but tickets must be booked in advance)and the park surrounding them with a wonderful fountain, flower beds, etc. leads to the oldest European zoo.

Feeling of the Zoo

It really doesn’t feel old, everything is neat and well-thought-out, we walk with others on a path marked with circular footprints, and we saw what we came for – all kinds of animals. But of course, when it’s +32 degrees outside, both their and our activity levels are significantly reduced, so most of them are sleeping or hiding in the shade. Morning would have been really better. Here we met something we had not seen anywhere else – a Panda. It’s true, she was eating all the time, and when she finished the food that was put to her, she took the bamboo, then the second bamboo, etc. While we walked around almost the entire zoo at a leisurely pace, somewhere around three hours passed. Of course, the children liked it.

Slovenia

The next stop was Maribor, Slovenia. We went around the old town, took a walk along the river (it’s a pity that the beautiful part is fenced off and under repair at the moment). We stopped to eat at the “Patrico bar”, after ordering some kind of strange burger on a long, long skewer, we all ate it (suitable for all tastes, because there are also fried vegetables and poultry, beef, pieces of minced meat and crispy potatoes. Comparing Maribor with Brno, I personally prefer the Slovenian city, something nicer, closer appeared.

And we spend the night in Zagreb that day, the intermediate stop is like this.

Third day – Croatia

And this morning near Zadar, we met the “wonderful” sounds of some crickets (well, not nightingales, really). The owner of the apartment has just brought a tomato the size of two of May’s palms, an onion, a pepper from his garden (for the salad, he said), candy for the children, and beer. We communicate in some intermediate language, but doesn’t it confuse…

So how was day three? At the beginning, we briefly explored Zagreb. Since my husband Egidijus had been there less than a year ago, we had a free guide. Impression? The guide is good, but I probably wouldn’t go to this city specifically, but as a place to stay/stop, it’s really not bad.

Plytvica

The next stop is Plytvica. Well, it is really difficult not to have a preconceived opinion when driving to it. This is like a visiting card of Croatia. And that’s how it is with that preconceived opinion – when you expect it to be beautiful and it is beautiful, you are not surprised unexpectedly. Well, but it’s really very beautiful! That turquoise water, the mountains, the beautiful wooden paths on the edges of the lake and the waterfalls (Arius counted 150 of them).

We entered through the first entrance (this is recommended and this is actually, in our opinion, the best). The service staff is super: they talked to our children and explained everything and gave them some books. They pay close attention to the time, if you made a reservation for e.g. 12 o’clock, then you need to enter within half an hour at the most, if you arrived earlier – you will wait for your time.

The Views and the Route

You see the view from above (most postcards) almost immediately after entering, and then you go down. We walked with sandals, we didn’t see such strange people anymore – everyone was with sneakers, but as the woman at the cash desk at the entrance said, it depends on the route you choose.

Our Routes

We, again according to the recommendation, chose route B, which is the shortest route (the shortest route A is very similar, but without boating and riding a bus, which for some reason was presented to us as a train.) We didn’t choose the longer ones – routes C and D, because we already would be too difficult (tracks are 8-18 km long).

It wasn’t slippery, dangerous, or too hot. After descending, you zigzag, or rather wait, in line on the bridge over the lake to turn around and see the big waterfall as you go around the mountain. Barriers are really not everywhere, the bridge, for me personally, is very beautiful. Then you will move along the lakes and coasts towards the boats that will take you to the train-bus, and after passing through the beautiful scenery, you will return to the beginning. Our kids said they really enjoyed it. If I were to go a second time, it would be out of season. And it’s really worth seeing/staying.

Zadar

The coast of Zadar welcomed us with the sun already setting, so we stopped at a couple of places to admire it.

We thought about spending the next couple of nights camping with tents, but in order to save space in the trunk, we gave up on this idea, so we settled in a local cabin on the island of Pag. It was very nice that they gave us a cover for the night, not only for us, but also for our car (to protect us from falling figs). We covered the children, the car and fell asleep.

Fourth day

Rest. Beaches, we went around the island of Pag, talked with the locals. It was a relaxing part of the trip. The beaches are more or less pebbled, they do not compare with our Baltic golden sand. However, the transparency and blueness of the water pleases the eyes. Water swings everywhere. Larger, more famous beaches have paid umbrellas, but you can also lie on your own towel nearby. There is often music playing on the beach (it’s just that they are much narrower, maybe that’s why you can hear them better). We went to check the Zrce beach, which is popular with the English, the host said that they come here from Zadar by taxi (70 km) to have fun: there are even two stages that take care of the music, and you can smell the fun in the air.

Povljana

We lived in Povljana – a small town, everything is in place. There is a small center that comes alive in the evenings and looks very cozy. Also two beaches, two churches, cafes, restaurants.

Of course, we didn’t realize that during Žolinės, such a big holiday, no shops would be open. We had to make do with what we had, and in the evening we went to eat at the Mornar (“fisherman”) restaurant 10 steps away. There, we ate FANTASTIC squid!!!

We all ate, both I, who do not like seafood, and the children. It was absolutely delicious!

Our Apartments in Povljana

Today, while writing a review about the apartments we lived in, I faced a dilemma. On one hand, everything in the rooms themselves seems to have been stuck for about 30 years (maybe only the TV has been updated.)

On the other hand, it is very authentic (curtains with light-transmitting fabrics only in certain places, wooden embellishments, small windows with shutters to let in as little light as possible.) Also, they are extremely clean. With a dictionary that fits in your hand, and is probably not even the first decade. It’s just so interesting that at least the man hasn’t driven further than 30 km. That’s the position – I’m fine here too, what can I find better?

And I completely understand. You feel that the village, although it welcomes tourists, lives by itself, in its own rhythm, not in some forced way. So it’s great that there are all kinds of people and all kinds of towns, and that’s also why it’s so interesting to live.

Fifth day – Zadar

I would call this day “we’ll be back here again” day. Like we lick the foam from the coffee, the surface, to feel the taste and understand whether it’s suitable or not suitable.

Our initial experiences

First, we stopped at Nina beach. Probably one of the most beautiful Croatian sandy beaches near Zadar. It is quite interesting that its old town is located in the middle between two beaches. We didn’t stay long, there were a lot of people, the heat was unbearable.

The next stop is Zadar. Bright, open embankment, innovative solutions: the playing sea (sea organ), i.e. pipes lowered into the water, on which the waves make strange sounds when hitting them, steps are made there, you can sit down, let the water cool your feet and listen to the music created by the sea. The second interesting solution is a circle made of solar collectors (you can walk on them) – they accumulate energy during the day and shine at night (unfortunately, I didn’t get to see this). The old town did not make a big impression, but the city itself is kind of cute and bright.

Driving through Zadar

As we were driving, we noticed that time flies quickly. The kilometers, unfortunately, are far from as fast as we would like. Because of that, the little one fell asleep in the car, so we had to change the plan.

We drove through Šibenik from the car as much as we could, and stopped at the white beach next to it. Goodness! We had planned to stay there for an hour, then we extended it for another hour, then another half hour.

Moments in Zadar

Sometimes there are moments when you just enjoy the moment. Water like tea, mountains in the distance, beautiful buildings nearby, children happily collect/exchange pebbles, nothing extra is needed, it’s nice to just be.

In that place there are three beaches next to each other. These are the white beach, Ivan hotel beach and solar beach. The first one we were on seemed to me to be the longest/straightest. Ivan beach is in a bay (which means that there are more people in the water and less wind.)

Solar beach is narrower and has honey trees/bushes that provide some kind of shade. Everything is very nicely arranged, there is a mini-golf, an amusement park, a restaurant made from old authentic homesteads and a lot of places to eat/see things nearby. We visited Etnovillage in Šibenik, but they only allow visitors for the weekends.

Trogir

The next stop is Trogir. Definitely, definitely, definitely, whoever goes to Croatia, visit this town. Well, at least I liked it a lot. The old town is located on the island. And those narrow streets reminiscent of Roman times are like a labyrinth, if it weren’t for Egidijus and google maps I would walk and walk in circles without even realizing it. We climbed the bell tower to look at it from above. Only after descending we saw a sign that climbing is possible from the age of 14, before that a very friendly ticket seller, who handed me a scarf to cover my shoulders, told me that for the sake of the children, they go for free… We did not climb alone with small children, well we climbed… And even got down…

In Trogir, we ate lavender flavored ice cream for the first time. And it turns out unexpected, but delicious. So if life allows, we will definitely come back here.

Today we spend the night in Split, with a wonderful view of the sea, unfortunately we arrived too late, so we didn’t see anything.

Sixth day – Dubrovnik

From Split to Makarska it was beautiful, but from it to Dubrovnik in some places it was even more beautiful: huge mountains, cliffs and the sea nearby, coves with beautiful houses. We didn’t take many photos, because there must be some mystery, so you should come and see for yourself. We stopped on the way to the beach near Makarska, there are so many people that they will show me who can’t sit/lie down on the shore, they just stand in the water. The water, like everywhere in Croatia, is crystal clear, warm, and the farther from the Baltic coast the less sand there is. Parking the closer to Dubrovnik, the more expensive it is (from 4 to 10 EUR per hour), and finding a free space is a real challenge.

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is another absolutely beautiful city in Croatia. The old town is perfectly preserved, unique, with a specific appearance. Compared to Trogir it has a similar era, maybe with a little more decoration elements. One side of the old town is flat, with squares/churches. From its narrow steep, charming streets go up the hill, full of various restaurants, museums, shops, etc. It would have been interesting to walk along its defensive walls, but the entrance (35 EUR per person) seemed expensive to us.

Museum of War Photography

Evidently, I needed to shake myself up a bit from all kinds of beauty, so my legs took me to the museum of war photography.

It reminded me how fragile is the paradise of peace in which we live. The photos are fantastic. Three floors are dedicated to different conflicts/wars. The first is from the present Ukraine, the second is the breakup of Yugoslavia, Croats vs. Serbs, Kosovo, and the third floor is for African countries.

There are also images, but the basis is people, their eyes and emotions: they are so strong, so unhidden, screaming, unrefined. Be it anger, be it despair, be it courage or sadness or fear or love, everything in those pictures is so REAL and therefore, extremely strong.

Help/compassion somehow resonates with me in a special way against all that background of difficulty. Photo where a volunteer warms an injured person waiting for help with his body, etc. – it’s like a light in the dark. We can be that light, it’s a matter of choice, no matter how dark it is around you – you can be the light.

I hesitated whether to go with the children, but since they themselves expressed their desire and reassured me at the entrance that there were no “horror” in the photos, I think it was the right decision.

We are spending the night in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 12 km from Dubrovnik. Through the balcony, a few houses down the hill, you can see the HR/BIH border checkpoint.

Seventh day – Bosnia and Herzegovina

A week has passed. Unreal. It seems more. So, today we simply followed a local Kamaz for three hours with spectacular views of the mountains of Bosnia-Herzegovina. And it was kind of fun. We played “count to 20”, the children laughed to tears. We played “truth/lie” and I was glad that I had a living “encyclopedia” next to me, because we learned so many unexpected facts. I feel that we all really like spending time in the car now. We are located in the small town of Foča. Calm before the storm, morning rafting.

Not only apartments, but also other prices really don’t bite here, on that occasion we bought the children shoes for the year ahead. Locals seem friendly, but English is difficult. And how strange I feel after leaving the safe space of the EU. Not only because of the connection/free internet, but the environment itself somehow reminds us of more than 10 years ago. Buildings with broken windows, a lot of garbage, letters ‘Z’ attached, Russian flags everywhere (tomorrow we will try to find out what they really mean). Less than 30 m have passed since they were a war zone, which certainly leaves a big mark, but now the progress is felt.

Eighth day – Rafting

I can tell you what a day it was. Somehow there are so many impressions that it is even difficult to choose what to write.

The Roads

First of all, probably the roads – in this part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, they are really not shiny. Two-way, although one car can fit, they are washed away/crushed in places. I am even not talking about potholes. Yesterday’s cows, which unexpectedly crossed the road or went sideways, turned out to be very polite. You can also walk on the road, at your own pace, and since there are no chances to beat, it remains to adapt and take your time. It’s good that we were warned yesterday by the locals, so we were “stuck” enough time.

The Organizing of the Rafting

The rafting was organized by “Tarasport” and a big thank you to them (young, but professional, they speak excellent English).

The campsite is an oasis of peace, with a fabulous view, small houses and such an atmosphere that somehow stops everyone, relaxes and calms them down.

Playing Games with Children

Since there was still time, we played petanque and table tennis with the children, and I could enjoy my coffee in peace. They gave us all the clothes: shoes, thermal clothes (without sleeves, because it’s +30), vests, helmets, ours are just “swimsuits”. Then they had to take us by jeep to the place from which we will sail. Drove it. Alive.

From my point of view, about five times our wheels must have been hanging over the cliff while passing other little ones. The trip took more than an hour. While driving, I realized that I’m not afraid of rafting anymore – it’s better to swim than to go back on such roads.

Rafting

They put us in 8 “boats”, we also had an Australian couple and a French with a ten-year-old girl. Our pipes are absolutely the smallest, they are live toys for everyone.

However, I can’t help but praise it – it survived everything without any problems, I had to bathe in icy (+10-12 degrees) water many times, it rained, it was cold, it was foggy, we swam for 3 and a half hours.

Our Majukas is sleep deprived, but both of us are grinning from ear to ear. Even when he was rowing, Arius was accepted as a real man. Tara Canyon turns out to be the second largest in the world (after Colorado, USA). The images are breathtaking (we haven’t had time to watch their footage yet, but I don’t believe it’s possible to convey what you feel/see while swimming).

Our experience

Since this is the first rafting for us, I was happy that we are swimming now, when the river is calmer and less dangerous; we will repeat it sometime in the spring, when we are already professionals.

We swam 18 km, passed 23 waterfalls. No one fell out except for Arius.

When we stopped, he underestimated the depth of the river and purred above his head. After that, we got a local lunch and headed across the wooden bridge to Montenegro (on the BIH side, there was a line of people waiting for several hours at the border, so whatever you plan to do, keep that in mind.)

The Night

Tonight, we stayed in Plužine (near Lake Piva). On the way again, one more impressive view than the other.

And in the evening – a concert of the most famous group of Montenegro under our windows.

Police, crowds of people, we fell into a serious incident in a quiet mountain town. The music is good (especially the electric guitar.) Everyone knows the words, somehow it reminded me of “polarized glasses” or “Anția”. After the day’s excitement, the children did not care about any concerts.

Ninth day – Montenegro

We reached our destination – Budva. We took a little while on the way. We will have 4 nights here, so we will be more sedentary.

And today, when it seemed that nothing would surprise us anymore, on the contrary, we managed to take the most pictures.

Experiences in Montenegro

We started with what we finished yesterday – the views of Lake Piva. We also stopped at the ‘zip line’, where they offer a flight (up to 100 km/h) through the canyon and back (it costs 25 EUR each.) We decided to leave it for the future, when it will be relevant for all four of us.

Tunnels in Montenegro

And then up through the tunnels. It is interesting that the tunnels in this part are natural. They are without reinforcements, without lighting. It is somehow a “light at the end of the tunnel” of its own accord.

Egidijus described this path as “from Cinderella to the princess”, because the views are getting more and more beautiful. The mountains are getting bigger and bigger. But they are so different, somehow soft, the yellow grass blown by the wind makes them somehow “softer”. We had read about this P14 road (Durmitor National Park, Žabljak-Plužine road), it is considered the third, after the Alpine mountains road (in Austria) and the Transylvanian mountains road, only we were driving in the opposite direction from everyone else. The most beautiful road stretches for 50 km. That’s how I imagine myself for a week in a small house in those hills, a cozy place to admire the views, eat local cheese, read books.

Leaving behind the unexpectedly discovered beauty, we visited the “King’s Bridge” on the way.

We continued along the Tara Canyon (where we swam yesterday, just above), it stretches for over 140 km. And here we are in Budva!

Tenth and eleventh day – Budva

Finally like normal vacationers: we didn’t go anywhere, we walked to the nearest Bečići beach for a few minutes. The beach is long, densely “populated” with sunbeds/umbrellas, and without them, when it’s +39 degrees outside, you won’t wake up very well. Prices vary. At our place, the prices are as follows – 20 EUR for the first two rows from the sea, all other days – 15 EUR per day (for two sunbeds and an umbrella between them).

On Sveti Stefan beach (today we spent the second half of the day there) from 30 to 50 EUR, and if you want to go to a private sandy beach – 180 EUR.

After Bosnia, such prices are not very pleasing. Again, there are a lot of people, but compared to Croatia, where it seems that all Slovenians, Slovaks, Czechs, Austrians, Hungarians have gathered, the audience here is a little different. There are more from these countries: a lot of Serbs, Bosnians, even Russians, I had to meet quite a few, it feels like this purely “Slavic” space.

The Beaches

The beaches are pebble/gravel again, the water is clear, but it deepens quite quickly. There are all kinds of entertainment: jet skiing, paragliding, speed boat, etc. There are mini playgrounds for children, but heated to melting temperature. But otherwise, everything is civilized: toilets, showers, cafes, etc.

The Old Town and Capital

We drove past the old capital, Cetinje, to Kotor. Since we had heard a lot about him, it was not an “unexpected discovery”. The navigation indicated 9 twisting turns descending into the Kotor Fjord. Road (P1) with beautiful yet different views. We caught up with two trucks and we couldn’t pass.

The old town of Kotor is very beautiful, really quite big. With narrow streets, many churches. After that, driving along the coast from Kotor, the scenery, at least for me, was very reminiscent of Lake Como (Italy). However, I think that the atmosphere is somehow different. The girl who sold her painted pebbles and magnets for 1-2 Euros at the first entrance to the old town stuck in my memory (kudos to her courage and ingenuity, maybe there is a lot of art there).

Twelfth day

Sometimes it’s good to stop. First of all, we decided to take care of the formalities – the landlady herself registered us in Plužine, and the owners of these apartments (a Russian and a Croatian living in France) told us to go to the tourist center and register.

At the tourist center, we were directed to the police (because it had been more than 24 hours since we arrived), from there to migration, from there to some building in the countryside where there were three policemen. “Bad,” the first policeman tells us.

He questioned everything: with whom, since when, details of the owners, etc. Then they told to call the owners and tell them that they have to come today or tomorrow. I called, and they show up not in Montenegro, handed over the keys and left. I gave the phone to the policemen themselves to talk to them, and at the beginning they preached that tourists should rest and not walk somewhere (a good attitude), then told them to look for acquaintances in Montenegro who would come and vouch for them, plus fined them 100 EUR. Instead, they apologized to us and told us to go rest. Those who are happy, put a can of beer under them, sip to themselves, apparently it does not interfere with their work.

Jaz beach

Today we went to “Jaz” beach to rest. There was no jazz, there was dried sea grass that sticks to your feet, towels, etc. In our opinion, the worst of those we have been to. But there were inflatable trampolines in the water and, as on all Montenegrin beaches, instead of our “chebureks and fried bread” there were donuts (with chocolate or powdered sugar) and corn for the children’s delight.

We will really remember Budva because of the endless traffic jams (you drive 2 km in half an hour) and the beautiful views from our balcony. I think it is more suitable for those looking for a “traditional resort”: with a lot of people, movement, night clubs, etc.

Thirteenth day – Mostar and Sarajevo

We are in Sarajevo (the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina). The return journey has already started today. It’s a pity somehow, but everyone misses home very much. So today we unexpectedly spent 9 hours in the car. We didn’t expect at all that there would be such a traffic jam at the border (we waited for 1 hour 40 minutes), and we didn’t think about the narrow mountain roads either (5 “fours” met on purpose at the place where it was impossible to turn around).

Mostar

We stopped in Mostar. It is famous for its old bridge (hence the name), when walking on it, and when walking in the old town on the beautiful polished cobblestone pavements, it is advisable to wear sneakers or non-slip sandals, because, at least I skated more than I walked. The town left a very good impression! Beautiful, cozy. We had lunch on the bank of the river in a restaurant with a swimming pool, we tried traditional dishes. We watched how the locals make money/put on a show by jumping from the bridge into the river. We would have liked to hang out, but the road was waiting.

Among other things, we have already got used to the mountains, we are no longer surprised by their beautiful, majestic peaks, rocks, nor green lakes with many dams, nor, when we look down, the abundance of garbage on the roads.

Sarajevo

I didn’t expect anything too much from Sarajevo and only after entering the city and seeing a rather repulsive view of huge gray apartment buildings, I thought that maybe nothing good would happen here, but I was very, very disappointed. I really liked the old town. And he is quite different from the others seen on this trip, more Arab. A number of Muslims were already seen in Mostar, but it seems that they are the majority here. Even in Foča, the children were fascinated by the ancient Arabic lamp (by which they slept), but there are plenty of them here, as well as all kinds of copper objects, carpets, and their sweets (the same as in Turkey/Syria/Tunisia/Morocco, etc.) in every shop.

What surprised me quite a bit in these parts – they made souvenirs from used cartridges (after the Yugoslav wars), a lot of things: ballpoint pens, pendants, even tanks. It is very good that they use it so creatively, but when you think that you should have bullets at home, which are not clearly aimed at, the body goes away.

We walked all over the old town, the children were bursting with energy after sitting for so many hours. Among other things, since both in Mostar and here we hit the call to prayer from the Minarets, plus the obviously different clothing of the women, it was a good opportunity to talk with the children about other cultures/religions. with a very romantic moon hanging above them.

Fourteenth day

We are back in Zagreb (the capital of Croatia). In the morning, we continued our acquaintance with Sarajevo. Its beauty is revealed not only in the oldest old town, but also in a considerable area around it.

Cemeteries

We visited cemeteries (I don’t know why I am always drawn to them in every country, they reveal a lot of things about the culture of those countries; someday it would be very interesting to sociologically research this phenomenon.) We saw that they are very different from ours: all the monuments are the same, white. In some places, when passing by, we saw some kind of “caps” placed on them. The buildings are beautiful, yes, maybe some really should be reconstructed or at least repainted (as I understand, they really like to express their feelings/thoughts with amateur ‘graffiti’). I have a feeling that there are still many hidden treasures left in this city, so we put it on the “someday” list again.

Other things we noticed

The road (somewhere around 6 hours drive) was boring today. I was eager to visit the castles on the way, but directions to them are still quite complicated. We stood at the border for less than an hour and were very happy that it was the last non-EU country!

What else did we notice that there are not so many speed-fixing radars in these countries (they are usually cylinder-shaped, and those are similar to ours, only with “two eyes” and are simply gas meters). Signs announce them on highways, but warnings are often ‘forgotten’ in towns. And here we met more than 10 shooting policemen. Unfortunately, we had to get to know one of them more closely… However, that time it all ended with just a reprimand for us.

Fifteenth day – Bratislava and Tatraland

The children were probably waiting for her the most, and I wasn’t waiting the most. We met the morning of this trip in an unusual way – by going to the airport: from Zagreb we flew to Bratislava with our children, and left Egidija to drive 400 km (through Hungary). The flight, which I was afraid of, lasted less than an hour, then we actually took off, the children went to the toilet and we landed. It’s a lot of fun to fly when you only have a bag with documents and a wallet.

The Old Town

After that, we took a bus to the center of Bratislava. I planned to show the children the old town, I passed my places so many times, but on the way we met a fountain – the best playground at +30 degrees! And I promised ice cream (old town = ice cream for the kids on this trip) and no matter how much I persuaded, nothing helped, we got Egidijus there, and Bratislava is a nice fountain for them from now on. Slovaks are not angry here, but in my opinion, there is not much to see in the south of Slovakia besides the capital and Devon Castle, so we sat down and continued driving.

Tatraland

The destination is Tatralandia. After leaving Bratislava, the heat stung our soles, but northern Slovakia welcomed us as angry as I had never seen it before. Lightning from both sides, we were riding like in the clouds (when you take off with a hot air balloon and while flying, you dive into the cloud, it’s such a wat feeling), the rain is falling from above, and the mountains and heat are evaporating from below. The temperature is +18 degrees, and probably half of the attractions in the water amusement park are outdoors. But we are confident of success.

Arriving in Tatraland

We arrived in Liptovski Mikulas, black clouds are flying around, and there is sunshine, +25-26 degrees, the weather is the same. We had allocated 3 hours for this entertainment, and it passed like a moment. Arius tried water slides (counted that he tried more than 10 different ones; there are 28 in total.) It’s good that most of them allow children from 1.2 years, only a few were above 1.4 years (and those without mattresses.)

Majukas’s Experiences & Slovakia

Majukas really liked the inflatable trampolines (more specifically, the kind of ship that waves up and down like in the real sea) and all of the jaccuzi/thermo pools. The pirate ship inside that you can climb on, explore the treasures is very nice too. Hundreds of sunbeds are set up outside overlooking the mountains. There is a lot of entertainment, we didn’t even have time to try some of it. I’ve heard that not everyone likes it, but maybe it depends on the weather, or maybe not all entertainment is open on weekdays.

Northern Slovakia is extremely beautiful, green at the moment, with mountains, valleys, small towns. For me, it is somehow more “own” than the mountainous part of Bosnia or Montenegro. As I always said: every Slovak village has 4 things: a football stadium, a hockey rink, a church and a huge castle.

After crossing the mountains from Tatralandia, passing the wooden houses of Zakopane, we arrived at our accommodation.

The sixteenth day

We are on our way home. The hotel included breakfast, but it was so well suited to travelers that it was given in special take-out packages without even being asked.

We made two stops: in Krakow we went around the Wavell Castle, the old town (I will not comment further, I have been here many times and in my opinion it is one of the most beautiful cities in Poland). A very sincere souvenir seller told the legend of the Kraków dragon. The children really liked the part when after eating a spicy sheep it drinks water and explodes, our little Majukas concluded that now he already knows how to make canisters (apparently from dragons?)

We found the fountain again in Lomža. Their main square is cute. We got acquainted with the sculpture of a woman sitting on a bench (Hanka Bielicka), she appeared and acted in the Vilnius Polish Theater.

And that’s it. Lithuanian border.

A trip through Europe with children – a summary

• During the trip we drove 5446 km and spent 86 h 04 min in the car!
• We visited 9 countries and well over 20 cities/towns;
• Fuel was the most expensive in Austria (over 2 EUR) and Slovenia (we didn’t fill up), in Montenegro – 1.65 EUR, in Croatia 1.51-1.54 EUR, in Boston it was a few cents cheaper, depending on the gas station location, in Poland similar to Lithuania;
• Road taxes: in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Hungary you can order a vignette online (it is valid for a week to 10 days), in Austria you can order it online only two weeks before it comes into effect (!), so you had to stop and buy it in a shop near the border; in other countries, we paid for specific roads or their sections (first you stop and punch out a ticket, and then when you leave you pay with a card/or cash (a few euros each – how good that in Croatia from this year it is already euros!).
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  Traveling with children – summary

Accommodation and selection criteria

We chose accommodation according to 4 criteria (which certainly did not allow us to be disappointed in any place):

1. Cleanliness (rating must be above 9.5)
2. Location (or it must be very far away, if only for an overnight stay, or in the city center, if we plan to visit it, or/and with a very nice view)
3. The overall rating is above 8-9 (after taking a total of 10 places to stay at our place, that is, the average of 15 nights was 9.3) and the worst ratings talk about slow internet, too few TV channels, etc.
4. Must include free parking and free Wi-Fi (parking is especially important in old towns and resort areas, and Wi-Fi in non-EU countries.

When comparing overnight stays, what was memorable/surprised: In Bosnia/Montenegro (smaller/mountain towns) they really like to leave extra “goodies”: e.g. toothpaste, at least several types of shampoos/conditioners/shower gel, laundry/dishwashing detergents; half of the fridge is usually already filled with: milk, chocolate, candies, lard (I’ve seen these for a long time), butter, fruit, juice/water, etc. Maybe we’ve gotten a little used to it, as if we should take care of what we might need, that we don’t use much, but somehow it’s fun. What else would I pay attention to next time – is there a microwave, because there were no more overnight stays in Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro than there were. Sometimes it is very relevant if you want to quickly heat up the food you have.

Traveling with two children

Regarding children – if you think that our children are calm, kind, nothing like that. They are extremely mobile/active, they probably don’t stay still for 10 minutes. Going forward and there, they were able to be very creative in coming up with all kinds of activities/fights/stories with each other.

Sometimes I intervened with my remembered/adapted games. Sometimes Arius read and played new games and his book “Let’s play”. And on the last day, Majus expressed himself by inventing a new game of his own. This game had his own rules (to be honest, I’m not sure if any of us understood them.)

It was so much fun that I (since I was driving) even considered stopping somewhere and wiping away the tears of laughter.

Traveling through Europe with children

Pluses:

• The trip brought us all very close: being together for a long time, especially in challenges, creates a natural rapport; however, the relationship between the brothers blossomed the most (well, you can’t help but get closer when you have to constantly sleep in the same bed, drive in the back of the car or annoy your parents together).
• New experiences/knowledge: different places/different people/religions/different food, even the same Mayan breakthrough with water I would attribute here. Of course, you get new ideas – as people do elsewhere, you can use it in life and learn in this way.
• For me personally, such experiences are a complete clearing of the head. You don’t owe anything to anyone to forget about household chores, chores. You are free and take everything into yourself so that someday in your old age you will think about everything.
• Exactly the plus of such a trip: when you drive your car with 204 hp (150 KW) up the mountain and without even thinking about it you overtake all the rental cars that are going uphill, you feel the way you should feel. Plus you can load things as much as you can fit in the car.

Cons:

• One favorite t-shirt and two children’s/men’s hats are lost in there somewhere. The owner of the shirt from Plužina was even 60 km away to the bus stop to send it to Budva, but we were without any communication at that time, so when we saw her messages, it was too late.
• We won’t calculate the finances. I honestly think that flying to your final destination is cheaper/more efficient, but you won’t experience/see what you find on the way. We may be more used to traveling in a different way, but I think none of us will ever forget this trip.

Would I go back again? Travel in season: Croatia – expensive, too many people, same with Montenegro (Lithuanian prices). So we definitely wouldn’t go to the beach here. We usually traveled outside of the summer season, i.e. fall/spring when it’s too gloomy to be there. It’s hard to compare, but I get the impression that in Greece (especially some islands)/Spain you can definitely find “cheaper holidays” with gentler beaches. And here are the pearls of northern Montenegro/Bosnia, in my opinion, really worth seeing.

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