WE ARE A 65+ YEAR-OLD COUPLE BOOKED FOR BULGARIA, ROMANIA AND SERBIA IN MAY-JUNE. WE'RE HAVING TROUBLE FINDING BUS TIMETABLES FOR TRAVEL BETWEEN SERBIA-VARNA-BUCHAREST, BUCHAREST-BELGRADE, BELGRADE-SARAJEVO, SARAJEVO-MOSTAR. WE PREFER AIRCONDITIONED BUSES. CAN YOU ADVISE ANY WEBSITES?
M. AND B. HARRISON, COMO WEST
Assuming you're travelling in an anti-clockwise direction and starting from Belgrade, Florentia Bus (florentiabus.bg) operates a daily service from the Serbian capital to Sofia. Florentia is an Italian operator and their service is reliable according to all accounts. On the downside, their daily bus departs Belgrade at 4.30am for the seven-hour journey.
From Sofia, Biomet (biomet.bg) operates multiple departures daily for Varna. Booking Biomet services online is problematic since the booking engine is in Cyrillic but according to Claire Coulter, an Australian who together with her husband, Chris Fenton, operates Wild Thyme Organic Farm & Eco-Retreat in Bulgaria, there is no need to book bus travel there in advance. The Sofia - Varna buses stop at Popovo, just eight kilometres from Wild Thyme (wildthymefarm.org) and this is a fantastic opportunity to experience something of this fascinating and little-known corner of Europe with a few days at their eco-retreat with Claire and Chris.
From Varna, Orlan (orlan.autogari.ro) operates services to Bucharest. You can book either through their site, and the Romanian language is not too difficult, or use the Infobus (infobus.eu) website.
I can't find a bus service that will get you direct from Bucharest to Belgrade however Autogari (autogari.ro) operates buses from Bucharest to Timisoara, from where you could take the GEA Tours' (geatours.rs) daily minibus service to Belgrade.
For Belgrade to Sarajevo, head for the Balkan Viator website (balkanviator.com) and use the same website for the final sector of your journey to Mostar.
