Macedonia roadtrip

Blueeebird

Hi MSE

My boyfriend and I are planning a quick 7 days roadtrip in Macedonia this summer

The idea is to land in Thessaloniki (Greece) and go all the way to lake Ohrid, passing from Meteora

Meteora seems to be difficult to reach so we are trying to hire a car, but are struggling to find any car hire that allows us to do a one way rental?
We are not too bothered to save (although the cheaper the better), but really need to find someone that will allow us to pick up the car in thessaloniki and give it back in Ohrid

Any help will be very appreciated :beer::beer:

mgdavid

no help but questions!
Your route would seem to be not much more than 200 miles, I was wondering how you will spin that out to take 7 days?
have you ever heard of anyone doing a one-way car hire where the destination is in a different country, especially where one is in the EU and the other isn't?

labp04

Can't help but think that Macedonia is a magnet for various difficulties at this time and, despite us being "lovers of Greece" who will be driving close to the Macedonian border in a couple of months time, I'm not sure it would be my destination of choice right now. Anyways, with regards to Meteora, access to it is ok/easy enough from Larissa and well worth a visit - any other route is, 'erm, buttock clenching stuff! If you really are thinking of visiting the country calling itself "Macedonia" the motorway from Thessaloniki might be a better choice

Blueeebird

Thank you both for your replies

We are not used to hiring cars and wouldn't know who does 1 way rentals in Europe... But would have thought that there's definitely a market for that?

Good to hear that Meteora is ok to access. With such limit time we'd rather not rely on public transport if possible though... Mgdavid, the plan is to spend the first couple of days in thessaloniki and surroundig areas, a day in Meteora (or 2 if worth it), and then up to lake Ohris passing by anything that catches our interest on the way there (we haven't researched it thoroughly yet)

I am sure that 7 days will fly by... Even more so as we like to thoroughly explore an area if we make our way there

mgdavid

Stop to think about the practicalities and logistic challenges facing the car hire companies for one-way dropoffs in a different country!
Especially as I said, Macedonia is non-EU while Greece is, of course.
The car cannot stay there as that would bring import tax and re-registration difficulties. What are the chances of picking up a new hirer who wants to take it back to its origin, one-way? Probably nil. The hire company aren't going to send a driver by public transport 250 miles to fetch a car, either.
I think it extremely unlikely you will achieve this - but the only way to find out is to call a few hire companies, Hertz or Sixt look the most likely.
Are you going Ryanair and returning with Wizz?

labp04

At the risk of repeating myself, I really would suggest you think about "practicalities" and the current situation eg this article has a comment "Hundreds of migrants blocked the main road leading to the Greek-Macedonian border today in protest against rules restricting the asylum seekers allowed to pass through to specific countries.

Taxi-drivers on the Macedonian side had blocked the railway line between the two countries, protesting over the priority given to trains and buses to take the migrants north to Serbia, while on the Greek side, farmers had parked dozens of tractors to demonstrate against planned pension reforms"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-crisis-two-babies-among-nine-refugees-drowned-after-boat-capsizes-trying-to-reach-greek-a6849016.html

Folk don't follow the same protest rules over there as we tend to