Sounds like a good trip!
Just a few reflections based on my own experience
- it’s easy to sit at home with IOS maps and plan great trips with many beautiful stops on the way, but once you’re on your way, the fourth stop and beyond will be “look another city..”. You are full of impressions and it’s hard to fully appreciate the cities / airports you visit. I just came back from a trip to Jersey-La Rochelle-Colmar (6 days) and that was perfect, we were all pretty tired and full of impressions when we had dinner the last night in Colmar (group of 7).
- trips with friends are great, but only plan longer trips with people you know that you get along with well. You will be together most of the time and it’s the wrong environment to start getting annoyed with one another. In a larger group you can always do your own thing for a few hours without disturbing the others.
- do not plan to fly every day, after a full day of flying it’s nice to have a “day off” and therefor also an evening without flight planning / WX checking.
I hope you’ll have a great trip!
Good advice.
There’s a lot of good advice, thoughts that I hadn’t considered, in this thread and the connected ones – thanks for that!
All in all, the Balkan route remains our option #1 despite the heat warning. I think some things you have to learn by own experience – maybe next year, I’ll be smarter… 
if you consider north of Slovakia – the route along Vah river – LZPP, LZTN, LZZI, LZMA, LZTT, LKSV is nice. Not kind of mountain as Alps, but on the other hand not that demanding giving you plenty of room for unexpected. Do not expect a perfect English and 3000ft paved runway but still worth visiting.
All in all, the Balkan route remains our option #1 despite the heat warning.
If you stop in Vienna and decide for LOAN instead of LOAU, I may be able to give you a ride to Vienna. Just drop me a PM.
Concerning the Balkans, I highly recommend proceeding a bit further south after your stops in Croatia and visiting Montenegro via Tivat (LYTV). IMHO, most beautiful country in the Adriatic and still underrated. Great nightlife in some locations, this may be something for your freshly divorced passenger 
…
Hi blueline,
Thanks for the offer – will get in touch if stopping in LOAN!
Currently, I’m in favor of LOWL though if an early morning/sensibly high altitude Alps crossing seems doable – actual choice will be weather-based obviously.
I’d love to go to Montenegro… Has been on my list (regardless of the means of transport to get there) for a while – though I’m afraid it might stretch our budget both in terms of money and time for this trip. Also, he’s not officially divorced yet. There’s still hope.
Currently, I’m in favor of LOWL though if an early morning/sensibly high altitude Alps crossing seems doable
From LOWL (or nearby LOLW), you only have one “real” mountain pass (the Phyrnpass). Thereafter, you could proceed from Liezen via Trieben (hard sfc rwy) and Leoben-Timmersdorf (sufficiently long grass rwy) as far East as LOWG, if necessary.
Therefore, this route should be quite easy in most (non-frontal) weather conditions.
Hate do dig up an old post… but I’m curious…
Mind sharing a trip report to close this thread out?
Totally curious how it went.
Sure!
You can find it in the articles section of Euroga:
http://www.euroga.org/articles/trips/fly-balkan-trip-report
tl;dr “It went well!”
Epic! I read the whole thing.
Great story, and thanks for sharing!
I think I laughed about 5 or 6 times, which was classic!
I’ll have to learn 1.. 2… Polizei! Sounds epic :)
You definitely have inspired me to share some of my stories as well.. Unfortunately, i haven’t done any as elaborate, but that’s hopefully coming soon…
BTW, perfect English. Totally impressed. I’m living in Austria and my ears bleed… I love listening to German TV because I can actually understand people! Would really like to learn German properly, but I live in a cow pasture (basically)…
Again, thanks for sharing!
