UKC

Looking for any recommendations for climbing spots outside the EU but within driving distance. Trying to not eat into my 90 day allowance. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

In reply to fritatas:

Only you knows where you are starting from.

In reply to fritatas:

I've heard a number of van dwellers say that Albania is the destination of choice for topping up one's 90 days.

Note that Switzerland and Norway don't work because it is a Schengen thing.

In reply to fritatas:

We recently did the 90days out in Albania Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina 

all amazing country’s but I wouldn’t go back to Albania, the weather was really shit (through April) the climbing was very sandbagged and unless you climb in the 8s and up there isn’t that much to do.

it got too hot to climb in B&H 35plus in June but the climbing was very good and more amenable grades

Montenegro was amazing. Loads of climbing to go at near Podgorica with new routes going up daily 

all the Balkans has amazing culture and the people are the friendliest I’ve come across.

there’s also turkey but it’s just a bit further to drive 

In reply to fritatas:Wales

In reply to fritatas:

Loads to go at in the non eu Balkans (BiH, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia) Would depend what time of year you were planning to visit as at which areas would be best suited.
 

We’ve written a few articles about the climbing in these areas on our blog (https://thecragjournal.com/)  hopefully they might give you a bit of insight  

Personally my favourite out of the above is Bosnia, there’s a fantastic climbing guidebook too.
 

In reply to fritatas:

Scotland

In reply to fritatas:

Morocco.

In reply to NomadET:
thanks for the info! Do you have any topos/crag info you could share or where to get best info?

In reply to kingholmesy:

If you are anywhere near Spain, surely a quick ferry to Morocco, with so much walking, climbing and touristy stuff to do.

In reply to fritatas:

if youre in the van, be aware that we had no end of trouble in the anti atlas area of tafroute when we took the van there a couple of years back. theyve had a new police chief and hes 'serious about keeping people safe' so wont allow tourists to wildcamp anywhere in that region. in 2017 it wasnt an issue and we had an amazing trip living in the mountains. in 2023 it was a total nightmare and thankfully we were allowed to park in the Kasbah parking for £10/night. Maybe it's changed there, but i doubt it. Amazing trad climbing though

In reply to George_Surf:

i would say thought that the anti-atlas felt at least as safe as north wales to us or safer; locals were incredibly helpful, polite and friendly. even the police that made us camp outside their compound said we werent in danger (one of the boys even said we could come and park at his house and he would feed us!). theyre hospitable, just constrained by the new rules there (after an incident on toubkal...)

In reply to George_Surf:

‘An incident on toubkai’ is one way to describe what took place.

In reply to fritatas:

One of the guys developing the big canyon, cijevna was putting most of it up on mountain project. But there is a really great app that a local techy had made for all of the Montenegro climbing, think it’s only for android and called Montenegro climbing.

And there is a new (2024) guide for BiH 👍

In reply to fritatas:

We went to  Datca in Turkey when we were getting round the same problem, would recommend!