We visited Bosnia and Herzegovina on our way to the Czech Republic from our old home in the UAE. We came from Montenegro and spent a total of 4 nights in the country.

Day 1: The rainy day in Mostar

We wanted to do more in Montenegro but the forecast wasn’t on our side and since the day was supposed to be rainy we decided to cross to Bosnia and Herzegovina and spend the day chilling and watching football in an Airbnb in Mostar. Luckily, the rain didn’t turn into snow as we were using the mountain border crossing Klobuk.

Bosnian border was the only one where we weren't charged car insurance when we were crossing. They didn't ask for it and we didn't mentioned it...
We had a green card from Bulgaria but that doesn't include B&H (it should if your car is from the EU).

We arrived in Mostar around 11 am and at that time the rain was at its highest. It took us a while to get a hold of the owner of the Airbnb but definitely worth it. During the search, Clare used her magic as usual, so the first question when we got in was if she really has a keg of beer downstairs for the guest. There was the early kick-off on as well so we ended up having 3 beers right there in her basement watching football. After that, we went to have a shower, get a nap, and just enjoy the room since it was after several days spent in the car.

The rain stopped in the evening so we had the chance to see the town and the Mostar Old Bridge lit up at night. Loads of places were closed since it wasn’t the season but Restaurant Šadrvan was open and serving local food. It wasn’t the cheapest but at least we had a chance to try many different local dishes since they serve it as platters. And they had a relatively good-priced house wine, hence our relaxing day was finished perfectly.

Day 2: Mostar, Međugorje, and Blagaj Tekke

We had a busy day ahead of us, so we filled up on some energy with breakfast from the Airbnb and headed to explore the town of Mostar. We walked a similar path as last night but now all the small markets were open and the town looked way livelier.

After Mostar, we headed south the the town of Međugorje. Međugorje has been known as a Christian pilgrimage town since the Virgin Mary’s appearance on the Apparition Hill in 1981. We walked up to the hill following the crosses along the way to the statue of the Virgin Mary. The path is short but not the easiest since the hill is made of slippery, jaggedy rocks. We also visited the local markets, bought some souvenirs, and went to the Church of Saint James the Greater where we noticed a car with a Czech license plate (there is nothing else to this, it’s just nice to see neighbors along the way…).

Our next stop was a small town named Blagaj with an old Sufi monastery built into the rock cliffs. The Blagaj Tekke is also situated right by a river that springs from under the cliffs. There is a small entrance fee to visit the monastery and you have to bare in mind that the place is still used and Sufis can be seen in some of the rooms. We were there off-season and with only about another 2 people but I can’t imagine how this place looks like if a lot of people show up…

We then had a wee bit of a drive ahead of us since we needed to make it close to Sarajevo and find a place to sleep. It was a hard journey since we were busy and didn’t eat much during the day and the days were getting shorter. We wanted to spend the next day hiking so we headed to the nearby mountains and spent the night right under the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics ski jump hill.

Day 3: Hiking the Sarajevo hills

In the morning, we set off for a hike to the village of Lukomir. We parked on the road to another village called Umoljani and followed the path that first took us across a river to the Umoljani Watermills and then up towards the cliffs above the Rakitnica Canyon. It was a really nice hike and the only company on the path were sheep, but it wasn’t easy from the beginning since we had to cross multiple rivers and some of the meadows were flooded. After about 7km, and just about 1-2 km away from Lukomir, we couldn’t find a way how cross one of the rivers. The days were getting shorter and it took us longer than we expected to get to this point so we decided to call it quits and went back to the car.

We drove to Sarajevo and found a spot to camp near the old Olympic bobsled. After dinner, we ended up in a nearby hotel where we watched yet another World Cup game. Bosnia and Herzegovina is majority an Islamic country, therefore it wasn’t a surprise there was no beer served in the hotel…ok, we can do a night without…a can of coke and a warm lobby were enough.

Day 4: Sarajevo

We started the day by walking down through the old bobsled track and back up to the Trebević cable car station. Since we were looking for our camping spot at night, we just stayed at one of the parking lots near the bobsled. When we walked through the parking lot in the morning, we noticed that it must have been fairly recently that a lot of cars got broken into due to all the side mirror glass lying around.

We then headed into the town itself. We wandered the streets, walked through the Baščaršija bazaar, saw the city hall, the place of assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and had a beer in a Celtic Pub.

As the evening was approaching, we left the town and drove north to a town named Travnik where we spent the night.

Day 5: Drive through Bosnia – Travnik, Jajce, Krupa waterfalls

We had quite a drive ahead of us since we needed to make it all the way to Zagreb in Croatia. We started the day by going to visit the old castle in Travnik and with a small argument with an old lady since the side streets in the town were narrow and we were blocking the whole front of her house (sorry 😔).

After Travnik, we were on our way to the town of Jajce to see the waterfalls. We were really pleasantly surprised by Jajce since the falls looked better than we thought since the town was literally built around them and the town itself was beautiful. It also happened that we were there on the 25th of November when the nation celebrates Statehood Day (Bosnian Dan državnosti) so we learned a wee bit more about the history and got a Tito badge.

On this day in 1943, the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia held a conference in Jajce where Bosnia and Herzegovina was reestablished as a republic within the Yugoslavian federation in its Ottoman borders.

The rest of the drive took us to Krupa Waterfalls where we had a short stop and then continued towards Bajna Luka. We didn’t have time to stop and it was already almost dark and we had to continue to the border with Croatia. We crossed the border in Kostajnica and continued to Zagreb for the night.

Did you know that the country Bosnia and Herzegovina actually consists of two federal entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska?

There is actually even a third part called Brčko District which is shared by both.

The majority of people living in the Bosnia and Herzegovina entity are Bosniaks and Croats, while in the Republika Srpska, the majority are Serbs.