Most first trips run Sarajevo to Mostar and back, a fair week. Sarajevo is the anchor: Baščaršija, the Latin Bridge, the tunnel museum and Trebević above it. Herzegovina is the day-trip half, with Blagaj, Počitelj, the Kravica falls and Trebinje near Mostar. Drivers add Konjic and Jajce. A second week reaches Bihać and the Una, Banja Luka, and Tjentište for Sutjeska. May, June, September and October work everywhere. Plan two hundred kilometres as a half day.
2 Bosnia and Herzegovina city guides
Fun fact
Bosnia and Herzegovina's whole coastline is about twenty kilometres, all of it at Neum, one of the shortest any country holds. It still cuts Croatia in two, separating Dubrovnik from the rest, so Croatia built the 2.4 kilometre Pelješac Bridge, opened in July 2022, to get around it.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityThe war ended in December 1995 and no foreign ministry treats the country as dangerous today. What remains is a constitution written to end a war, and mine contamination in rural ground that clearance has not finished. Cities, roads and marked trails are ordinary travel.
The realityThey are two regions with different rock, weather and food. Bosnia is the forested, mountainous north, draining to the Sava. Herzegovina is the southern karst below the Ivan Pass, hot, bare and planted with vines, drained by the Neretva. One tunnel separates them.
The realityThe Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska are internal entities of one state, and moving between them means a road sign and a change of alphabet on it. There is no checkpoint, no stamp and no separate currency.
The realityBosniaks are the largest of three constituent peoples, alongside Serbs and Croats, and the religious map runs Muslim, Orthodox and Catholic. Sarajevo has a mosque, a synagogue and Orthodox and Catholic cathedrals within a few hundred metres, and that earns the city its nickname.
The realityCoaches arrive from the Croatian coast and leave by evening, so stay the night. Mostar is also one town in a country with Una National Park, the Vrbas canyon, Sutjeska and Perućica, a medieval royal town at Jajce and a Drina bridge with a Nobel Prize attached.
How to behave
- Coffee is a length of time, not a drink. Bosnian coffee comes in a džezva with a cube of sugar and a piece of lokum, and it is served on the understanding that you are staying. Ordering it to take away is the one clearly foreign move.
- The war is not off limits, but it is not small talk either. People will talk about it, often frankly, if they raise it. Asking a stranger which side they were on, or what happened to their family, is the line.
- Names carry information here, and guessing at someone’s background from theirs is rude even when you are right. Nationality questions come up in politics constantly and in conversation with visitors almost never.
- Shoes come off at the door of a home, and in a mosque. Cover shoulders and knees in any religious building, and women should carry a scarf for mosques.
- You will be fed, and refusing outright is awkward. Take what is offered, eat some of it, and let the bill argument happen without you: guests do not pay.
- Rakija is poured in small glasses and sipped, not shot, and refusing the first one politely is normal. Driving is a complete answer, because the blood alcohol limit is effectively zero and enforced.
- Cash still runs a lot of the country outside the cities. Cards work in supermarkets, chain hotels and city restaurants, and stop working at bus stations, small guesthouses and mountain huts.
Famous Bosnian faces
Danis Tanović
Jasmila Žbanić
Goran Bregović
Dino Merlin
Zdravko Čolić
Edin Džeko
Miralem Pjanić
Amel Tuka
Alija Izetbegović
Ivo Andrić
Meša Selimović
Aleksandar Hemon
Emir Kusturica
Mirza Delibašić
Vladimir Prelog
Must-try Bosnian food
Ćevapi
The national dish. Grilled minced beef fingers in somun with raw onion and kajmak.
Burek
Minced meat in a coil of hand-stretched pastry, sold by weight. Here, burek means meat.
Begova čorba
Bey’s soup of chicken, okra and root vegetables. The formal starter and a kitchen's test.
Tufahija
Syrup-poached apple stuffed with walnuts, under whipped cream. The Sarajevo dessert.
Hurmašice
Semolina biscuits soaked heavy in syrup, eaten with coffee all year.
Baklava
Walnut baklava cut in diamonds and soaked in syrup, sold by weight in the bazaar.
Suho meso
Beef cured and smoked over beech, sliced thin. Herzegovina also makes pršut.
Pljeskavica
The same mince grilled as one patty, wider than its bread.
Ražnjići
Skewered pork or veal off the same grill, eaten with bread and onion.
Pastrmka
River trout grilled whole, best at the restaurant nearest the water it came from.
Zeljanica
Spinach and cheese pie, the one locals order, with a glass of thin drinking yoghurt.
Krompiruša
Cheap, heavy potato pie for a bus journey. Sirnica is the plain cheese version.
Uštipci
Fried dough balls served hot with kajmak and soft cheese.
Bosanski lonac
Meat and vegetables layered and slow-cooked in a tall clay pot. Order it ahead.
Japrak
Vine or chard leaves rolled round rice and mince. Sarma is the cabbage version.
Klepe
Small meat dumplings under garlic yoghurt, close to Turkish manti.
Kajmak
Salted clotted cream from boiled milk, spread on bread and better the older it is.
Ajvar
Roasted pepper and aubergine relish, made at home each autumn to last the winter.
Bosanska kafa
Boiled in a copper džezva, drunk with a sugar cube in the teeth and lokum on the side.
Rakija
Fruit brandy, often homemade. Šljivovica is plum, loza grape, travarica herbal.
Žilavka and Blatina
Herzegovina's own grapes, a mineral white and a dark red, rarely exported.
