--- title: "Bosnia and Herzegovina travel guide: Sarajevo, Mostar and the rivers | Wimup" description: "Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wimup: how Bosnia and Herzegovina differ, where Sarajevo, Mostar, the Una and the Drina sit, when each half of the country is at its best, what the convertible mark and the entity line mean in practice, what to eat, and how to get around." url: https://wimup.com/country/bosnia-and-herzegovina type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-27 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Bosnia and Herzegovina, the rivers and the passes Bosnia and Herzegovina is built out of river valleys, and the road between any two towns goes over a pass. **Sarajevo** and **Mostar** carry most of the traffic, and the country only really opens once you leave them for the **Una**, the **Drina** and the **Sutjeska**. ## Quick answer 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. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** May–Jun and Sep–Oct - **Ideal length:** 8–12 days - **Budget per day:** $50–120 - **Language:** Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, all three official, written in Latin and Cyrillic - **Getting around:** Intercity coaches between the towns, a hire car for the valleys, slow and sparse trains - **2** City guides - **3,164,253** People - **1** Video guide - **51,209 km²** Area Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country of about fifty thousand square kilometres in the western Balkans, mountainous almost everywhere, and it is genuinely two regions rather than one with a long name. Bosnia is the larger northern share: limestone and forest, the Dinaric ranges, cold rivers running north to the Sava. Herzegovina is the smaller southern share below the Ivan Pass, a karst country of vineyards, bare white rock and Mediterranean light, drained by the Neretva. The border between the two is climate rather than administration, and you feel it in the space of one tunnel. Administratively the Dayton Agreement of 1995 left the country in two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, plus the self-governing Brčko District held under state sovereignty, and a visitor crosses between them without a checkpoint or a formality. For planning, the country divides into about five trips. Sarajevo is the arrival and the anchor: an Ottoman bazaar, a Habsburg boulevard and a socialist skyline stacked along one narrow valley, with the 1984 Olympic mountains on the ridge above it. Herzegovina is the day-trip country south of it, where Mostar, Blagaj, Počitelj, the Kravica falls and Trebinje sit inside an hour or two of each other on good road. Central Bosnia holds the medieval and Ottoman towns, Jajce with its waterfall in the middle of town and Travnik with its viziers, on the road that runs northwest. The Krajina in the far northwest is the water half of the country: Bihać, the Una and its rapids, and Banja Luka on the Vrbas, which is where the rafting is. And eastern Bosnia is the least-travelled part, with Višegrad and its bridge on the Drina and the Sutjeska National Park holding Perućica, one of the last primeval forests left in Europe. Three practical things shape the trip more than the itinerary does. Distances are short and slow: two hundred kilometres is a half day, because the road follows the river and the river bends. The bus network is good and the railways are not, so most visitors either take intercity coaches or drive, and a green card matters if the car is hired abroad. And mine contamination from the 1992 to 1995 war has not been fully cleared, which is a rural rather than an urban problem and a real reason to stay on marked paths and hard surfaces away from town. ## 2 Bosnia and Herzegovina city guides 1. [Mostar](https://wimup.com/city/mostar.md): Europe · 10 picks 2. [Banja Luka](https://wimup.com/city/banja-luka.md): Europe · 10 picks ## Know before you go - **Population:** 3,164,253 - **Area:** 51,209 km² - **Density:** 61.8 / km² - **Capital:** Sarajevo - **Major cities:** Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Tuzla, Zenica, Mostar, Bijeljina, Brčko, Prijedor - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** Convertible mark (KM) Fixed at 1.95583 KM to the euro by a currency board since 1997 and never adjusted. Cards work in cities, cash runs everything else. - **Language:** Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Three official standards of one language, written in both Latin and Cyrillic. Cyrillic is common on signage in Republika Srpska. English is widely spoken by anyone under forty. - **Visa:** Visa-free · 90 days Most Western passports enter without a visa for 90 days in any 180, as do holders of a multiple-entry Schengen, EU, UK or US visa. Confirm your own nationality on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs list. - **Calling code:** +387 - **Power:** 230V · 50Hz · Type C and F The standard European two-pin and Schuko sockets. No adapter needed from most of the continent. - **Emergency:** 122 · 123 · 124 Police 122, fire 123, ambulance 124. The European 112 also works and reaches all three. - **Time zone:** CET (UTC+1) Central European Time, with summer time from late March to late October. The same clock as Zagreb, Belgrade and Vienna. - **Getting around:** Coaches and a hire car Intercity coaches reach every town and are the practical choice. Trains are slow and sparse. A car suits the valleys, where two hundred kilometres takes half a day. - **Driving:** Right · lights on Drive on the right. Dipped headlights are required day and night, the drink-drive limit is near zero and enforced, and a green card or insurance bought at the border is needed for a car hired abroad. - **Entities:** Two, plus Brčko The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, with the self-governing Brčko District under state sovereignty. Crossing between them is a road sign, not a checkpoint. - **Landmines:** Stay on marked ground Contamination from the 1992 to 1995 war is not fully cleared, mostly in rural areas. Keep to paved surfaces, marked trails and land in use. Never cut into ruins or open fields. - **Tipping:** Round up, 10% for a meal Round the coffee up, leave about a tenth after a good meal, and round taxi fares up. - **Tourism offices:** Split by entity There is no national tourism body. The Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism covers one entity, the Tourist Organisation of Republika Srpska the other, and towns have offices. ## When to visit - **Jan** (good): Ski season on Jahorina and Bjelašnica, both close enough to Sarajevo to be a day trip. The capital is cold, often smoggy in the valley, and cheap. - **Feb** (good): The best of the snow, and the anniversary weeks of the 1984 Olympics on the mountains that held them. Herzegovina is grey and quiet. - **Mar**: Thaw. The rivers run hard and brown, the passes clear in stages, and Mostar starts to warm up before anyone else arrives. - **Apr** (good): Green, wet and empty. Good for Herzegovina and the low valleys, early for the mountains, and the cheapest month before the season. - **May** (best): The rivers are at full volume and the rafting season opens on the Vrbas, the Una and the Tara. Everything is open and nothing is crowded. - **Jun** (best): The strongest month overall. Long days, warm Herzegovina, snow gone from the high trails, and the Mostar crowds not yet at their summer weight. - **Jul** (peak): Hot in the Neretva valley and busy at Mostar, Kravica and Neum. The right month for the high country, Sutjeska and the Una. - **Aug** (peak): The busiest weeks, with the Sarajevo Film Festival mid-month filling the capital. Book Mostar and Neum ahead or skip them for the mountains. - **Sep** (best): The other best month. Herzegovina turns to harvest, the water is still warm enough to swim, and the coach traffic thins out after the first week. - **Oct** (best): Autumn colour in the central valleys and around Jajce, cool clear walking weather, and the last comfortable weeks in the south. - **Nov**: Wet and short-dayed. Mountain guesthouses close between the walking and the skiing, and the cities are yours. - **Dec** (good): Cold, with snow arriving on the ski mountains and Christmas and New Year markets in Sarajevo and Banja Luka. ## 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 - **Myth:** It is still a war zone. **Reality:** The 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. - **Myth:** Bosnia and Herzegovina are the same place with a long name. **Reality:** They 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. - **Myth:** You cross a hard border between the two entities. **Reality:** The 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. - **Myth:** It is a Muslim country. **Reality:** Bosniaks 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. - **Myth:** Mostar is a day trip and there is nothing else. **Reality:** Coaches 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. - 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 - **Ivo Andrić**: Born near Travnik in 1892. Nobel laureate in 1961, largely for The Bridge on the Drina. - **Meša Selimović**: Born in Tuzla in 1910. His Death and the Dervish (1966) is set in Ottoman Sarajevo. - **Aleksandar Hemon**: Sarajevo-born writer stranded in Chicago by the siege, MacArthur Fellow in 2004. - **Emir Kusturica**: Sarajevo-born director, one of few with two Palme d’Or wins, in 1985 and 1995. - **Danis Tanović**: Zenica-born director whose first feature, No Man’s Land, won an Oscar in 2002. - **Jasmila Žbanić**: Her Grbavica won Berlin's Golden Bear in 2006, and Quo Vadis, Aida? an Oscar nomination. - **Goran Bregović**: Bijelo Dugme's guitarist, then Kusturica's composer and a touring Balkan brass star. - **Dino Merlin**: Sarajevo singer-songwriter since the early 1980s, still filling the Koševo stadium. - **Zdravko Čolić**: Born in Sarajevo in 1951, the defining pop voice of late Yugoslavia, still touring. - **Edin Džeko**: Record scorer and most-capped player, with league titles at Wolfsburg and Manchester City. - **Miralem Pjanić**: Tuzla-born playmaker for Roma, Juventus and Barcelona, and a free-kick master. - **Mirza Delibašić**: Great European guard, Olympic gold in 1980. Sarajevo’s arena carries his name. - **Amel Tuka**: Zenica 800 metres runner, World Championship bronze in 2015 and silver in 2019. - **Vladimir Prelog**: Sarajevo-born chemist who shared the 1975 Nobel for organic stereochemistry. - **Alija Izetbegović**: Twice jailed for his writing, he led independence in 1992 and signed Dayton in 1995. ## Must-try Bosnian food - **Ćevapi**: The national dish. Grilled minced beef fingers in somun with raw onion and kajmak. - **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. - **Burek**: Minced meat in a coil of hand-stretched pastry, sold by weight. Here, burek means meat. - **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. - **Begova čorba**: Bey’s soup of chicken, okra and root vegetables. The formal starter and a kitchen's test. - **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. - **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. - **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. - **Suho meso**: Beef cured and smoked over beech, sliced thin. Herzegovina also makes pršut. - **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. ## Films - [Mostar Travel Guide](https://wimup.com/watch/mostar.md), 10:26 ## FAQs ### Do I need a visa for Bosnia and Herzegovina? Probably not for a short stay. Citizens of the EU and EEA, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and a long list of other countries enter without a visa for up to 90 days in any 180. Holders of a valid multiple-entry Schengen, EU, UK or US visa can generally enter visa-free as well, even where their own nationality would need one. Bosnia and Herzegovina is an EU candidate and is in neither the EU nor Schengen, so the days spent here do not count against a Schengen allowance. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes the current list and it is the only version worth reading. ### Is Bosnia and Herzegovina safe to travel in? Yes, and no foreign ministry advises against travel to the country. Crime against visitors is low and the cities are comfortable at night. The one real hazard is left over from the 1992 to 1995 war: mine contamination in rural ground that clearance has not finished, marked where it is known with red-and-white tape and skull signs, though not everywhere and not always visibly. The rule is simple and worth keeping: stay on paved roads, marked trails and ground that is obviously in use, and do not walk into abandoned villages, ruins or open fields to take a photograph. ### Can I see Mostar as a day trip from Dubrovnik or Split? You can, and thousands of people do, which is the argument for not doing it. The coaches arrive late morning and leave mid-afternoon, so the Old Bridge is at its busiest in exactly the hours you would be there. Staying one night gets you the bridge at dawn, dinner without a queue, and the time to reach Blagaj, Počitelj, the Kravica falls or Trebinje, all within about an hour. Border queues on the coastal crossings are also unpredictable in summer and can eat a return trip. ### What currency is used, and can I pay in euros? The convertible mark, written KM or BAM, fixed at 1.95583 to the euro by a currency board since 1997 and never adjusted. Some hotels and tour operators quote and take euros, but shops, cafes, bus stations and taxis want marks. Cards work in supermarkets, chain hotels and city restaurants and stop working at small guesthouses, mountain huts and bus counters, so carry cash outside the cities and change what you have left before you go, because the mark is hard to spend anywhere else. ### When is the best time to go? May to June and September to October. The rivers are full, Herzegovina is warm without being punishing, and the mountain roads are open. July and August are hot in the Neretva valley and busy at Mostar, Kravica and Neum, though they are the right months for the high country and the rafting. Winter is for skiing at Jahorina and Bjelašnica, which are close enough to Sarajevo to be a day trip, and for a capital city that looks better under snow. ## Related countries - [Italy](https://wimup.com/country/italy.md) - [France](https://wimup.com/country/france.md) - [All of Europe](https://wimup.com/europe) Part of [Europe](https://wimup.com/europe.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://fmoit.gov.ba/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Visa](https://www.mvp.gov.ba/en/portal?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Tourism offices](https://visitsrpska.org/en/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.