Discover Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a land of never-ending mountains carved with canyons where the rivers offer world-class rafting opportunities. Around Sarajevo there are Olympic class slopes offering some of Europe's best value skiing. In fact thanks to the cold and snowy winters in Bosnia the ski season lasts from mid-December until mid-March.

Many Bosnian towns are quaint and small, wrapped around medieval castle ruins. Churches, mosques and synagogues have been rebuilt after the societal Hemorrhage of the 1990's and once again there is religious tolerance in BiH.

Many visitors to Bosnia and Herzegovina are pleasantly surprised by its fair value for money, the sense of real interaction and the great sense of discovery.

Good Reads

Before traveling to BiH you might find Noel Malcolm's very readable book Bosnia: A Short History an easy introduction to this country. This book will help you to understand Bosnia's complex history and will deconstruct many commonly held myths.

To get some insight into life in Bosnia under the Turks and Austria-Hungarians then you might want to read Nobel Prize winning Ivo Andric's historical fictions, Bridge over the Drina and Travnik Chronicles.

Getting to Bosnia

Medunarodni Aerodrom Sarajevo (www.sarajevo-airport.ba) is the modern airport in Sarajevo. This airport connects to Belgrade (JAT), Budapest (Malev),Frankfurt (Lufthansa), Istanbul (THY), Ljubljana (Adria). London (British Airways), Vienna (Austrian), and Zagreb (Croatian).

Traveling Around Bosnia

Bus

Buses in BiH are punctual, relatively infrequent and slow. Short routes are reduced at the weekends and are often stopped altogether on Sundays. Fares are usually around 7KM per hour traveled and a further 2Km for each stowed bag.

Car and Motorcycle

The roads are beautiful with not a lot of traffic and are winding so leave yourself plenty of time to get around. Most cities have car hire companies and rates include unlimited mileage and insurance.

Trains

Trains are about 30% cheaper to ride than buses but unfortunately are even less frequent. For up to date time- tables visit RS Railways www.zrs.rs.com .

If you decide to roam Bosnia and Hercegovina then you might want to visit Mostar then Sarajevo from coastal Croatia, cross over to Jajce where you could enjoy some summer rafting between there and Banja Luka.

Here's a nice little tip - try some of BiH's under-appreciated wines particularly Hercegovina's rich red Blatina. You might pick up some ideas from this site www.wineroute.ba

Useful Phrases

Hello - zdrava

See you later - dovidenja

Please - molim

Thanks - hvala

So go and be the few to enjoy the relatively undiscovered Bosnia and Hercegovina

Source: Europe on a Shoestring - The Lonely Planet