Moving Day – Our Airbnb In Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

August 31, 2024 Mark

One month in Serbia has come and gone, and we enjoyed our time there. The culture, the food, the people, and learning about Serbia’s influence throughout history has really opened our eyes to what life in the Balkans has been like over the last 500 years.

But it was time for us to move onwards to our new slow travel destination, Sarajevo, in the country of Bosnia & Herzegovina!

Come take a look at how we got there and what our new place is like.

Why Visit Sarajevo?

We weren’t seriously considering visiting Sarajevo as part of our Balkans travel until our digital nomad friend Ashley put it on our radar.

And the more we dug into the research, the more we realized how much people seemed to love Sarajevo (and B&H in general).

Since sleeper slow travel hit destinations are becoming increasingly rare to find, we decided to upend our original Balkans travel plan and give Sarajevo a shot.

So we are now heading southwest through B&H and Montenegro on our way to Albania, instead of southeast through eastern Serbia and North Macedonia.

Here is a map comparing our original plan (in blue) to our current plan (in red):

But what changed our minds?

It turns out that on closer examination, Sarajevo was quite attractive to us.

Rhonda and I both remember watching the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics as teens and were sad when everything went sideways for the region during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s.

So there is curiosity about how things have changed over the last 40 years.

Second, Sarajevo has a reputation for being quite beautiful and culturally interesting.

There is a healthy blend of religious beliefs here, although Islam is the dominant one. Needless to say, much of the local architecture reflects that culture, as well as does the sheer age of the city.

Last, Sarajevo is well situated and integrated into beautiful natural surroundings.

Mountains and forests abound here, and it looked like we would have the opportunity to do some great local hikes, even if it is difficult to find out specifics. It had been too long since nature hikes were a regular part of our routine, but through no lack of trying!

So the prospect of enjoying the outdoors like when we were in Baños de Agua Santa (Ecuador), Cuenca (Ecuador), or Cusco (Peru) had real appeal.

Getting to Sarajevo From Belgrade

Hands down, the most cost-effective way of getting to Sarajevo from Belgrade was by bus.

Using the Busticket4me online platform, we purchased one-way tickets to Istočno Sarajevo Bus Station from Belgrade Bus Station for €25 ($27.19 USD) each.

This did not include the Belgrade Bus Station boarding area entry fee of 300 RSD ($2.87 USD) cash per person or the fee for transporting our largest suitcases (around 250 RSD/$2.14 USD cash per suitcase).

But still, it was an affordable way to get to Sarajevo.

There are no major highways leading to Sarajevo from Belgrade, so we took country backroads almost exclusively. And we would have a border crossing to deal with.

We departed Belgrade on August 24 at 8 am, aboard a much smaller bus than we anticipated.

The AC of our little bus was good, but the seats were hard with poor legroom. Thankfully no one sat in front of us, so we didn’t have to worry about anyone taking out our knees.

The process of getting to Sarajevo was REALLY interesting and took just under 8 hours.

This bus route runs all the time, so we went on faith that everything would work out. We had to because the driver didn’t speak English!

Around 2 hours into our journey we pulled into the Duga doo Petlovača bus company facility and swapped to a proper touring bus!

Admittedly, when we stopped and saw the other passengers get off the bus we were a little worried. But when we saw our driver transfer the luggage to our new ride, we quickly figured out what was going on. Needless to say, the touring bus trip was comparatively luxurious and we appreciated the upgrade.

Our next interesting stop was at the Serbia/Bosnia & Herzegovina border crossing near Loznica, Serbia. There was a line of cars so it took us an hour or so for our bus to get processed, first at the Serbian border crossing and then at the H&G border crossing.

At the Serbian border, our bus driver collected the IDs of the passengers and gave them to a border agent on duty. The agent processed them all en masse, and returned them to the driver, who then gave them back to all of us.

We then drove across the border crossing bridge.

On the B&H side, we all had to exit the bus and queue at a crossing kiosk with our IDs. The kiosk guard processed us like you might expect at an airport, although there was no interrogation or anything like that. He stamped our passports without a word, we all got back on the bus, and we resumed our journey.

Now the ride up to this point was quite nice.

The area of Serbia we drove through was mostly flat land or rolling hills, suitable for agriculture or industry.

But once we crossed the border into Bosnia & Herzegovina, the topography changed drastically. It felt like we were instantly transported into a mini version of Switzerland, only with an Islamic flair!

Gorgeous forested mountain views were everywhere and remained present for the rest of our journey. From that point onward, we knew that we were going to like Bosnia & Herzegovina! 🙂

There were far more impressive views than this one during our bus ride!

No shortage of buildings in high places here!

We arrived at Istočno Sarajevo Bus Station at close to 4 pm.

Here is the route we took, showing the bus transfer and border crossing points:

But we weren’t done yet!

Note that everything I am about to describe was made much easier by activating our B&H eSim in advance of arrival so we had LTE data! If you decide to make this bus trip, we suggest you do the same.

Now that we were in B&H, we needed to get cash in the local currency and figure out how to get to our Airbnb. The problem was that there were no ATMs at the bus station, or in its immediate vicinity.

I also knew that Dobrinja Terminal was 300 meters away and serviced public buses (Lines 103 & 107) that could drop us off very close to our Airbnb.

Since public buses only take cash in local currency, finding an ATM took priority. Using Google Maps, it appeared that there were shopping centers near Dobrinja Terminal that might have ATMs.

So we first walked to Dobrinja Terminal where the 103 and 107 bus routes begin, and dropped off our luggage while Rhonda kept guard.

I then walked to Shopping Center Mercator about 0.5 km away, withdrew cash at an ATM (there were several), and made change at the supermarket there.

I broke a 10 BAM bill by buying a Bosnian version of a Ding Dong, in case you are wondering.

With cash and small denomination coins in hand, I returned to Dobrinja Terminal. We then boarded the Route 103 bus, paid our bus fare (1.8 BAM/$1.02 USD each, cash to driver), and rode to our Airbnb.

Welcome To Our New Airbnb In Sarajevo!

As usual, we found our long-stay Airbnb in Sarajevo using the detailed methods described in our post: A TTT Guide to Long-Term Airbnb Stays – How to Get a Cheap Apartment that Doesn’t Drive You Crazy.

And we are super happy with it.

On the 6th floor of an apartment building, you first enter our hallway when going through our front door. We have a small wardrobe, storage closet, and shoe mat in this area.

Turning 90 degrees to the right, you first see our bathroom, with a shower, all the usual amenities, and a washing machine (yay!).

Past the bathroom, you enter our bedroom with a view. It has a queen-sized bed (yay!), a pair of nightstands with outlets nearby, and plenty of storage.

Going back to the other end of the hall, you enter our living room/dining room area, with huge sectional couch, massive wardrobe, TV, and dining room table.