When most individuals consider European journey, they image Parisian cafés or Tuscan villas. However what if we instructed you probably the most highly effective journey experiences we’ve ever had was in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia & Herzegovina?
Why Go to Bosnia and Herzegovina?
For highly effective historical past, resilient tradition, inexpensive journey, and unforgettable experiences in cities like Sarajevo and Mostar.
This nation might not be on each traveler’s radar, but it surely needs to be. Bosnia & Herzegovina is a spot the place historical past isn’t simply instructed, it’s felt. It’s the place war-torn buildings stand beside buzzing cafés, and the place the ache of the previous fuels the delight of the current.
Sarajevo: Europe’s Most Resilient Capital
Welcome to Sarajevo, the center of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a must-see vacation spot for vacationers in search of extra than simply postcard views. This can be a place that teaches you what warfare, peace, and resilience actually appear to be.
Sarajevo is a vibrant metropolis and the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo is not like wherever else in Europe. Minarets rise beside cathedrals. Ottoman bazaars sit beside Austro-Hungarian buildings. Bullet holes scar residence partitions. And but, Sarajevo pulses with life.
This can be a metropolis the place mosques, church buildings, and synagogues share the identical skyline. The place Olympic goals and warfare nightmares occurred inside a decade of one another. And the place survival isn’t only a chapter in its historical past, it’s the theme.
Visiting Sarajevo At present: The place the Previous Meets the Current
Sarajevo should carry the trauma of warfare, but it surely’s not caught in it. This compact metropolis is buzzing with life, shade, and coronary heart. From museums that share private tales of wartime survival to cafés that serve one of the best espresso in Southeast Europe, there’s no different place fairly prefer it. Let’s begin your Sarajevo journey information with the necessities.
Greatest Issues to Do in Sarajevo
1. The Tunnel of Hope
Begin your go to on the Tunnel of Hope, a hand-dug lifeline throughout the practically four-year Siege of Sarajevo. Situated beneath the Sarajevo Airport, this 800-meter-long tunnel as soon as related the besieged metropolis to free territory. It allowed civilians to move meals, drugs, gas, and even electrical energy.
Strolling via the cramped tunnel offers you a chilling sense of how Bosnian Muslims risked all the pieces simply to outlive. It’s probably the most essential stops while you go to Sarajevo. This slender passage, now a part of a museum devoted to survival, allowed humanitarian support, weapons, and other people to move via when all different routes had been lower off. You may e-book excursions to the Tunnel of Hope from Sarajevo right here.
2. Sarajevo Roses
Scattered all through town heart are red-painted craters known as Sarajevo Roses. Every one marks a spot the place a mortar shell killed civilians. These marks aren’t simply memorials, they’re a part of the sidewalk. You’ll stroll over them whereas shopping for espresso or ready for the tram. It’s one of many some ways Sarajevo wears its scars overtly.
3. Warfare Museums That Inform the Reality
- Warfare Childhood Museum: This award-winning museum is likely one of the most shifting in all of Europe. It showcases toys, diaries, and private belongings from kids who grew up throughout the Bosnian Warfare. Each merchandise tells a narrative you gained’t neglect.
- Historic Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina: This cultural heart holds archives and exhibitions on trendy historical past, particularly the siege years. You’ll see burned-out autos, letters, and makeshift instruments individuals used simply to prepare dinner and survive.
- Museum of Crimes In opposition to Humanity and Genocide: Onerous-hitting and important, this museum paperwork atrocities dedicated throughout the Bosnian Warfare, together with the Srebrenica genocide and Srebrenica bloodbath, the place greater than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims had been executed by Bosnian Serb forces.
- Jewish Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Housed in a Sixteenth-century synagogue, this museum is a testomony to Sarajevo’s lengthy and layered non secular range. From Sephardic Jews to Muslim Bosniaks, town was as soon as referred to as “Little Jerusalem.”
4. Bascarsija and the Outdated City
The center of Sarajevo is its Outdated City, the place slender streets wind previous copper outlets, mosques, and cafés that really feel lifted from one other century. In Bascarsija, you’ll discover the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, courting to the Ottoman interval, nonetheless lively and open to guests.
Sip Bosnian espresso at Veliki Park, watch pigeons swirl at Sebilj Fountain, and wander the stone-paved streets the place nationwide identification was solid.
5. Latin Bridge & the Spot That Modified the World
Considered one of Sarajevo’s most well-known cultural websites is the Latin Bridge. That is the place Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, igniting World Warfare I. At present, a small however highly effective exhibit beside the bridge walks you thru the occasion that reshaped the twentieth century.
6. Metropolis Corridor (Vijecnica)
As soon as the Nationwide Library, Sarajevo’s Metropolis Corridor was destroyed in 1992 by Bosnian Serb forces. Over two million irreplaceable texts had been misplaced. At present, the constructing has been restored and now hosts exhibitions about Sarajevo’s previous and future. It’s top-of-the-line examples of how this metropolis refuses to be outlined by destruction.
7. Free Strolling Excursions in Sarajevo
Among the best methods to take pleasure in Sarajevo is by becoming a member of a free strolling tour. Educated native guides take you thru derelict buildings, warfare memorials, monuments devoted to resistance, and peaceable parks that had been as soon as battlegrounds.
You’ll stroll previous bullet holes that also scar façades and listen to private tales from survivors. These excursions are sometimes tip-based and value each mark.
8. Sacred Coronary heart Cathedral & the Non secular Mosaic
Sarajevo is a uncommon European capital the place mosques, church buildings, and synagogues share area. Don’t miss the Sacred Coronary heart Cathedral, which sits within the Catholic quarter, and the Outdated Jewish Cemetery, one of many oldest within the Balkans. The town’s interfaith roots had been examined throughout warfare—however many Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, and Croats nonetheless reside facet by facet right here.
9. Exploring Sarajevo’s Metropolis Heart: The place Historical past Meets Day by day Life
Some of the compelling elements of exploring Sarajevo is that its metropolis heart is as a lot a historic timeline as it’s a trendy hub. On this compact metropolis, you may stand in a sq. the place emperors as soon as dominated, take pleasure in espresso simply steps from a constructing pocked with bullet holes, and stroll right into a museum that was a library.
All the things you wish to see is inside strolling distance. It’s what makes visiting Sarajevo so highly effective—you’re not simply seeing a metropolis; you’re dwelling its historical past.
10. The Nationwide Museum: Understanding Bosnia’s Id
No journey to Sarajevo is full with no go to to the Nationwide Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, positioned simply outdoors the principle vacationer zone. This huge cultural advanced holds a number of the area’s most important artifacts, together with the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, one of many world’s oldest Jewish manuscripts.
It additionally homes intensive exhibitions on trendy historical past, the Bosnian military, and the way Bosnian tradition advanced via centuries of occupation and resistance. The museum is a cornerstone for anybody wanting to higher perceive the identification and resilience of the Bosnian Muslims, Serbs, Croats, and Jews who name this nation house.
11. Sarajevo Cable Automotive & the Yellow Fortress: Viewpoints With a Story
For panoramic views of Sarajevo, trip the Sarajevo Cable Automotive as much as Mount Trebevi?. This space was as soon as utilized by snipers throughout the siege. The ruins of the 1984 Winter Olympic bobsled observe, now lined in graffiti, lie only a brief stroll from the summit.
One other must-see is the Yellow Fortress. Come right here at sundown to take pleasure in one of the best views of town heart and the encompassing hills. Locals collect right here to interrupt Ramadan fasts, {couples} picnic with cevapi, and the decision to prayer echoes throughout the valley. It’s lovely, humbling, and unforgettable.
12. Sarajevo’s Outdated Jewish Cemetery: A Silent Witness to Historical past
Excessive above town, tucked into the encompassing hills, lies the Outdated Jewish Cemetery, a quiet however highly effective place. Courting again to the Sixteenth century, it is likely one of the largest and most important Jewish cemeteries in Southeast Europe.
Throughout the Bosnian Warfare, this sacred web site was tragically utilized by snipers as a consequence of its strategic elevation. At present, it stays a testomony to the lengthy presence and persecution of the Jewish neighborhood in Sarajevo.
From the Ottoman Empire to Sniper Alley
Sarajevo’s historical past is layered with complexity. Over the centuries, it’s been dominated by the Ottoman Empire, formed by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and absorbed into Socialist Yugoslavia. It was right here that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914, sparking World Warfare I. And many years later, it turned the epicenter of one other world-changing battle, the Bosnian Warfare.
After Herzegovina declared independence in 1992, town discovered itself below siege by Bosnian Serb forces. The Sarajevo siege turned the longest siege of a capital metropolis in trendy historical past, lasting practically 4 years.
For practically 1,400 days, Sarajevo’s compact metropolis heart was shelled from the encompassing hills. Serbian forces, armed and supported by the Yugoslav Individuals’s Military, focused residential blocks, hospitals, faculties, and markets. The town’s lifeline, the airport runway, was below worldwide management, chopping it off from the remainder of the world.
The worldwide neighborhood debated. Civilians had been left to dodge mortar shell explosions, sniper fireplace, and starvation. And but, they endured. That’s why exploring Sarajevo at this time is about greater than ticking off sights, it’s about strolling via survival.
A Forgotten Warfare, A Canadian Story
Between 1992 and 2004, over 40,000 Canadian troops served within the Balkans as United Nations peacekeepers. It was Canada’s largest army deployment because the Korean Warfare. However this wasn’t peacekeeping as we often think about it. They had been below fireplace. They confronted warfare crimes firsthand. And so they had been largely forgotten again house.
And but, again house, it barely registered. No embedded reporters. No front-page headlines. Simply background noise behind O.J. Simpson and Tonya Harding.
However right here in Bosnia & Herzegovina, these Canadians made a distinction. They patrolled ceasefires, protected support convoys, and documented warfare crimes when others turned away. This journey introduced that forgotten story to life, and Sarajevo was the beating coronary heart of it.
In locations just like the Medak Pocket in 1993, they stood between civilians and violence. It marked a uncommon second when Canadian troops instantly engaged in fight whereas defending civilians. Their studies, documenting warfare crimes and mass destruction, contributed to worldwide consciousness and eventual accountability.
Sarajevo and World Warfare II: A Metropolis Torn Twice
Whereas most individuals affiliate Sarajevo with the Bosnian Warfare, town additionally performed a big function throughout World Warfare II. Beneath Nazi occupation, Sarajevo’s Jewish inhabitants was devastated, and resistance actions fashioned deep inside the hills and tunnels of the area. The town fell below a fascist puppet regime, later liberated by partisans supported by Tito’s communist authorities, laying the groundwork for former Yugoslavia.
Strolling via Sarajevo’s Outdated City, you’ll nonetheless discover monuments and plaques marking these occasions, particularly close to the Jewish Cemetery and memorials devoted to fallen resistance fighters.
The Bosnian Warfare Ended, However the Story Continues
Whereas the Bosnian Warfare resulted in 1995 with the Dayton Accords, the aftershocks are nonetheless felt at this time. The settlement break up the nation into two most important entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, the place many Serbs reside at this time.
This division has created a posh system of governance, usually paralyzing political progress. However on the bottom, in locations like Sarajevo, locals are selecting connection over separation. It’s this human spirit that defines Bosnian tradition at this time.
Our Sarajevo Resort Decide
We stayed at Resort Boutique 36, simply steps from Sarajevo’s historic heart. With safe parking, snug rooms, and first-class service, it’s the proper base for exploring town.
Day Journey to Mostar: Historical past in Stone
Only a two-hour drive from Sarajevo, the city of Mostar is likely one of the finest locations to go to in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Its well-known Outdated Bridge (Stari Most) was destroyed throughout the warfare, then rebuilt stone by stone in 2004. At present, it’s a logo of unity, resistance, and rebirth.
The enduring Stari Most (Outdated Bridge), initially constructed within the 1500s, was destroyed throughout the warfare and meticulously rebuilt in 2004. At present, native divers leap from it in a ritual that blends custom and adrenaline.
Wander via Mostar’s Ottoman-era streets, sip espresso by the Neretva River, and climb the minaret at Koski Mehmed Pasha Mosque for a panoramic view. The town continues to be divided, Bosniaks on one facet, Croats on the opposite, however tourism has develop into a quiet bridge between them.
Visiting Jap Bosnia: Echoes of Warfare and Peace
Whereas Sarajevo anchors any itinerary, vacationers must also think about visiting Jap Bosnia, the place cities like Srebrenica and Višegrad maintain darker, less-touristy chapters of the previous. These are areas most impacted by warfare crimes and ethnic cleaning throughout the Nineties.
The drive from Sarajevo’s metropolis heart to Jap Bosnia reveals one other facet of the nation, extra rural, extra rugged, however equally wealthy in tales. You’ll acquire a greater appreciation for the complexity of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a nation nonetheless therapeutic.
Bosnia & Herzegovina Journey Suggestions
Why You Ought to Go to Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2025
Bosnia & Herzegovina is likely one of the most unforgettable locations we’ve visited. It’s emotional, instructional, and deeply rewarding. Sarajevo, specifically, taught us that magnificence and devastation can coexist and that rebuilding is just not solely doable but in addition highly effective.
This nation was deserted by the West throughout its darkest hours. And nonetheless, individuals rebuilt. That’s why visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina is so highly effective. It’s not nearly historical past. It’s about what comes after.
It’s additionally about understanding our function, particularly as Canadians. Canadian peacekeepers had been right here earlier than NATO and earlier than the U.S. stepped in. Their contributions had been actual, and barely talked about. This isn’t only a vacation spot. It’s a narrative. One that also issues. One you’ll carry lengthy after you allow.
Bosnia & Herzegovina Will Keep With You
Bosnia and Herzegovina isn’t only a vacation spot, it’s a narrative. A warning. A celebration of survival. It calls for your consideration. And in the event you journey with an open coronary heart, it’ll reward you with unforgettable recollections, breathtaking landscapes, and a deeper understanding of what resilience really seems like.
Let this be the journey that modifications the way in which you see the world. As a result of Bosnia doesn’t whisper its previous, it speaks it. And in the event you pay attention, you’ll always remember it.
