Sarajevo set the bar high for what Bosnia had to offer. But what came next shocked the (excuse my french) shit out of me. I grew up in America, the great South to be specific, and we are anything but short of mountains in our gorgeous and patriotic terrain. But this… well, we will get there.

I arranged a rental car through rentarscars.com and ended up with a car from the Kapitals service–a local rental company in Bosnia. I paid $200.00 for five days of unlimited mileage, full coverage and the car itself. The man at the counter was even nice enough to give us a pass to go into Croatia if we decided to go, a 50 mark value! However, other  companies like Europcar, Hertz and Sixt can be found at the airport and in the old town as well. Tip: Rentalcars.com will offer you wifi service in the car; do not take this! Most rental companies do not offer this service.

With car in tow and no map, we ventured for Mostar. Luckily, we downloaded the app HERE before we left. HERE lets you upload road maps from any city that can be used for navigation without eating into your data. It wasn’t always perfect but it got us in the general vicinity of where we need to be. Instead of following the clearly marked highway signs for the second most popular city in Bosnia, we detoured through the mountains to find the old 1984 Olympic bobsled track. After 15 kilometers, a couple of “nature calls” and windy mountain climbs later, we gave up on the search due to renovations being made to the area.

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On the other side of the mountain, we reached our first and only toll road–a whopping 2.50 Bosnian marks. Again, make sure you have cash on you. They accept cards but it’s often that all of my credit cards are declined at these toll booths and you end up with a lot of pissed off people behind you. Just on the other side of the toll booth we drove past the most delightful looking restaurant ever.What actually caught my attention was the stand of homemade honey and rotating meat skewers over a hot fire sitting right next to it. They didn’t speak English, we didn’t Bosnian but we placed our taste buds in their hands.

In a spectacular conversation using smiles and nods, we were served what would be the best meal of our trip: smoked lamb, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, as well as a traditional yogurt spread that complimented the homemade bread.

After we loaded up on delicious roadside grub (for 50 Marks) and honey, we continued our journey to Mostar. Any GPS will tell you that the route takes around 2 hours and 30 minutes; it took us around 6 hours because we kept stopping to take it all in! Turn after turn, tunnel after tunnel, we were blown away at the beauty before us.

We pulled into Mostar as the sun began to set. Our hotel, just 800 meters outside of the Old Town, was Villa Monera. This was another booking.com find and it was just super; however, keep in mind that most of these hotels only accept cash.

The city is centered around the Stari Most Bridge that connects Mostar together. The biggest difference I noticed compared to Sarajevo was the heavy focus on tourism. Every restaurant, shop and cafe displayed their acceptance of the Euro over their own Mark. But perhaps the biggest attraction are the activities on the bridge itself. For a collected 50 marks, a man belonging to the diving club will jump off the bridge into the water. For 25 euros, you can take the jump yourself! 
But before you can jump off the 24 meter high bridge you must practice your form by jumping off a slightly lower platform. After careful consideration and evaluation of assets, I decided to save the jump for another day.

If you go to Bosnia and only have a few days, here is a tip: Do not miss the drive from Sarajevo to Mostar.

 

Side note: There are a lot of little towns on the route to Mostar. If you have time to stop and have a drink, then I recommend Konjic. This town is known for its woodcarving industry which has been passed on from generation to generation for decades. In the middle of the town is a quaint little bridge that gives a lovely view of the entire town.