{"id":6828,"date":"2016-09-09T08:21:32","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T08:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wearetravelgirls.com\/?p=6828"},"modified":"2025-08-14T22:22:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T05:22:33","slug":"visit-beautiful-town-mostar-bosnia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wearetravelgirls.com\/visit-beautiful-town-mostar-bosnia\/","title":{"rendered":"WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT THE BEAUTIFUL TOWN OF MOSTAR, BOSNIA"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Why are you going to Bosnia? What\u2019s in Bosnia? Isn’t it dangerous there?”<\/em><\/p>\n

These are the questions I was asked several\u00a0times when telling others my plans for a month in Central\/ Eastern Europe last year. By this point, I had seen enough photos on Instagram to know that Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/a>, and the small town of Mostar<\/a> in particular, were going to be my favourite places on my trip. However, for someone who hadn\u2019t seen these beautiful photos and could only link the word Bosnia to the Bosnian War<\/a> that happened between 1992-1995, I can understand\u00a0why it came as such a surprise that I wanted to go.<\/p>\n

\"Mostar-town\"<\/p>\n

Now when I think\u00a0back on this trip, as I had expected, I instantly\u00a0remember Mostar as the highlight!\u00a0Here\u2019s what I got up to and why I fell in love with it so much…<\/p>\n

First on my list of things to see was the Stari Most<\/a> or \u2018Old Bridge.\u2019 I had seen\u00a0the Stari Most\u00a0all over\u00a0Instagram and, as with most famous\u00a0icons, seeing it in real life was just incredible. The Stari Most is\u00a0an arched bridge and not overly big, but with the town surrounding it on either side,\u00a0the mountains behind, and the river running under,\u00a0the bridge\u00a0makes a postcard worthy view!<\/p>\n

\"Old-bridge\"\"Ellie-and-old-bridge\"<\/p>\n

After taking too many photos at Stari Most I started to explore the windy cobble stone streets and two things struck me straight away. Number one – how I no longer felt like I was in Europe, I felt like I was in a\u00a0Middle Eastern Country, and for someone who has a romanticized\u00a0fascination with the Middle East this was a good thing.\u00a0The similarities were\u00a0mainly due to the many minaret\u2019s belonging to the Mosques that peaked out of the towns buildings, the food that was available, the souvenir\u2019s that were being sold and of course every few hours I heard the call to prayer.<\/p>\n

\"Mosque-in-Pocitelj\"<\/p>\n

Secondly, how obvious the war was. There were\u00a0quite a few buildings covered in bullet marks and left abandoned, and a number of street art slogans and signs such as \u2018Don\u2019t Forget\u2019 and \u2018We are all living under the same sky.\u2019 The war was part of the break up of Yugoslavia and an extremely difficult time for the Bosnia and Mostar itself.<\/p>\n

\"Abandoned-building\"\"Dont-forget-sign\"<\/p>\n

You can easily spend a day wandering around Mostar, eating delicious Middle Eastern food (plus an array of delicious ice creams), waiting to see if anybody is brave enough to jump off the Old Bridge (yes really, although mainly it\u2019s the locals as it\u2019s too dangerous for tourists to do), visiting the mosques, talking to the friendly locals and taking plenty of beautiful photos.<\/p>\n

\"Mosque-in-Pocitelj\"<\/p>\n

Apart from how beautiful the town itself is, the next thing I loved about Mostar was how many gorgeous\u00a0places there are surrounding it! Once again I had seen a lot of photos online of these places (Yes, I am an Instagram addict!), but I wasn’t too sure how to go about getting to them. I looked up local bus schedules many times, but in the end I decided to do a day tour with my hostel<\/a>\u00a0and I\u2019m so glad I did. Not only are the sites quite out of the way, but\u00a0I also learnt so much more with a guide and it only cost \u00a320.00.<\/p>\n

One of the stops on the tour is Blagaj Tekke,<\/a> also known as the Dervish Monastery, and it is a must visit. Built around 1520, it\u00a0is an important monument of the early Ottoman Empire. These days you can walk over a bridge covering a little waterfall and visit the photogenic spot like I did as seen in my photo below.\u00a0The white building, the blue water and the rock face\u00a0make it\u00a0simply stunning! Going inside is well worth it too, but note you do need to cover up.<\/p>\n

\"Blagaj-tekke\"<\/p>\n

Next up is the medieval village of Pocitelj<\/a>. We were\u00a0dropped off at the top and had time to slowly make our way to the bottom, stopping off at the fortress for lots of pictures with the beautiful scenery of mountains, the river and of course some mosques in the background. This town was deeply affected and damaged by the war and only a small amount of people live there now, so\u00a0it really feels like you\u2019ve stepped back in time.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in this area of Europe then of course a waterfall has to be around the corner somewhere, and Kravice Falls<\/a> is the perfect place to cool off in the summer\u00a0or to simply have as scenery to enjoy whilst you stop for lunch!<\/p>\n

\"Kravice-Falls\"<\/p>\n

Finally, just before we got back into Mostar, we ended our day trip by driving up one of the hills that gave a brilliant view over the town. Our guide showed us the road which divides East and West Mostar which was the main divide during the war.\u00a0I spent 3 nights and 2 full days in Mostar and, although I could have stayed a day or two longer pottering around, I felt it was enough time to see the town and surrounding area. Getting there isn\u2019t overly easy, but I always say that if a place is hard to get to then you know it\u2019s going to be good!<\/p>\n

\"View-over-Mostar\"<\/p>\n

Your best option if you\u2019re already travelling through Europe is to get a train into the capital Sarajevo and then another train or bus to Mostar (the view on this leg is simply stunning!). Alternatively, it’s just a 2-3 hour bus journey<\/a> from Split in Croatia (also with beautiful scenery!). I took an overnight bus from Zagreb in Northern Croatia, but\u00a0it was one of the worst overnight journeys I\u2019ve ever done so I would avoid this route\u00a0if possible. You can also fly into the capital Sarajevo, but flights from London\u00a0are quite expensive with limited direct routes so this may prove difficult and rather costly. However it is still worth checking flights from other cities because they may be cheaper!<\/p>\n

\"Ellie-and-view-over-Pocitelj\"<\/p>\n

I highly recommend making the trip over to this little Eastern European town, as it\u2019s so worth\u00a0the effort to get there. Hopefully this post has convinced you to Mostar to your bucket list if it wasn’t on there already! As I\u00a0mentioned at the start other people may question your decision, but as they say \u2018To travel is to realise people are wrong about other Countries.’<\/em><\/p>\n

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Have you been to Bosnia? If you have any additional tips for our readers or questions please leave these in the comments below. <\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

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