Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Viator Tour

A Filipina explores (European) roads less traveled.
by Karla Ramos | January 26, 2018

There are only a few reasons why I would rather take a tour in a new city than explore it myself. Usually, the biggest of this is lack of time. This was exactly what prompted me to take a Viator tour when I reached Bosnia and Herzegovina. I was concerned I would not be able to make it past the traffic of border control fast enough for me to take the public bus around the tourist spots. This kind of route is doable, if only I had more time. Instead, I made the split-second decision to do the tour.

Despite having two names, this is really just one country in the Southeastern region of Europe. Usually just referred to as Bosnia, it is located on the Balkan Peninsula. Its capital city is the infamous Sarajevo.

Despite its bloody stint in modern history, the country has a lot of beautiful sights to offer. Our tour group had only 8 people in the English group, which certainly helped me enjoy the country better. Most of my fellow tourists were Spanish. The group left from the Croatian city of Dubrovnik (which is just beside Bosnia).

So the fun begins

Upon leaving Dubrovnik, we first passed through Neum, a small town that was once Croatia’s but was given over to Bosnia. Neum served as our entry point into Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in interesting since it is also the only part of the country that touches the ocean.

We drove on for a few more minutes, and around 10 to 15 kilometers later, we reached… Croatia! Yes, for some reason we’re back in Croatia. Although it makes sense if you look at it from a map — it turns out we simply went through that part of Bosnia that was jutting away from the rest of the country into Croatian territory.

This entry, exit, and subsequent re-entry meant that we had to present our stamps to the border control. After three passages, my passport went berserk with stamps! Only then did we reach Bosnia with finality.