How to plan your travel to Bosnia?
 

First of all you have to know geographical locations of the places you visit – are they in central Bosnia like Sarajevo, or on the south like Mostar, or maybe on the northwest like Bihac – so you don’t plan to travel from south to northwest while avoiding to visit some places on your way, but later on you plan to come back again to visit those places.
Because of that I will try to give you some picture of touristic locations in Bosnia and Herzegovina so you can create by yourself some kind of the plan for your stay in Bosnia.
Your visiting to Bosnia should have smallest amount of moving your belongings with you, smallest amount of check ins and check outs from hotels, so you should plan to have some kind of bases from witch you will travel and visit some locations and come back to it to spend a night there.
First logical base is of course Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the only town with a suitable airport where you can arrive. From Sarajevo you can visit most of the places and touristic sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina in “one day trips”. You are in the real need for leaving Sarajevo only when you would like to visit Bihać that is located some 310 kilometers north west from Sarajevo (4.5-5 hours of driving), because going there and returning in the same day would probably killed you and you probably wouldn’t see anything, but some rare people do this. I don’t recommend this!
From Sarajevo you can visit every tourist location to the south in Herzegovina in one day trip so there is no real need for spending a night in Mostar particularly during the summer when Mostar is really really really hot with temperatures sometimes above 40 degrees Celsius.
Second important thing that makes you prefer stay in Sarajevo and go to these one day trips is the fact that most of the tourist guides, people who speak Arabic or English, and those who are welcome you at the airport and take you to these trips are located in Sarajevo. When you go to Bihac or any other location out of Sarajevo and you have a driver with you, than you should pay a room at the hotel for the driver also as the part of the deal, and that makes your trip a little bit more expensive. But when you stay in Sarajevo and return there every night, driver go to his home and you have to pay only for the trip. Of course, this does not consider those who rent a car and drive by themselves 
What you can visit from Sarajevo in one day trips?
1. Whole south of Bosnia. There is a one day trip to Konjic, Jablaničko lake, Mostar with the old Bridge, spring of the river Buna in Blagaj, old town Počitelj and Kravice waterfalls. During the summer there is a possibility for a rafting trip to Konjic (50 kilometers south of Sarajevo) where you ride a rubber boat on Neretva river – this is also a second one day trip better to go to it from Sarajevo because it is closer to it than from Mostar. If you stay in Bosnia for really long time of 12-15 days there is a possibilities of visiting some other lakes in the south like Boračko lake, Ramsko lake, Buško lake also from Sarajevo.
2. Olimpic mountains of Sarajevo. These mountains are close to Sarajevo (Bjelašnica and Igman) and is suitable for one day visits. Some people stay in hotel Han on Bjelasnica mountain because it is very peaceful and quite colder during the summer than Sarajevo, but there is also a problem when you have to rent a driver to visit other places from there if you stay for nights in mountains. During your visit to the mountains you can rent a buggy that will take you to the Lukomir, an ancient Bosnian village on the 1600 meters above sea level, where you can still meet people live their lives like they live before hundreds of years but also see some amazing landscapes.
3. One day trip in Sarajevo with the visit to the spring of the river Bosna near Ilidža, war museum in Sarajevo, Baščaršija The Old Town of Sarajevo, Zmajevac hill with a nice view on Sarajevo, Park prinčeva restaurant with a nice view, shopping centers in Sarajevo like BBI, Sarajevo City Center, Alta, Importane. I recommend you to left this trip for the last day in Sarajevo when you can rest before your flight, but also buy some of the presents for your family
4. Bijambare caves is located some 55 kilometers to the north of Sarajevo on the 950 meters above sea level. The place is located in the beautiful forest where you can enter the caves under ground
5. Prokoško lake located on Vranica mountain near Fojnica town. Fojnica is located 50 kilometers from Sarajevo, and the lake is located 18 kilometers from Fojnica on the 1650 meters above sea level. The road from Fojnica to the lake is really hard and there is no asphalt, but if you want to see a real mountain and beauty you should go for it. Because the lake is located so high it’s visiting is possible only during the summer. The snow is there even in month of May
6. Travnik and Vlašić mountain is located some 90-110 kilometers respectively from Sarajevo on your way to Jajce and Bihać. I write this because it is within a reach from Sarajevo and you can make a one day trip to this location from Sarajevo if you stay in Bosnia for a limited number of days, but you have to reconsider how you will visit Travnik and Vlašić if you would like to visit also Jajce and Bihać. Travnik is right on the road to Jajce and you should pass through it, while Vlasic mountain is by the side of the road and this would be considered as an additional agreement between you and a driver if you pay to visit Vlašić while you go to Jajce for example.
7. If you stay 3-5 days in Bosnia you can visit Jajce from Sarajevo in one day trip which is located some 175 kilometers northwest from Sarajevo. On your way you should pass through Travnik, but is you intend to visit Bihać during your stay in Bosnia don’t go to Jajce separately in one day trip from Sarajevo because you should pass through Travnik and Jajce on your way to Bihać.
There is also some destinations for visiting from Sarajevo, but here is the most wanted ones and suitable for the people visiting Bosnia for the first time. I didn’t mention the possibility of renting an airplane from Visoko town that will take you on the flight above Sarajevo, horse rides in Sarajevo, paragliding on Bjelasnica mountain, going to the barbecue to the mountains, renting a private houses near Sarajevo located in the mountains that would also took a day or two. There is a lot of possibilities that you can arrange with your travel agency or your driver depending on how skilled he is.
This article is just an introduction for now and it is about Sarajevo and destinations that you can reach from it in your one day trips. When the time allows I will add some more insformations about Vlašić mountain, Jajce and Bihać considering it also as bases for one day visits.

رد: How to plan your travel to Bosnia?
 

رد: How to plan your travel to Bosnia?
 

رد: How to plan your travel to Bosnia?
 

After you came to Sarajevo and decide to move further North in your exploration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is a three possible places that you can spend your night at – Vlasic mountain, Jajce and Bihac.
If you stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina for a short period like 5-6 days I would not recommend you to stay at Vlasic or Jajce because it is possible to visit those places on your way to Bihac and when you come back from there. So, basically, in that short period you will spend 2-3 days in Sarajevo, 2 days on your way to Bihac and at least one day more in Sarajevo before you leave the country.
If you stay 8-9 days in Bosnia I would always recommend you to stay at least one night on Vlasic mountain because the hotel is very good, and if you don’t prefer better hotel, but you want to have some difference, than you can spent a night in Jajce also.
As I mentioned before, staying in these places will have an additional cost if you have a local tourist guide with you since he will leave Sarajevo with you. If you rent a car for yourself than this is not a problem.
So… what you can visit from these places?
If you stay on Vlasic mountain above Travnik you have pretty limited options because you are on the mountain and going somewhere require going down from the mountain and going up after you finish your daily trip. So basically I recommend Vlasic as a resting base on your trip to Bihac or on your way back, because trip from Sarajevo to Bihac is 320 km long, and Vlasic is located some 110 km from Sarajevo. The best option for you is to plan visiting Bijambare cave complex in the day you leave Sarajevo (50 kilometers from Sarajevo to the north east), and after that you head toward Travnik, spend some time there before sundown and climb to the Vlasic mountain before dark. So that day will be fulfilled. Tomorrow you head toward Bihac and you have all day long to visit Jajce, it’s waterfall, lake and to enjoy there, so spending a night there is not the best option.
After you finish with Bihac you can go back and spend another night at Vlasic so you don’t drive to far toward Sarajevo in one day. After that night you can visit Prokosko lake that is located somewhere between Vlasic and Sarajevo (50 km far from both) and come to the Sarajevo before sunset.
If you have rented car with you and you want to spend some more days on Vlasic you can visit these places in one day trips:
1. Travnik is a town right below Vlasic mountain some 12 km far from your hotel. You came through it when you want to climb on Vlasic – so basically it is not for a one day trip, but it is some kind of your neighborhood. During your stay on Vlasic you can explore the mountain. There is some nice places with an amazing view over the valley from where you can see 3 towns - Travnik, Turbe and Vitez. You can visit Eco village FIS some 2-3 km from your hotel where you can enjoy in some sport activities, adrenaline park and see some deer in the it’s natural habitat surrounded by fence. There is also some playground suitable for kids and sometimes during the summer you can ride a horses right in front of the hotel. Vlasic is a mountain famous for specific kind of cheese made from the sheep milk and you can visit villages and see sheep, cows, horses and other domestic animals.
2. The better way for visiting Prokosko lake is from Sarajevo, but if you have a car and want to spend some days on Vlasic it is possible to visit this lake some 50 kilometers far from Vlasic near the town of Fojnica.
3. You can visit Jajce, waterfall and lake if you want. It is just 60-70 kilometers far from Vlasic on the way to Bihac
4. You can visit town of Zenica located some 40 kilometers far from Vlasic. There is not much things to see there, but if you have planty of time you can go there. After Zenica and 15 kilometers there is a medieval fortress in Vranduk, and some 15 kilometers to the north there is a nice park suitable for barbecue
If you spend a night in Jajce, what you can visit?
The Jajce is not really a base for your trips because it is just a town in the middle of your trip to Bihac and I could consider it just as a resting place. It is a really nice town with a lot beautiful things to see like an amazing waterfall and beautiful lake Plivsko where you can rent a boat, have a barbecue on the lake, see some watermills on the small waterfalls. It is suitable for spending a night maybe, but not more than that, because the hotels on the lake is not so modern as hotels in other places, there is no services around hotels (supermarkets, stores, restaurants other than those inside of hotel, ect.).
It is more than enough time to stay there for a few hours on your way to Bihac and when you come back from Bihac. That way you will rest there and enjoy the beautiful nature in Jajce.

Thank you alot for the fantastic guide line