1 Week in Bosnia: 7-Day Itinerary from €700

One week in Bosnia costs about €700-910 per person mid-range ($805-1,045, or £600-780), covers 580 km of driving, and closes a southern loop: Sarajevo → Mostar and the Herzegovina day trips → Trebinje → back. This is the day-by-day plan once you’ve already settled on roughly seven days.

You’ll want a car. Cities link by bus and the Sarajevo-Mostar train, but Blagaj, Počitelj, Kravice and the Neretva canyon sit off the public-transport map. No single day is a slog at this pace. Still choosing between 4, 7 or 10 days? Start with how many days in Bosnia. Only got a long weekend? See 3 days in Bosnia. Got ten days and want the north? Jump to the 10-day Bosnia road trip.

7 days vs 10 days

Three guides answer three different questions:

• How many days in Bosnia - decide the length (3-4 / 5-7 / 10+ trade-offs). No day-by-day driving plan.
• This 7-day itinerary - run the classic week: south loop only (Sarajevo, Mostar, Trebinje), about 580 km.
• 10-day Bosnia road trip - same south, then Jajce and Una National Park, about 1,050 km.

Pick seven days when Bosnia is the main event and you want Herzegovina in depth without a five-hour transfer day. Pick ten only if Jajce’s town-centre waterfall and Una rafting are on your list - those three extra days buy the north, not a slower version of this same loop. Don’t bolt Jajce onto day 7; the drive from Trebinje is about 250 km and five-plus hours, and it eats the day.

One week in Bosnia: the loop at a glance

Nights: two in Sarajevo, three in Mostar as a Herzegovina base, one in Trebinje, then the drive home. With five days, cut Trebinje and drive Mostar straight back. Come in May, June or September for warm days, swimmable rivers and none of the July-August crush; best time to visit Bosnia goes month by month, and in winter the same shape reshapes around the ski slopes above Sarajevo (Bosnia in winter). Want the east instead of another southern night? The Eastern Bosnia Drina route is a separate three-day loop to Višegrad and Sutjeska - don’t try to staple it onto this week.

Which airport to fly into

Almost everyone flying in for one week lands at Sarajevo (SJJ), and for this loop that’s the right call: the route starts and finishes in the capital, so a return ticket into SJJ keeps the hire car simple and avoids a one-way drop-off fee. The airport is 12 km from the centre, 15 to 25 minutes by road; our Sarajevo airport guide covers taxis, the trolleybus and transfers.

Two alternatives are worth pricing. Tuzla (TZL) is Wizz Air’s Bosnian base and often far cheaper from Western and Northern Europe, but it sits two to two and a half hours from Sarajevo by road, so add the transfer to the fare. Dubrovnik or Split can beat both from the UK or Ireland: fly to the coast, hire the car there, and run this loop in reverse, opening in Trebinje or Mostar and finishing in Sarajevo. Tell the rental desk you’re crossing into Bosnia so the Green Card cover is on the paperwork. Our guide to which airport to fly into lays out the decision. For where to sleep once you’re in, start with where to stay in Bosnia and the city pages for Sarajevo and Mostar.

Days 1-2: Sarajevo

Give the capital two nights; it rewards a slow read more than almost any city its size. Sarajevo is laid out like a timeline you can walk: step off the Ottoman bazaar, cross a brass line in the pavement, and you’re on a Habsburg boulevard, with the scars of the 1990s siege legible through all of it. Base yourself in or beside Baščaršija, the old bazaar.

Day one is the old town on foot: the Sebilj fountain, the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque of 1531, the “Sarajevo Meeting of Cultures” line where east meets west, and the Latin Bridge, where the shot that started the First World War was fired on 28 June 1914. Day two goes deeper and higher - the Tunnel of Hope museum by the airport (20 KM, cash in marks) tells the siege honestly, and the cable car up Mount Trebević delivers the finest overview of the city, with the abandoned 1984 Olympic bobsled track a short walk from the top station. Our hour-by-hour 2 days in Sarajevo itinerary maps out exactly these two days, and the full Sarajevo guide has the rest.

Pick up your hire car on the morning of day three, not before: the bazaar quarter is pedestrian and tight for parking, and an idle car is still a paid-for car.

Day 3: Sarajevo to Mostar, the scenic way

Don’t rush this drive. It’s about 130 km and 2 to 2.5 hours down the M17 through the Neretva canyon, but you’ll want stops, so give it the day. The first stretch out of Sarajevo is motorway (A1 through the Ivan Tunnel); after the toll you drop onto the two-lane M17 and follow the river. Share it with trucks - tuck in and watch the gorge. Tolls, Cyrillic signs and winter-tyre rules: driving in Bosnia.

Break at Konjic, roughly halfway. Its restored Ottoman stone bridge is a five-minute stop, and the town hides ARK D-0, Tito’s secret nuclear bunker - a Cold War command complex dug 280 metres into the mountain (1953-1979). You only go in on a prebooked guided tour (60-90 minutes). Prefer water? Konjic also launches Neretva rafting. Either way it’s a natural lunch stop before the last hour to Mostar.

Roll into Mostar in the late afternoon, once day-trip buses leave. Check into a guesthouse in or just above the Old Town on the east bank, park on the flatter edges, and walk down to Stari Most as the light goes gold.

Day 4: Mostar and Blagaj

Spend the morning on Mostar while it’s quiet. Everything orbits Stari Most, the single-arch Ottoman bridge rebuilt after it was shelled in 1993 and reopened in 2004; cross it slowly - the stone is worn glassy and steeper than photos suggest. In summer divers leap 24 metres into the Neretva for tips (tradition since 1664; don’t try it yourself). Then lose an hour in Kujundžiluk, the coppersmiths’ bazaar, and climb the Koski Mehmed-Paša minaret for the river view. Full rundown: things to do in Mostar.

In the afternoon, drive 12 km southeast to Blagaj (15-25 minutes). The Blagaj Tekke is a white 16th-century dervish house flush against a 200-metre cliff, where the Buna bursts from a cave - Europe’s largest karst spring by flow. Entry about 10 KM, cash only, with a real dress code (shoulders and knees; free wraps at the door). Most people photograph and leave; you’ve got time to climb the ruined Stjepan-grad fortress, and in summer take the boat into the spring cave. Detail: Blagaj Tekke.

Back in Mostar, eat two or three streets back from the bridge (riverside places charge a view premium), order ćevapi or grilled trout, and finish with Bosnian coffee.

Day 5: The Herzegovina loop - Počitelj and Kravice

This is the day that justifies the hire car. South of Mostar, two of the region’s headline sights sit an easy drive apart, and no useful bus links them.

Head south on the old M17/M6 line first to Počitelj, about 30 km and half an hour from Mostar. It’s a stepped Ottoman-medieval town stacked up a hillside above the Neretva: a fortress first raised by King Tvrtko I in 1383, an Ottoman mosque of 1563, a stone clock tower, all climbing the slope in pale limestone. It’s free, open all hours, and takes 45-90 minutes to wander and climb; from the citadel you look back over terracotta roofs to the river, largely to yourself outside the tour-bus windows.

From Počitelj it’s another 30-40 minutes to the Kravice Waterfalls (about 40 km from Mostar all in). Kravice is a broad horseshoe of falls on the Trebižat, roughly 28 metres high and 120 metres across, tumbling over a curved travertine ledge into a wide green pool, and from June to September it doubles as the best swimming hole in the country. Entry is 20 KM (about €10), cash, year-round, with parking charged on top; the water tops out around a bracing 20°C and there are no lifeguards, but under a Herzegovina sun it’s glorious. Go early or late to dodge the midday coach crush - our Kravice guide covers the fee, the swim season and the timing.

Drive back to Mostar for a third and final night.

Day 6: Mostar to Trebinje

Time to leave the Neretva and cross into the country’s other half. It’s about 115 km and just over two hours from Mostar to Trebinje, and the drive is part of the reward: take the road via Stolac and pause at the Radimlja necropolis, a field of medieval stećci, before the empty karst road climbs toward Republika Srpska. There’s no passport check between the entities - same country, same currency - but the signage switches to Cyrillic. Note the speed patrols around Stolac and Ljubinje.

Trebinje is where the week slows down: a walled 18th-century Ottoman old town around a plane-tree square, in Herzegovina’s wine country. Its landmark is the Arslanagić Bridge, an Ottoman span of 1574 taken apart stone by numbered stone when the river was dammed in the 1960s, then rebuilt upstream. Up on the hill, the Hercegovačka Gračanica church looks centuries old but was finished in 2000; climb for the view. A few kilometres out, Tvrdoš Monastery makes its own wine; a tasting of Vranac red or Žilavka white is the right close to a driving day. Spend the night: once Dubrovnik day-trippers leave, the square is one of the most relaxed evening spots in the country. Our Trebinje guide covers wineries and walks.

Day 7: Back to Sarajevo

The last day is the longest drive, so start reasonably early. Closing the loop from Trebinje back to Sarajevo is roughly 220 km and about 3.5-4 hours the sensible way, back up through the Neretva valley past Mostar. (The eastern route through Bileća, Gacko and Nevesinje looks shorter but is slower over mountain roads.) Break it wherever you fancy a coffee.

If your flight home is out of Sarajevo, reach the airport with time to drop the car. Flying from Dubrovnik instead is a common move, since it’s close to Trebinje: skip the drive north and finish on the Croatian coast. Our sister site’s Dubrovnik guide covers that end.

What the week costs

Prices come in convertible marks (KM), fixed at 1 EUR = 1.95583 KM. Our Bosnia trip cost guide puts mid-range travel at €100-130 per person per day, so €700-910 for the week (about $805-1,045, or £600-780). Two people sharing a double and splitting a hire car sit at the bottom of that band; a solo traveller paying for both alone sits at the top. Backpacker pace: €45-60 a day (€315-420 for the week). Comfort: €160-200 a day.

The 580 km loop burns roughly 38 litres in a small petrol car. At late-July 2026 pump prices (Super 95 mostly 2.75-3.00 KM a litre) that’s about 105-115 KM, or €55-60, for the whole week’s fuel. Diesel is dearer than petrol here (around 3.10-3.35 KM a litre), so the usual “take the diesel” reflex doesn’t pay off on a week this short. Only the brief A1 stretch near Sarajevo charges a toll. Carry cash in marks for gates that take nothing else: Blagaj (10 KM), Kravice (20 KM plus parking), the divers’ bucket at Stari Most, village cafés.

Renting a car and getting around

A hire car is the backbone of this itinerary from day three onward. Book it in Sarajevo for pickup the morning you leave the city:

• Cross-border paperwork. If you might finish in Dubrovnik, tell the rental company and get the Green Card noted; some agencies restrict certain cars from leaving. Full detail in Bosnia car rental.
• Gearbox. Manuals dominate; book early if you need an automatic.
• The roads. Outside the short Sarajevo motorway you’re on two-lane roads with trucks: good surfaces, modest average speeds. Watch for speed traps, especially in Republika Srpska.

Prefer not to drive? Private transfers between cities with local drivers for the day trips work, but cost more and lose spontaneity. Food picks live in the restaurant directory; headline sights sit on the attractions hub.

Got longer than a week? Open the 10-day Bosnia road trip and keep this southern loop while you add Jajce and the Una. Prefer wilderness over the northwest? Swap those northern days for Sutjeska National Park and Maglić or the Eastern Bosnia Drina route. Still unsure on length? Back to how many days in Bosnia.

One week done this way - two cities, a canyon drive, waterfalls and a dervish house, a wine town to finish - is still the best introduction to Bosnia you can book. Keep the driving unhurried, keep marks in your pocket, and you’ll end the week wishing you’d booked longer.