Bosnia and Herzegovina travel tips
What a visitor's money does in Bosnia and Herzegovina: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Convertible Mark (BAM) · 1 EUR = 1.96 BAM · 1 USD = 1.70 BAM
The convertible mark is pegged to the euro at 1.95583 and euros are often accepted at that rate in Sarajevo and Mostar, though change comes back in marks. Exchange at a bank or a post office; the rate is fixed so there is little to shop for.
Avoid: the standalone machines around the old towns, which charge
Use: UniCredit, Raiffeisen, Sparkasse
The mark is pegged to the euro and euros are often taken at the fixed rate, with change in marks. Cash is still king in the markets and small restaurants.
Ćevapi in Baščaršija — ten small sausages in flatbread with onion and kajmak — is the meal, and the ćevabdžinicas argue about who does it best. Bosnian coffee is a ritual with a copper pot and a sugar cube. Burek is meat only; anything else is a pita. Everything is cheap.
Ćevapi and the coffee, as in Sarajevo, but with more Herzegovinian wine — the Žilavka white and the Blatina red are local and cheap. Eat on a terrace above the river in the evening once the coaches have gone; the bazaar prices drop with the crowd.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
SarajevoBosnia and HerzegovinaWhere the Ottoman bazaar meets the Austro-Hungarian boulevard on one street, a city that hosted an Olympics and survived a siege, and the best coffee ritual in Europe
MostarBosnia and HerzegovinaA stone bridge rebuilt after the war and dived from for money, an Ottoman bazaar either side of it, and the Neretva running green underneath