Makkatak
Traveller
3 comments
Posted 10 years ago
Me and my buddy are having some trouble figuring our route out for travelling around Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia. With a low budget and limited time, we would like to see Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik, spending 1 day in all but Split and Dubrovnik.
Starting from Budapest, we need to end up in Dubrovnik to take the ferry across to Bari in Italy but we ran into a couple problems. Apparently there are no trains running from Belgrade to Sarajevo, and there is no line to Dubrovnik. The travel times to and from Sarajevo are also much longer than what we have time for, we'd like to spend as little time possible travelling. Our original plan was : Budapest>Belgrade>Sarajevo>Zagreb>Split>Dubrovnik>Bari.
What would be the quickest and cheapest route through these cities?
nltrainer
Traveller
1405 comments
So my advice is plain simple: forget about trains, and certainly that InterRail for there-use BUS or whatever you find running will fill the gaps.
Seeing the route: you could make it much more simple by skipping Beograd-OR go BP-BG-ZR-to SJ bus is better, bus again onward, if you feel its unmissable. If you are the tipical young newbee. collecting countries: change Srbije for Slovenija.
BUS Bgrad-SJ runs near hourly, ends in the Serb part of town, from BAS terminal in BGrad.
Makkatak
Traveller
3 comments
I should have mentioned that this is the second part of our Inter-rail trip plan, the first part going around northern Europe. I think buses might take too long. We are up for going to Slovenia, and we don't really have to go to Belgrade.
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi!
It may help if you post a general topic about your whole route.
Currently, the only international rail link to Bosnia-Herzegowina is the daily Zagreb - Sarajevo train; even the Sarajevo - Mostar - Ploce (in Croatia, on the Adriatic) train(s) have been cut back to the border town of Capljina, so you will have to rely on buses here as well; probably the best route, excluding Belgrade, would be: Budapest - Zagreb - Sarajevo - Mostar - bus to Split - bus to Dubrovnik - Bari
Another possibility would be bus to Dubrovnik - bus to Split, then train again to Zagreb and straight forward to Slovenia - Italy
Flo 8)
Makkatak
Traveller
3 comments
Hey Flo, We didn't know about Mostar, it looks awesome! Looking at what you wrote, we've decided to do Budapest>Zagreb>Sarajevo>Mostar>Dubrovnik by bus. We are going to skip split. Do you know what the bus service is like? We are a little worried about getting it on the right day and the language barrier. Does anyone have experience with this bus service?
anonymous
Traveller
2469 comments
Hey Makkatak!
Last year I've made more or less the route you described using trains & buses. It's absolutely possible and bus travel times are not so long!
So, you from Budapest you can reach Sarajevo going via Zagreb or trough Beograd.
Going via Zagreb you use the train Budapest-Zagreb and than you have to choose: as for as I know from Zagreb to Sarajevo there's only one all-day train - it departs Zagreb at 09:18am and arrives Sarajevo at 06:13pm (I don't know the price). But you also have at least 5 regular buses on this route. Travel time by bus is 8-9hours and the timetable, according to the Zagreb bus station information, is like this:
1. 06:30am from Zagreb - 02:50pm in Sarajevo (price: 198,00 HRK)
2. 12:30pm from Zagreb - 08:55pm in Sarajevo (198,00 HRK)
3. 15:45pm from Zagreb - 23:55pm in Sarajevo (200,00 HRK)
4. 06:50pm from Zagreb - 02:45am in Sarajevo (200,00 HRK)
5. an overnight one - 10:00pm from Zagreb - 06:00am in Sarajevo (198,00 HRK)
If you would like to go via Belgrade, it should be even cheaper. From Budapest to Belgrade you've got two trains daily: [u]https://rail.cc/en/train/budapest-to-belgrade[/u]
If you ask for a Belgrád Specjal offer in Budapest, the ticket will cost only 15EUR (you can even pay it in EUR at Budapest Keleti Station). In my opinion Belgrade is much more worth to see than Zagreb, but it's your choice. From Belgrade to Sarajevo again you have one all-day train or 5 buses. According to Belgrade Bus Station schedule they are like this:
1. 06:15am from Belgrade - 01:30pm in Sarajevo
2. 08:00am - 04:00pm
3. 11:30am - 07:30pm
4. 01:15pm - 08:50pm
5. and an overnight one 10:30pm - 05:00am
Remember, that all the buses stop in Istocno Sarajevo Terminal (in Serbian part of the city). From there it's really easy to go (about 500m) to the Dobrinja trolley stop. The trolleys from Dobrinja will take you right to the city centre for only 2,50 BAM
Mostar is a unique and picturesque city, but it's really small, so (at least for me) a couple of hours is enough to see it. So you can do it like this: go from Sarajevo to Mostar by morning train - it leaves Sarajevo at 06:51am and arrives Mostar at 09:27am. The views from the train are awesome - it's definitely worth to take it! Than at 12:30 (after 4 hours in Mostar) you've got a direct bus to Dubrovnik (it arrives to Dubrovnik about 03:30pm, so quite fast). The scenery from the bus is also great. The price for Sarajevo-Mostar train is 11,00 BAM, and the price of the bus is about 20EUR.
Have a nice trip! :)
anonymous
Traveller
2469 comments
Oh, I'd like to add that all the buses were safe, clean and punctual. We used the night services (e.g. Belgrade-Istochno Sarajevo) without any fears :)
Makkatak
Traveller
3 comments
Thanks!
FabMon
Traveller
62 comments
I´m also going to thank you for the informations about travelling in the Balkans.
As far as my plans go, i would be inclined to go from Sarajevo directly to Kotor in Montenegro but it seems there is no other way around if not going through Dubrovnik. I would need to stay in Dubrovnik as i want to stay a couple of days there then go to Kotor for another few days and then back again to Dubrovnik to then go to Split.
It would be better to from Sarajevo-Kotor and then up to Dubrovnik of course.
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
There should be a bus Sarajevo - Herceg Novi; from there you can get to Kotor on the same day.