Getting to Bosnia and Herzegovina
1. BY AIR
The main airport in Bosnia and Herzegovina is Sarajevo International Airport.
There are direct flights from Munich, Budapest, Vienna, Zagreb, Milan, Belgrade, Ljubljana, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart, Zurich, Istanbul and Prague. There are no direct scheduled services between Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Other airports in Bosnia
AIRPORTS NEAR BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Aer Lingus currently operates a direct service between Dubrovnik and Dublin.
Ryanair currently operates a direct service between Zadar and Dublin.
2. BY CAR
Bosnia and Herzegovina has begun major construction on the C5 corridor that will link Bosnia with major motorway routes to the Croatian coast to the south and Budapest to the North. Road conditions have much improved in the last number of years making driving throughout Bosnia a safer and more pleasant experience. The road system in Bosnia tends to be twisty as many of the main roads are constructed through mountain valleys.
The national authority responsible for traffic information and safety is the Automobile Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIHAMK).
3. RAIL TRAVEL
The railway system was badly damaged during the war but restoration is underway. Rail services now link Sarajevo, Mostar, Doboj and Banja Luka to Zagreb, Belgrade, Budapest, Ljubljana and Ploče. However, services are slow - the Sarajevo-Zagreb journey takes around ten hours. Train schedules can be found on Croatian Railways website.
There are only three routes that originate in Sarajevo: the Sarajevo-Zenica-Banja Luka-Zagreb route takes about ten hours from start to finish, the northern route to Budapest goes via Tuzla and the southern route towards the Adriatic coast is Konjic-Jablanica-Mostar-Čapljina-Ploče (Croatia). This last route goes through the Neretva Canyon and is particularly scenic. Even on these three routes, trains do not go quite as frequently as the buses do.
4. MARITIME TRAVEL
Bosnia and Herzegovina has only one small strip of coast at Neum
and no passenger ferries dock there.
With seasonal schedules, passenger ferries do come from Italy
(Ancona and Bari) to the ports of Split and Dubrovnik in Croatia,
from where it is possible to transfer overland to Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
The following ferry companies’ websites may be of use: SEM, Jadrolinija and
Adriatica
Navigazione.
5. BY BUS
The bus system of Bosnia and Herzegovina functions well. Centrotrans/Eurolines and a range of smaller bus companies have reliable bus routes to many locations throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Centrotrans is a Eurolines member and runs regular buses from many European destinations to Sarajevo. Bus schedules, on-line reservations and main European office addresses can be found on the Centrotrans website.
