Getting from Belgrade to Sarajevo

Serbia and Bosnia are two lesser known Digital Nomad destinations, and as with any place that gets less tourist traffic the information about getting around can be a little less complete.

Traveling from Belgrade to Sarajevo on a budget can seem impossible. The options seem a bit limited compared to the rest of Europe, where you can catch a train to just about anywhere. But, Sarajevo is beautiful and well worth the visit, so I’m going to document our experience here in the hopes that it makes it a little bit easier for people to visit and explore this amazing city.

After much research we ended up catching the bus from Belgrade to Sarajevo in December 2018, and aside from seeming a bit intimidating and a having a good deal of uncertainty around booking the ticket, it was a fairly painless experience.

Getting the Ticket

Following some advice from TripAdvisor we did not book the ticket in advance. This was disconcerting, as we like to have our travel booked at least a few days ahead of time.

You can buy the ticket from a ticket window at the main bus station in Belgrade. There was almost no signage in English, but there are several windows with ticket sales, and then an info window.

Despite being able to see a Credit Card machine in the ticket office. I was told that it was cash only.

The ticket cost 2520 RSD per person. You are also given a little token that lets you onto the bus platform (I assume this is to keep hawkers/vagrants out of the space).

Waiting for the Bus

There were limited items for sale at the bus station. Pastries and drinks/coffee and magazines on the platform. The bus turns up roughly 10 minutes before departure. We arrived at the bus station, in retrospect, far too early.

Putting luggage underneath requires having a small tip for the bus staff member (on our bus there was both a driver and ticket checker). This was roughly 1 Euro or 125RSD per bag.

The Trip

The bus that we took (Centrotrans) departed at 08:00 and arrived in Istocno Sarajevo on time at 15:40. The bus was about 1/3 full and picked up and dropped off passengers along the route. Despite having a ‘seat reservation’, nobody was sitting in their assigned seat. Neither did we.

There were 3 rest stops, though they seemed flexible enough that if you absolutely had to go at another time, some of the bus stations along the route have WC that they didn’t stop for long enough at.

The longest stop was 20 minutes at about 10:30 am. It was at a Restaurant, but there was precious little for sale. It is definitely in your interest to bring food, water and caffeine onboard with you.

Neither the bus driver or ticket checker spoke English, so if you do need to communicate with them having Serbian/Bosnian downloaded in Google Translate is a good option.

The Border

The border crossing was uneventful if slow. It happened at ~11:30am at a bridge crossing from MALI ZVORNIK (RS) to KARAKAJ(BiH). The guards collected passports, went away and then handed them back to the bus attendant.

Of note is the fact that the Telenor sim card I picked up in Serbia continued to work for about 30 minutes after the border crossing as the road follows the river for some distance before going inland.

This is useful if you are trying to keep someone updated on your expected arrival time since the border crossing time can be unpredictable.

Arrival

There were more people on the bus for the second half of the journey, and the roads turn very windy as it gets more mountainous in Bosnia. It is also significantly more scenic.

The bus arrives at Istocno Sarajevo (East Sarajevo), which, despite the name is more like S/SW Sarajevo. It is quite far from the city, hotels and AirBnBs. Quite a few of the locals asked to hop off before the bus station, and I presume had a leisurely downhill stroll into the city rather than going part way in and then out again.

There was a row of Taxis waiting on arrival, however our AirBnB host had offered to pick us up for €10 so we did not have to use them. His suggestion was that the taxi would cost €15. Given the risk of getting ripped off in the taxis, it’s worth being aware.

If you’re not already a member you can signup with my referral code and get 55AUD credit on your first trip. I highly recommend the above AirBnB because he made it so much less stressful picking us up.

There was a small kiosk and a cafe at the bus station. We didn’t find it until too late, but the cafe did have free wifi.

It’s worth noting that you will want to have either Euros or Bosnian Marks for the taxi drivers. They will certainly not take Serbian Dinars. I have found having Euros handy to be very useful, but they’re definitely a backup plan since you won’t get a favourable exchange rate.