Learn about Funky Tours, who we are, what we do and how we came to be! Explore our mission and vision and what kind of travel experience we strive for.
Learn about Funky Tours, who we are, what we do and how we came to be! Explore our mission and vision and what kind of travel experience we strive for.
Explore how Funky Tours is involved in humanitarian work and be part of our Giving Back philosophy.
East Bosnia and West Serbia, two regions enriched with numerous cultural, historical and nature wonders, are simply not to miss when passing near or travelling around these regions.
This amazing UNESCO off the beaten path tour is created with a focus on absolutely beautiful yet remote parts of East Bosnia and West Serbia which will easily make this trip a highlight of your travels.
By far, per listed itinerary (7 stops), this is the most diverse connecting day tour between Sarajevo and Belgrade. Having tons of beautiful stops and outbound costs, always aiming at great travellers experiences, this tour in comparison to other means of travel, is the best optimised cost-benefit service you can get on the market. We guarantee it.
Among other outbound costs mentioned, such as Šargan Eight train ride or visit to Drvengrad village, we can’t pass by and skip beautiful Drina river cruise or visit National Park Tara.
Simply, perception of grandiosity of the UNESCO site of Mehmed Paša Sokolović bridge, can’t be experienced by just walking across it, and taking few photos from a side. You must go under it. In the same time, at Višegrad, we enjoy to help local boat businesses thrive.
National Park Tara’s most beautiful viewpoint is not accessible by asphalt road, part of it is macadam. We don’t mind detouring several tens of kilometre, and putting bit more amortization on our vehicles and gas costs, for our guests, to probably once in the lifetime, enjoy the amazing views from Banjska Stena.
If you ever get into situation where you are comparing products on the market, please don’t judge them by the price only, take a deeper look into what you get in return, aka: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
Departure Times Daily at 7.45 AM.
Pickup Locations If you are staying in the old town of Sarajevo meet us at our office. If you are bit away from us, please let us know and we can organise advance pickup.
Activity Note: The tour is adapted to all ages and is not physically demanding. Due to the distance of the locations, we use vehicles during the tour.
After departing Sarajevo in the morning 7.45 AM we’ll take approx. 45min ride to reach Rogatica and first stop of the day, Borak Stećci necropolis near the Burati village. This hidden gem deep in the misty forests of East Bosnia just recently inscribed as UNESCO World heritage, so we surely make a visit there. We will discover unique history of Medieval Bosnian Kingdom and figure out why these block of limestone are scattered all around Bosnia and Herzegovina. The necropolis is bit hidden in the forest so bit of hiking is required to find them.
>Borak – UNESCO Stećak Necropolis
Later, we ride for one more hour, through mountain parts of Bosnia before we meet up with turquoise Drina river canyon, and arrive to Višegrad.
Višegrad is home to UNESCO heritage too, an Ottoman time bridge built in 1577. by the Grand Vizier Mehmed Pasa Sokolović. The UNESCO summary: “The unique elegance of proportion and monumental nobility of the property as a whole bear witness to the greatness of this style of architecture.” is definitely reason to visit such a beautiful place.
The book: “Bridge Over Drina” by Bosnian and Travnik born, World famous Nobel Prize winner, Yugoslav writer Ivo Andrić ,has given most of the glory to this amazing place and we surely recommend you to read this novel before coming to this region and for this tour. This way you can better understand historical importance of this area in regard to a local but as well to a global aspect.
As soon as we see the Bridge and take the river cruise through amazingly green Drina river, we’ll explore stone town of Andrićgrad (eng.Andrić town). Small, stone made town, recently built, named and dedicated after novelist Ivo Andrić. Site also interpreting story of once glorious and very successful Yugoslavian cinematography from perspective of one of the best local directors – Emir Kusturica.
>Andricgrad – stone town dedicated to Bosnian/Yugoslavian Nobel Prize Winner Ivo Andrić and UNESCO site of Mehmed pasa Sokolovic bridge
As soon as we finish story of Višegrad, we’ll continue driving towards east Bosnian border and on the way will pay visit to one of the most important Serbian Orthodox monasteries, Dobrun Monastery. Originally built in 1343 with frescoes preserved until today is ideal stop to learn more about local history and enjoy the amazing nature surrounding it.
>Ortodox (Serbian) Monastery at Dobrun – Bosnia and Herzegovina
Later on, time to cross the Bosnia to Serbia border and as soon as we do, we will enter amazing area of nature park of “Šargan-Mokra Gora”.
First stop (for lunch possibly) will be ethno village of Drvengrad (eng.Timber Town) also know as Küstendorf and Mećavnik. Village-town designed by the movie director Emir Kusturica for his movie “Life is Miracle” and the design which won the “Philippe Rotthier European Architecture Award” from the Brussels Foundation for Architecture.
Why the place looks out of this world? Why it won one of the most prestigious awards in world of the architecture? The best is to come with us and see it for yourself.
>Drvengrad – Mecavnik – A wooden town in West Serbia
After lunch at Drvengrad we are about to take train ride, but not just any train ride, we will do the famous “Šargan Eight”.
The Šargan Eight is narrow gauge (760mm) steam railway originally built in 1925., famously called Ćira (Chira). Once it used to connect Sarajevo and Belgrade, and the name “eight” origins from the pure shape of the track which if looked from the sky looks like number 8.
It was made famous for the impressive engineering which enabled it to rapidly climb height of 300m over the short distance 3.500m where total length is of the railway today is 15.440m. Stunningly, all of that was achieved by passing through 22 tunnels and 5 bridges. Quite amazing stuff even on the global scale of rail and train engineering at the time, but the most amazing for us is that we are going to experience this story. Today the train, after it was closed in 1974, is again reopen for primarily tourist reasons, but as well for true lovers of old school steam train engineering. Simply interesting and stunning.
Read more about Bosnian Gauge also known “Bosnaspur” or “Bosnische Spurweite”.
>Šargan Eight Train
As soon as we end amazing train ride we’ll continue, and on the way we will stop to explore amazing region of one of the most beautiful National Parks in Serbia – National Park Tara.
National Park Tara (declared in 1981.) with its biological diversity is one of the most amazing areas in whole of Serbia, offering great nature experiences, stunning views, hiking and trekking opportunities, unique Picea Omorica, vast animal diversity, and many other ways to fully enjoy life.
One of the most important stops will be stunning viewpoint of “Banjska Stena” which offers an amazing panorama of Perućac Lake on Drina river, which naturally borders Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
Return to Sarajevo is planned in the very late evening, around 8-9 PM.
>Banjska Stena viewpoint at Tara National Park – Serbia
What Do I Need to Bring?
Outstanding guides and amazing services
Adnan was an extraordinarily knowledgeable, friendly, compassionate and great guy to spend a day learning and touring with. He weaves his personal experiences as a soldier during the war to powerfully inform current day realities.
Funky provides responsive, creative itineraries at great value. We learned so much.
Beautiful Sights
I loved this tour! Ema was very helpful during my booking process and answered all of my questions in a timely process. My guide Taib was very personable and gave great information about each of the sights we went to. We did run into a mishap when crossing into Serbia as I would have needed a covid test to get back to Bosnia but my guide was able to show me some additional other sights to make use of that time which I really appreciated.
Visegrad was beautiful! I highly recommend this tour to anyone interested in seeing these areas during your visit to this stunning country!
Warm , friendly and reliable experience – Multiple tours
My friends and I had used services of Funky Tour during our short vacation in Bosnia
The tours we booked were
1) Sarajevo War Tunnel Tour
2) Mostar Day Tour + Kravice falls
3) Travnik, Jajce & Pliva Lakes With Central Bosnia
4) East Bosnia and West Serbia Day Tour
For First tour we had Taib as our guide along with Faris driving the van.
The tour was well done , therefore we booked the second tour while in the van itself.
Needless to say our Mostar trip was also a success with same guide & driver , so we booked the Travnik tour with them.
This time we had Arna , who turned out to be equally good and she bonded easily with the girls.
The last tour was with Haris, another charming fellow and an equally good guide.
On the whole we unanimously agreed that selecting Funky Tours was one of the best decisions we had ever taken, and one of the best experiences we have had with a tour agency.
Needless to say it was an memorable trip majorly thanks to Funky tours, what really made the trip special was the warmth and friendliness of the guides and staff of Funky Tours.
The staff with whom we interacted were all down to earth, accommodating, friendly and always happy to help be it endless stops for photos or extra time at a place or even helping us buy Bosnian sweets without getting ripped off. All these were done without impression or indication that they were looking for tips, but were really genuine heartfelt gestures.
A big shout out to Taib, Arna , Haris , Faris and not to forget Ema
Definitely the best tour you can take from Sarajevo
Bosnia es un país realmente realmente hermoso. Luego de unos días en Sarajevo, teníamos de conocer algo más de Bosnia y Herzegovina y, si fuese posible, de Serbia, previo seguir camino a Mostar.
Encontramos este tour con la agencia Sarajevo Funky Tour puesto que ya habíamos hecho otro tour con ellos, altamente recomendados por mi prima que había estado en Sarajevo antes.
Y entonces, sin dudar nos contactamos con la agencia.
La agencia es perfecta, amabilidad, servicio, rapidez en contestar, los tours que ofrecen son impresionantes, los guías buenísimos.
Pero este tour en particular merece una review específica porque realmente no recuerdo haber hecho un tour tan completo, con tantas cosas distintas para conocer, tantas cosas para aprender. El chofer y guía han sido realmente impresionantes, la dedicación puesta a nosotros ha sido increíble.
Es un tour largo porque se recorre una gran distancia pero todo lo que se recorre es distinto y hermoso y lo que se aprende no tiene comparación con nada. Viajas super cómodo en una van y vas parando en distintos lugares y compartiendo tanto con el guía y los otros pasajeros que terminas siendo un grupo de amigos tomando un rico café y almorzando juntos.
Si disponen de un día entero y tienen interés en conocer, esta es LA excursión. Tienen todo solucionado y perfectamente organizado por la agencia. Te pasen a buscar por el hotel, te dejan en el hotel, se fijan que estés cómodo en todo momento. Te explican todo lo que quieras saber.
Me gustaría recordar el nombre del guía, porque ha sido increíble todo lo que nos ha transmitido acerca de la historia y el presente de la región y realmente quisiera agradecerle de nuevo toda la paciencia, amabilidad y dedicación.
Los lugares naturales que verán, por ejemplo Visegrad o el Tara National Park en Park, realmente son impresionantes.
No voy a entrar en detalles porque sería muy extenso, pero me quedo a disposición para cualquier consulta puntual. Hice el tour hasta bastante tiempo pero me quedó tan grabado todo y me siento tan agradecida con las personas que lo posibilitaron que me sentía en deuda con este review.
No duden en realizarlo, no lo olvidarán jamás! verán lugares realmente hermosos! y aprenderán tanto!
Muchas gracias Sarajevo Funky Tours!!!!!
The best way to travel from Sarajevo to Belgrade
I had originally purchased an airline ticket from Sarajevo to Belgrade. Once I was in Sarajevo and experienced two amazing tours operated by Sarajevo Funky Tours, I changed my travel plans and booked the company’s one-way transfer via West Bosnia and East Serbia. I am so glad that I opted for the transfer because the tour–led by Damir as our guide and Adnan Hadzi as our driver–was incredible and reasonably priced given the number of site visits. Hotel pickup was around 7:00 a.m. (there was miscommunication on my part about the time), as an early start was necessary to cover the long distance, visit all the places on the itinerary, and arrive in Belgrade at around 8:00 p.m.
There was plenty of space in the van to securely store luggage. My favorite stops were at Rogatica where we visited the Borak Stećci necropolis, Tara National Park which has the most breathtaking view at Banjska Stena (that view alone made the tour worthwhile!), and the Gate of Podrinje at sunset.
Damir was knowledgeable and provided background information on each site. Adnan made sure we arrived at our destinations safely and on time, and he even gave us a mini tour of Belgrade as we were driving through the city and recommended restaurants and places to visit. Both Damir and Adnan were friendly, approachable, and professional, and they made the transfer fun and enjoyable.
My first visit to Sarajevo was fulfilling and memorable thanks to the wonderful staff at Funky Tours. Special thanks to Ema and Nadina who patiently answered my questions and made arrangements both before and during my trip.
It would be a pleasure to visit Sarajevo again in the near future so I can join some other tours!
