East Bosnia and West Serbia, two regions filled with cultural, historical, and natural treasures, are essential stops for any traveler seeking unique experiences. This UNESCO off-the-beaten-path tour will take you through breathtaking landscapes and historical landmarks, ensuring unforgettable memories.
Start in Višegrad, where you’ll explore the iconic Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and enjoy a scenic Drina River boat cruise, soaking in the serene beauty of the surrounding landscapes. Explore Dobrun Orthodox monastery.
Continue to Mokra Gora, where the famed Šargan Eight Railway offers a memorable train ride through stunning mountain scenery. Nearby, visit Drvengrad (Wooden Town), the charming ethno-village designed by filmmaker Emir Kusturica.
Next, immerse yourself in the natural beauty of Tara National Park, home to the breathtaking Banjska Stena viewpoint, where you can marvel at panoramic views of the Drina River canyon.
Finally, return to East Bosnia to explore the Stećci Necropolis at Burati near Rogatica, a UNESCO-listed site showcasing medieval tombstones that echo centuries of tradition.
This curated journey blends cultural heritage, natural wonders, and immersive experiences, making East Bosnia and West Serbia the highlight of your Balkan travels.
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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 a bit away from us, please let us know, and we can organize 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.
Meet our team at the office or your preferred pickup location. Your guide will introduce you to cultural, historical and natural diversity of these two regions and will make sure no questions remain unanswered, even of personal nature, so don’t refrain from sharing your thoughts and opinions at any moment of time.
After departing Sarajevo in the morning at 7.45 AM, we’ll take approx. 45min ride to reach Rogatica and the first stop of the day, Borak Stećci necropolis near the Burati village. This hidden gem deep in the misty forests of East Bosnia was recently inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage. We will discover the unique history of the Medieval Bosnian Kingdom and figure out why these blocks of limestone are scattered all around Bosnia and Herzegovina. The cemetery is hidden in the forest, so a bit of hiking is required to find them. Read more about the Stećci phenomenon in a BBC article.
Later, we ride for one more hour through mountain parts of Bosnia before we meet up with the turquoise Drina river canyon and arrive in Višegrad.
Višegrad is home to UNESCO Heritage, 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 a reason to visit such a beautiful place.
The book: “Bridge Over Drina” by Bosnian and Travnik born, World famous Nobel Prize winner, and Yugoslav writer Ivo Andrić, has given most of the glory to this fantastic 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 the historical importance of this area in regard to a local as well as a global aspect.
As soon as we see the Bridge and take the river cruise through the amazingly green Drina River, we’ll explore the stone town of Andrićgrad (eng. Andrić town). Small, stone-made town, recently built, named, and dedicated after novelist Ivo Andrić. The site also interprets the story of once glorious and very successful Yugoslavian cinematography from the perspective of one of the best local directors – Emir Kusturica.
As soon as we finish the story of Višegrad, we’ll continue driving towards the east Bosnian border and, on the way, will pay a visit to one of the most important Serbian Orthodox monasteries, Dobrun Monastery. Initially built in 1343 with frescoes preserved until today is an ideal stop to learn more about local history and enjoy the fantastic nature surrounding it.
Later on, time to cross the Bosnia to Serbia border, and as soon as we do, we will enter the fantastic area of the nature park of “Šargan-Mokra Gora”.
The first stop (for lunch possibly) will be the ethno village of Drvengrad (eng. Timber Town) also known as Küstendorf and Mećavnik. Village-town was designed by the movie director Emir Kusturica for his movie “Life is Miracle” and the design 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 the world of architecture? The best is to come with us and see it for yourself.
After lunch, at Drvengrad, we are about to take a train ride, but not just any train ride, we will do the famous “Šargan Eight”.
The Šargan Eight is a narrow gauge (760mm) steam railway 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 at from the sky, looks like the number 8.
It was famous for its impressive engineering, which enabled it to rapidly climb a height of 300m over a short distance of 3.500m, whereas the total length of the railway today is 15.440m. Stunningly, all of that was achieved by passing through 22 tunnels and five bridges. Quite fantastic 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 reopened for tourist reasons, but also for true lovers of old-school steam train engineering. Simply exciting and stunning.
Read more about Bosnian Gauge also known as “Bosnaspur” or “Bosnische Spurweite”.
As soon as we end the train ride, we’ll continue, and on the way, we will stop to explore the fantastic 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 the 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 the stunning viewpoint of “Banjska Stena” which offers a fantastic panorama of Perućac Lake on the Drina river, which naturally borders Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
Return to Sarajevo is planned in the very late evening, around 8-9 PM.
What Do I Need to Bring?
A varied and interesting day, with a train ride and a short walk in the national park
This is a great day out. We saw so much and found out so much about the history of the region.
The guide and driver were both excellent, supportive and knowledgeable. The high point for me was the ride on the Sargan 8 Train, which went right up the mountain and back down again.
We saw so much – national parks, woods and mountains and rivers. I recommend this highly.
Excellent tour of Eastern Bosnia
Yesterday I did a full day tour to eastern Bosnia with funky tours and had the best day.
There were only three including myself on the tour as well as Stefan the guide and driver so everything was so personal and done with a smile.
The tour was great and really interesting. Stefan was an excellent guide interesting and patient with a dry sense of humour.
The tour was not rushed with nice breaks and the places we visited were really interesting.
No hesitation in recommending Funky tours. All communication is instant by email they are right in the centre of town.
Trip with a child(4)
Everything was perfect. Special thanks to Adnan and Amela. My tour was amazing. The tour guide, Adnan is the best. I learned a lot.
Best Balkans Tour Company
Absolutely amazing tour with a very knowledgeable and professional guide. Every stop we made was incredible, super interesting and fun.
Our guide Ivan made the experience even better with the information provided at each stop and shared great stories of the Balkans as we drove through the beautiful landscape. One of the best guides I have ever had. This tour was an absolute highlight of my trip.
Funky Tours was wonderful and efficient in the process of booking the tour. Clearly a great team of staff working to provide the best possible experience. Incredibly prompt replies and great organisation. Definitely recommend.
Combines countryside and culture
This was an amazing tour and allowed me to see another country as part of my trip to Bosnia that I would never have considered. Great for anyone who likes to combine the outdoors and lovely views with history and culture. And a minibus with air conditioning that actually works for once!