Sarajevo and Belgrade, once capitals of ex-Yugoslav Republics, are two cities that Funky Tours has brought together much closer by developing a lovely full-day connecting tour, which logically combines and covers regions of Eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina and West Serbia.
This is Sarajevo and Belgrade connecting door-to-door day tour, which covers the most unique destinations in East Bosnia and West Serbia.
This tour can go from Sarajevo to Belgrade or the opposite way, but in this particular itinerary, we will focus on the direction from Sarajevo to Belgrade.
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 This is door to door tour-transfer so we pick you up at your address.
Activity Note: This is a full-day tour covering the most beautiful and scenic parts of East Bosnia and West Serbia. You will have a chance to experience a boat ride on mesmerizing Drina River and ride in the famous Šargan eight train. This tour is adapted to all ages and is not physically demanding.
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.
>Borak – UNESCO Stećak Necropolis
Later, we ride for one more hour through mountain parts of Bosnia before we meet up with the turquoise Drina river canyon and arrive at 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 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.
>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 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 the ideal stop to learn more about local history and enjoy the fantastic 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 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 know 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.
>Drvengrad – Mecavnik – A wooden town in West Serbia
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 initially 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”.
>Šargan Eight Train
As soon as we end the fantastic train ride, we’ll continue toward Belgrade. On the way, we will stop to explore the tremendous region of one of Serbia’s most beautiful National Parks – 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.
>Banjska Stena viewpoint at Tara National Park – Serbia
Generally, after Tara National Park explorations, the rest of the roughly three hours rides to Belgrade will take us through Bajina Bašta town with a last short stop at “House on the Drina“, where at the end of the day, we hope to be in Belgrade no later than 8 pm.
>Small fishing house on Drina river at Bajina Bašta – Serbia
What Do I Need to Bring?
In July 2022, we used Funky Tours to do the Dubrovnik-Sarajevo Connecting Tour, the Siege Of Sarajevo Tour and the Sarajevo to Belgrade Tour. Booking these tours and communicating with the team was so simple and they were so friendly in their emails and in person at their office!
The Dubrovnik to Sarajevo tour was incredible, Adnan our guide was incredibly informative and made sure we had enough time at each place, taking into consideration what we wanted to experience! We loved every single stop, especially getting to swim in the Kravice Waterfalls and we just couldn’t get over the beauty of the country.
Our Siege tour was so informative and really gave us a good look into what the War meant for Bosnian’s and the people of Sarajevo. We really loved seeing all the historical attractions in the city and the stories that were attached to them. A special mention goes to our guide for this tour, Skender, who was so incredible to listen to. He clearly loved sharing his country and city’s history as his passion shone throughout. Couldn’t recommend this tour more if you’re in Sarajevo and looking to learn more.
The final tour we did was the transfer tour from Sarajevo to Belgrade. We were picked up from our Airbnb and picked up the other two couples on the way. Again this tour was superb. Enis (Guide) and Tarek (Driver) just like all the guides we had met, were very conscious of considering what we wanted to see/spend more time at, especially when showing us the best photo locations! Every location we were taken to was well explained and any question we had was answered. They also made sure to drop us off as close to our Airbnb in Belgrade as possible and even offered to walk us there.
We could not recommend Funky Tours more, they made our Balkans Trip just so much more than we could ever have imagined. If you’re thinking about booking with them, do it!
Amazing trip from Sarajevo to Belgrade. They greeted us a warm welcome, took our bags and showed us to the van. Van with seat belt, air-conditioning, and good space and great legroom. Our guide told us alot of amazing facts, stories and answered all our questions. Guide and driver was always happy, service minded, helpful and mainly a great guide. Would highly recommend this trip. Very good communication with customer service prior to the trip, they answered mails In a few minutes. Also payment was super easily fixed online, just asked for an invoice. Highly recommended!
Fantastic tour group. Took care of our every request. Highly recommended, friendly service, great tours!
Guida preparatissima, di una gentilezza sconfinata. Sono davvero bravi, disponibili ad ogni esigenza e soprattutto pieni di passione.
Validissimi!
Amazing trip with a fantastic guide!
We had a fantastic time on this transfer. For one, it was so much easier than flying or taking a normal bus. Sarajevo Funky Tours were super helpful in helping us organise it all via email in advance and the hotel pickup all ran smoothly – all you had to do was wake up!
Our guide on the day was also great, he could tell when to say “ok, I’ll stop talking now, looks like you guys need a nap!” which was what we needed at some points… He was also great and talking about local history and Bosnian culture when we were a bit more awake! We seriously learnt more from him than at the museums.
I loved the medieval graves (though make sure you wear proper shoes – it involved hiking through the snow so our shoes were wet all day) and the towns we visited. But the real winner were the mountain views we got to see along way – absolutely amazing!
This company (we also recommend the walking tour) and transfer service are a must-do! 🙂
