Get a firsthand account of the atmosphere of Yugoslavian social-communism by visiting Tito’s Nuclear Bunker in the nearby town Konjic, highlights of the Yugoslavian golden age and its downfall with the story of the Siege of Sarajevo from a guide who survived it.
Travel to Konjic town, and visit the Tito’s Nuclear Bunker, explore the Olympic Village and a War Tunnel Museum in an air-conditioned minivan with a small group and learn about „soft communism“ golden era of Yugoslavia, the breakup of Yugoslavia and the years-long siege of Sarajevo.
See the Igman mountain and explore famous sights of Olympic Ski Jumps and Hotel Igman followed by a visit Trebević Mountain and famous Olympic Bobsled.
Important NoticeIn 9 to 10 hours for fair costs, visit the Tito’s Bunker and many other interesting sites (War Tunnel Museum), crucial for better understanding the period of Yugoslavia and Siege of Sarajevo. Why do two or even separate tours and have unnecessary costs, in aim to see these beautiful places, when you can do all in one unique tour experience.
Departure Times Daily at 8 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.
On the way to Tito’s Nuclear Bunker in nearby town of Konjic, we will observe the Markale Massacre sites, the Bosnian Presidency building, Sniper Alley, Marshall Tito Barracks, the Bosnian Parliament and some other sites crucial for understanding the irreversible crash of Yugoslavia and Sarajevo under the siege.
Drive will continue the ride through suburbs of Sarajevo and areas of central Bosnia until we pass Ivan Mt. and enter the region of Herzegovina. As soon as in Herzegovina, we’ll start descending as region of Herzegovina is generally on lower altitudes and is totally different climate, so you’ll notice dramatic natural, environmental and usually climate change.
First stop of the day is a short visit to old part of unique, prehistorically inhabited Konjic, town famous for its 17th century 6-arch Old Bridge, looming over turquoise Neretva river, usually very sunny place and a home to one of the most expensive Yugoslavian projects – Tito’s Nuclear Bunker, or also called: Facility D-0, Atomic War Command (ARK).
We pass by:
>Konjic town in Herzegovina region
It took 26 years to build this 6500 m2 miracle of construction with a purpose of withstanding a possible nuclear war and providing a shelter to over 350 Yugoslav leaders and army generals.
We will wander around this amazing structure and venue for a biennial of contemporary art while discovering the labyrinth of Yugoslavia mysteries, cold war fanaticism and communists paranoia while discussing the possible reasons of fall of Yugoslavia and it’s rigid consequences.
As a third most expensive JNA military project with spendings of cca. 4.6 billion USD, facility D-0, Tito’s atomic war command (ARK), was built to accept, accommodate and protect 350 people and enable successful management and command over the armed forces in case of nuclear warfare.
>Titos Bunker – Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Later we will head towards Sarajevo and follow up the story of besieged city and harsh position its citizens went through in a barbaric bargain for life. Initial visit will be Igman Olympic mountain and its Olympic heritage in shape of Olympic Ski Jumps. Take photos at Olympic podium or climb the ski jumps and imagine the atmosphere from 1984 Olympics.
Also structure we can not miss at Igman mountain is, Igman Olympic hotel. As Yahoo Travel wrote: “Built in a spirit of optimism, unity, and teamwork for the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, the 162-room Igman Hotel was a showplace for mountain luxury but was brutally torn apart, along with the rest of the city, during the Balkan War and siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s.”
Surely place not to miss.
>Ski Jumps at Igman Mountain
Later we will visit the Sarajevo War Tunnel where we will explore the museum exhibition and see many interesting exhibits directly associated with Siege of Sarajevo, watch a short movie about the urgent need for building this essential underpass, followed by going through the Tunnel itself.
>Sarajevo War Tunnel
>Sarajevo Olympic Bobsled Graffiti – famous 5th corner
If you only plan to visit Tito’s Nuclear Bunker at Konjic, without other stops in our itinerary, that is fine and we can easily modify this tour for you.
However, most of the tour offer on the market does cover Tito’s Bunker, but usually as solo visit from and back to Sarajevo. Funky Tours alternatively, offers several other stops which are on the way, and which crucially maximise your time, understanding of the topic and your money.
Why visiting Sarajevo War Tunnel, Olympic Bobsled, Igman hotel, Olympic ski jumps or Tito’s Nuclear Bunker in two or even three different days, when you can put everything easily into one day, and still get much more.
We believe that mix of stories covering utopia and breakup of Yugoslavia, in combination with Siege of Sarajevo chronology is the best way to spend a day.
1945-1980
February 1984
1980-1991
1992-1995
1995-1996
1996 – Present
Learn more among our carefully chosen articles about Yugoslavia and story of Siege of Sarajevo.
What Do I Need to Bring?
Did multiple tours with Funky Tours and they were all wonderful. Emir, Ajla, and Enis were kind, knowledgable, and made me feel at home as they shared so much about their beautiful city and culture. The tour company in general is a bunch of young 20-somethings who will work hard to accommodate any request you have. I highly recommend booking with them, they respond promptly and will surely turn your trip into something unforgettable.
Best,
Kash
Almir is an absolute legend. He seems to know everything there is to know about Bosnia, and is very open about sharing his experiences.
This tour is not just about seeing cool places, but about tying them in to people, to the land, and the current day. Funky and Almir did an amazing job of doing just that.
Funky Tours is a great tour organiser in Bosnia & Herzegovina.
They organised a 6-days tailor tour for us and were very flexible. The team members are professional, very well informed and most importantly super kind and friendly.
Ema did the whole tour organisation and was very responsive before, during and even after the tours. With Emin we did the Sarajevo streets tour, he is a passionate of the modern history of the Balkan and provided in 4-hours all the information to understand the history of Bosnia & Herzegovina with focus on Sarajevo. With Skender (Founder of Funky tours) and Enis we did a amazing 8-hours hike to Lukomir village. With Edna and Tarik, 2 young motivated students working as tour guide on part time basis, we visit Tito’s bunker and did a short hike next to Sarajevo. With Emir and Sara, we visit Jajce and Travnik, a full day tour where Emir (an archaeologist) took us on a journey covering Bosnian history and heritage from ancient time to modern days. With Almir, a war veteran, we did the Sarajevo siege tour, a must do tour to understand the atrocity of war and learn from what happened in Sarajevo so it won’t be repeated.
In a nutshell, visiting Bosnia & Herzegovina with Funky Tours is highly recommended.
What we expected to be a recreational visit was also very informative about the history of Bosnia as a part of Yugoslavia. I have an image of the picturesque country in my head for every experience and story we heard about Bosnia.
One of the best tours ever!
This tour was a really interesting tour where you get to see a variety of sites from different periods in Sarajevo’s history – the Bridge at Konjic, Tito’s bunker, abandoned sites from the 84 Winter Olympics, the panorama from Trebevic and the Jewish Ceremony. It is difficult to pick a best bit because it was all so good.
What made this tour really great was the guide. He spoke fluent English, was friendly, had a great sense of humour and spoke about Bosnia’s history and his experiences in Bosnia during the war.
I would highly recommend doing this tour.
