Visiting Travnik, Jajce, and Pliva Lakes on a full-day tour from Sarajevo offers a remarkable opportunity to uncover the rich history, culture, and natural beauty of Central Bosnia. This journey takes you through some of the most iconic and picturesque destinations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Jajce, often referred to as the “Royal City,” was once the residence of Bosnian kings and holds the unique distinction of being the only city in the world with a natural waterfall in its center. It is also a city of great historical significance, as the birthplace of modern Yugoslavia during the pivotal events of 1943.
The nearby Pliva Lakes and charming Pliva Mills provide a perfect escape into nature, offering serene landscapes that highlight the breathtaking beauty of Bosnia and Herzegovina. These peaceful settings add an enchanting touch to the experience.
In Travnik, explore the legacy of the Ottoman Empire in this historic vizier’s town. Visit the old Ottoman fortress, admire the crystal-clear Plava Voda springs, and learn about Nobel Prize-winning author Ivo Andrić, who was born here.
This tour is a perfect blend of history, culture, and natural wonders, making it a truly unforgettable way to experience the heart of Central Bosnia.
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Departure Times At 8 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 and learn more about our historical heritage. Your guide will introduce you to story of a Bosnian Kings and viziers, 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.
Morning ride will take us through interesting regions of central Bosnia, passing by Visoko town and valley of Bosnian Pyramids. We will continue the ride along the flows of river Bosna and Lasva including an especially beautiful flow and canyon of Vrbas. Nearly three hours later, we will arrive to Jajce.
Once there, first thing we go and see is one of the World’s most beautiful waterfalls, and the only one in the World placed in the city center, famous Pliva Waterfalls – spot where Pliva river ends its flow and meets Vrbas is simply breathtaking.
After we bless our eyes and souls we will head for a walking tour through Jajce and visit Jajce Citadel (Fortress), the Museum of the Second Session of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ), Medvjed Kula, the Tower of St. Luke, famous Catacombs – underground church and one of the World’s very few mosques named after woman – Mosque of Esma Sultanija.
Jajce Citadel is amazingly interesting place so no doubt you will enjoy.
Once we fully soak up the atmosphere of amazing Jajce we will head towards the two lakes – Large and Small Pliva Lake.
Whatever you prefer, walking around, kayaking or canoeing (in 1963. World and European Championship in kayaking and canoeing on still waters were held on Pliva lake), laying on the beaches, swimming, fishing or just photography – everything is only a “desire” away 🙂
Very interesting part of the Pliva lakes story are Mills at small Pliva lake. Amongst people famously called “Mlinčići” this place used to be main tourist potential of Great Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy.
We will make a lunch break and enjoy some quality time at Large Pliva Lake. After Jajce and surroundings it is time to head back, but the we are not ending this day yet.
A very important part of the this tour is Travnik, viziers town rich with cultural and historical heritage.
Travnik is a place where we will see one of the best preserved Ottoman forts in our country dating late XIV century.
Location just under the fort is home to stunningly beautiful springs of Plava Voda (“blue water”), place ideal for Bosnian coffee break.
It is very important to mention that Travnik is hometown to Bosnian Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andric and his most famous novel Bridge Over Drina.
We don’t forget and Coloured Mosque, both Clock Towers as Travnik is the only town in Bosnia with two of those, and very centre of Travnik carsija (marketplace). To put a cherry on a top, we will taste the worldwide famous Travnik sheep cheese.
After explorations of Travnik we will head back to Sarajevo with arrival at, roughly, 7 PM. However, having in mind we are always pushing our limits and going above and beyond in order to keep up with the outstanding quality of each of our trips, day can be even longer.
What Do I Need to Bring?
Travel southern Bosnia
Did this transfer tour as well as several other tours with Funky Tours. It was wonderful. Got to see all sorts of things and learn much of the history of the region.
Experience Bosnia and Herzegovina with the help of Funky Tours
I’ve just come back from a really enjoyable and educational trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina arranged by the lovely people at Funky Tours. I was based in Sarajevo for the week and did a number of day trips around Bosnia and Herzegovina all arranged by Funky Tours. The guides on the trips were all very friendly and informative and many of them had lived through and served in the war in the 90s and had very interesting life stories.
The girls in the office were very efficient and fun and put together my itinerary and communicated very well throughout. The tour buses provided were comfortable and everything ran to time. Sarajevo is an incredible city full of soul, vibrancy and resilience.
Do yourself a favour and go and visit the city and take the opportunity to travel around this very beautiful country.
If you enjoy places with history, scenery and cultural contrast you will enjoy it no end. It’s often the case that the friendliness and warmth of the people make a visit to a country extra memorable and that was certainly the case with my visit to Bosnia. If you are thinking of going have a chat with the guys at Funky Tours and I’m sure they will go out of their way to help you.
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.
Funky Tours, Sarajevo
I booked 3 tours with Funky Tours prior to my arrival in Sarajevo.
Really pleased with their service. The back office staff are very efficient. They responded to my emails promptly and were able to organise everything for me quickly. Credit to Edna, Emir, and Amela for being so efficient. On my first day, I visited the office to make the payment. I was greeted by Emir and Amela, who were incredibly helpful with their tips on local travel, taxi arrangements, collecting train tickets, and local food recommendations.
During the 3 tours, I met tour guides Salem, Amar, and Mustafa. They were all extremely professional and happily accommodated my requests to ensure that my young children were comfortable and well taken care of during our full-day tours.
We took the Srebrenica tour with Salem. He was extremely helpful and has an in-depth knowledge of the war history. He made sure that my family and I were comfortable on what was a very hot day.
We took the Travnik, Jajce, and Pliva Lakes tour with Amar. He is a natural problem solver with the ability to find solutions quickly. He was happy to answer all my questions and helped me with a couple of other things as well.
Finally, we took the half-day Sarajevo Total Siege tour with Mustafa. Once again, Mustafa was very professional, providing detailed accounts of the days he and his family lived through during the siege. He articulated his personal experiences in a highly professional manner.
Each of these individuals is an asset to Funky Tours Sarajevo. It is evident that under Ema’s leadership, they function as a cohesive team, helping travellers like my family and me leave with such positive and cherished memories of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Highly recommended.
Outstanding local tour excursions agency
Funky Tours was outstanding. Website provided so much inspiration that we decided to visit Sarajevo for one and a half weeks (instead of just for the weekend). Pre-arrival their bookings team organised an online meeting so we could talk through different options & arrange a schedule.
Sarajevo is full of remarkable history & culture so take Funky Tours Free Walking Tour of the City. There are others you can do including Jewish History Tour & World War 1 Tour if you are interested in this. We also took the Siege of Sarajevo Tour and learnt lots about the terrible event that took place in the 90’s.
Don’t just stay in the City though. Take some tours to other places as well. We paid our respects to the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, learning lots about NATO during the excursion. Hiking with spectacular views around Lukomir. Historically interesting trip to Jacje & Travnik where we visited one of the key assembly halls where Tito founded former Yogoslavia & saw spectacular waterfalls. Also did the transfer day tour to Dubrovnik where we finished our holiday – this transfer tour was outstanding as we learnt so much more and visited some impressive sites including Mostar Bridge, Konjic Historic Town, beautiful springs & the most incredible waterfalls to swim at – Kravica Falls.
All of the guides were outstanding, really friendly & exceptionally knowledgeable. We learnt so much from them & they were all inspirational characters which is evident by the fact that we ended up buying on line several books to further enrich our understanding of the history in the region.
Top Tip: speak with Funky Tours before you book your flights. That way you can work out how long to stay in Sarajevo. Lots of other things we wish we would have had time to do including White Water Rafting , Quad Biking +++
And allow enough time in Sarajevo to visit the many museums, take the cable car for views & hikes, & just generally chill in this incredibly friendly city.