croatia to bosnia

Thinking of spending a week in bosnia after my 2-ish weeks in croatia, but wondering whats the best/cheapest way to get there? I dont really know the best place to check out there, so any tips would be welcome!

i read that the busses are better than the trains in croatia, true? the bus takes about 8 hours to get to sarajevo, and i have no idea how long the train takes cos i cant make sense of the website... but it seems i have to go via zagreb which sucks because that means ill have to backtrack...

if anyone has any experience travelling from southern croatia to bosnia then id love to hear about it!

Where in Croatia will you be? I didn't do this in the direction you're doing it, but the main train service runs from Zagreb all the way through Bosnia and then into Ploce in Croatia. Ploce is about half way between Split and Dubrovnik, so you can get the train from there to Sarajevo or just travel through Bosnia on this line staying at a few destinations - Mostar, Sarajevo and Banja Luka would be a decent route. It takes about 4 hours to go from Ploce to Sarajevo by train and only about an hour and a half to get to Mostar. I don't know if it's better than the bus because I used the train, but it was acceptable enough. Remember to take food with you (particularly if you go Sarajevo to Zagreb) because there wasn't a dining car or anything like it when I used the service in 2006. The scenery on the journey between Ploce and Sarajevo is very nice though (Sarajevo to Zagreb isn't so spectacular).

As the poster above said the Ploce (1 hour bus from Dubrovnik or so...) to Sarajevo train has fantastic scenery, I remember it taking a quite bit longer than 4 hours but we did have a lengthy stop in the middle as well when the train broke so maybe it was just that!

Remember to take some candles on the train, when it broke down and all the lights went out all of the Bosnian people had them and it seemed to be quite a common occurrence- better than sitting in the dark!

lol thanks for the tip about the candles!!

i was thinking about going from split to bosnia, but if it seems like ploce is the place to leave from then i guess thats where ill look into leaving from!!

any idea how much it costs?

and what kinda budget should i count on for croatia/bosnia?

Hi there,

I'll be spending a week in Dubrovnik on this coming October 08.
I'm planning to take a day trip to Mostar. I'm wondering whether are there frequent buses to and from Mostar from Dubrovnik? Any idea? Hear that the bus journey is about 3 hrs.

Regards,
Nick

Hi Kody,
there's a bus to Mostar from the central bus station about every hour or 90 minutes.

There is a bus from Split/Dubrovnik to Sarajevo and/or Mostar.
Depend what you like to do there of course but Bosnia is much cheaper then Croatia.
The bus trip is probably around 30 eur i guess. To Belgrade is 50 but it s much more far away.
Of course there is a train solution too. You have trains from Split and Ploce
Very best and good luck

So are buses faster?

More reliable?

Price difference? Comfort?

Better for scenary?

Thanks

(Thinking of going in April for 25 days - Croatia (last there in 1998) then into Boz and the countries around there ending up in either Hungary or Istanbul).

[ Edit: Edited on Nov 10, 2008, at 5:26 AM by boulderman ]

Buses are faster, more reliable and more frequent (there are only 2 trains a day on the Ploce-Mostar-Sarajevo route - one of which is too early if you are coming from elsewhere).

From Ploce to Mostar and Mostar to sarajevo, the bus and train run through the same valleys, and are always crossing each other so scenery is roughly equal. Though i haven't done it for a few years, train was cheaper when i did (even cheaper getting a bus Dubrovnik-Ploce, then training it) though for through journeys with the change in Ploce takes a bit longer

From Split/Dubrovnik there are through buses to Mostar and Sarajevo (and there are also tourist coaches for day trips), or you can change in Ploce (which i did last trip) onto a bus or train. Ploce has a strange status, but is a fairly drab place so there's no reason to really hang around (though if you have a day, you can get a ferry out to some islands).

And if you do get the train from Ploce, be aware that the ticket office (and station in general) is often entirely deserted unil30mins or so before departure, so don't panic that you haven't got a ticket an hour or so beforehand

In croatia in general, buses and boats are much better than trains. I would only realistically suggest using a train if on the main East-West corridor (Slovenia - Zagreb - Vinkovki - Serbia) or if going through to Vienna or Budapest (still very slow). Along the cost etc, you are almost always better using other forms.