Solo in Sarajevo
I love travelling with my husband — it’s special to be able to share all of the unique moments and experiences with him and to lean on each other in challenging or confusing situations. A few years ago I took my first extensive solo international trip to SE Asia for about 4 weeks and found it invigorating, exciting, and special in its own way.
Part of the plan with our nomadic lifestyle was that I would branch off and do some solo travel while my husband stayed back to work and parent the cats.
I was a little nervous about choosing Sarajevo as my first solo destination. I did a fair amount of research and found several female travellers discussing how safe they felt in the Balkans by themselves. My excitement began to grow as my trepidation lessened.
After a very quick and easy flight and passport control experience, I encountered my first challenge. I went to find the bus that I had judiciously found in advance and taken copious notes about in my google doc. Turns out there is no bus – at least not right now. A taxi was the only option. When I travel solo, I definitely prefer public transit or rideshare apps as there tends to be a bit more vetting and accountability, so I was not thrilled with having to hop in a cab.
To my pleasant surprise, I was assigned a female driver who was a very nice, fairly aggressive driver who spent the majority of the ride making phone calls and texting while driving stick. I made it to the beautifully designed and well-located Airbnb safely and pretty quickly.
After dropping my bag, I set off to explore the Old Town area close to where I was staying.
I found Sarajevo to be a vibrant, diverse, and emotionally heavy city. The Old Town area reminded me a lot of Istanbul — small streets filled with coffee shops, small restaurants, and stores. There were a lot of street cats, taken care of by the community. The aroma that drifted down the small alleys was a mix of cigarette smoke, roasting coffee, and grilled meat.
Tips for the (Solo Female) Traveler in Sarajevo:
- A cab from the airport to the center of Sarajevo should take about 20 minutes with light traffic.
- Always make sure the meter is running when you get into the cab.
- The cost of the cab should be between 15 – 20 Bosnian Marks (KMs) – make sure you have change. Drivers will also likely accept Euros at a 2:1 rate.
- As of August 2021, cabs were the only way to get into the city from the airport. Uber and Bolt are not active in Bosnia and Herzegovina at this time.
- Most ATMs at the airport spit out large denominations of KMs and the exchange counter will not break bills into smaller amounts.
- There are many banks in the center of Sarajevo with ATMs and tellers who will break bills.
