Sarajevo is the cheapest capital in Europe, and it has the scars to prove it. I have stayed in hostels on five continents, and I have never seen a city where $4 buys you a full meal, $8 gets you a bed in a converted Ottoman house, and the free attractions include a war tunnel, a 500-year-old bazaar, and the exact spot where a 19-year-old assassin started World War I. This is not a glossy city. The bullet holes are still visible on the apartment blocks. The trams are from the 1980s. But the coffee is $1, the people are direct, and the mountains are twenty minutes from the city center. If you are traveling on a tight budget and you want a place that actually means something, Sarajevo is the move.
Where to Sleep
Hostel Franz Ferdinand, at Obala Kulina bana 9, charges $8 to $12 for a dorm bed in a building that survived the siege. The common room has maps of the front lines drawn by staff who lived through it. Hostel Majdan, at Pecara 15, is $7 to $10 and has a courtyard where you can smoke and drink rakija with the owner, a former sniper who will tell you exactly which hills the shelling came from. For a private room, Guesthouse Halvat at Mula Mustafe Baseskije 54 runs $18 to $25 and has a terrace overlooking the Miljacka River. The bathrooms are shared and the WiFi cuts out sometimes, but you are sleeping in a house that predates the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If you want a proper apartment, Airbnb has studios in the Baščaršija old town for $20 to $30 a night. Book the ones with thick walls. Winter is cold and heating is expensive.
Where to Eat
Cevapi is the national dish. It is grilled minced meat, served in a flatbread called somun, with raw onions and kaymak, a clotted cream that tastes like butter died and went to heaven. A portion of ten cevapi at Željo, at Bravadžiluk 28 in the old bazaar, costs 8 KM ($4.50). The place is a hole in the wall with four tables and no menu. Eat standing up if you have to. For burek, the spiral meat or cheese pie, go to Buregdžinica Bosna at Bravadžiluk 3. A slice is 3 KM ($1.70) and the pastry is made in a wood-fired oven that has been running since 1945. Bosanski lonac, a slow-cooked meat and vegetable stew, is 12 KM ($6.50) at Inat Kuća, at Veliki Alifakovac 1. The restaurant sits in a house that was moved stone by stone in 1895 to spite the Austro-Hungarians who wanted to build a library on the site. The story is on the wall. The portions are enough for two people. For breakfast, find a pekara bakery. A burek and a yogurt is 4 KM ($2.20). Coffee at a kafana, the traditional coffee house, is 2 KM ($1.10). The coffee is Turkish style, thick and unfiltered, and the waiter will not ask if you want it with milk. You do not. You sit for an hour and watch the old men argue about football. Lunch at a basic restaurant outside the old town is 10 to 15 KM ($5.50 to $8). Dinner at a place with tablecloths is 20 to 30 KM ($11 to $16). A daily food budget of $12 to $15 is comfortable. $10 is possible if you eat cevapi twice.
What to Do for Free or Cheap
The Baščaršija bazaar is free and has been the commercial heart of Sarajevo since the 15th century. Walk the cobblestones at 7 AM before the tour groups arrive. The Sebilj fountain at the center is a wooden kiosk from 1891. The pigeons are aggressive. The Latin Bridge, 200 meters west, is where Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. There is a small museum in the corner building, the Museum of Sarajevo 1878-1918, and the entrance is 5 KM ($2.70). The yellow Holiday Inn, visible from the bridge, was the hotel where journalists stayed during the war. The sniper alley is still there. Walk it. The buildings are pockmarked. The Tunnel of Hope, or Tunel spasa, is the most important site in the city. It is an 800-meter tunnel dug under the airport runway during the siege, the only lifeline for the city. The museum at Tuneli 1, in the suburb of Butmir, charges 10 KM ($5.50). The entrance is a small house. You crawl through a 25-meter section. The walls are damp. Bring a jacket. The Vrelo Bosne park, at the source of the Bosna River, is a 30-minute tram ride from the center. The entrance is 2 KM ($1.10). The park has wooden bridges, cold springs, and horse-drawn carriages that cost extra. Skip the carriages. Walk. The view of the Igman mountain is free. The Yellow Fortress, or Žuta tabija, is a 10-minute walk uphill from the old town. The Ottoman fortress offers a panoramic view of the city and the valley. The sunset is free. The climb is steep. The cable car to Mount Trebević, destroyed in the war and rebuilt in 2018, costs 20 KM ($11) round trip. At the top there are abandoned bobsled tracks from the 1984 Olympics, covered in graffiti. Walk them. The view of the city below is worth the price. The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at Zmaja od Bosne 3, charges 8 KM ($4.50). The Sarajevo Haggadah, a 14th-century illuminated Jewish manuscript, is the main attraction. The National Library, across the river, is still being rebuilt after the 1992 fire. The facade is impressive even in scaffolding. The Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, in the bazaar, charges 2 KM ($1.10) for non-Muslim visitors. The courtyard is peaceful. The clock tower next to it, the tallest in the country, is free to look at. The Sarajevo Rose, mortar scars in the pavement filled with red resin, are scattered through the city. There are about 200 of them. Find at least five. Each marks where a shell killed three or more people.
What to Skip
The Latin Bridge photo with a tour guide holding an umbrella is a waste of 20 minutes. The guide will tell you the same facts that are on the plaque. The cable car at midday in July is packed and the bobsled tracks are hot. Go early or late. The restaurants on the main pedestrian street, Ferhadija, charge double for cevapi that is half as good. The souvenir shops in the bazaar sell mass-produced copper plates from Turkey. The real coppersmiths are on Kazandžiluk street, but their work is not cheap. The fake war tours in front of the Holiday Inn are run by people who were not there. The real tunnel museum is in Butmir, not the city center. The Vijećnica, the city hall, is beautiful but the 15 KM ($8) entrance is steep for what is mostly a restored interior. The Markale Market massacre site is now just a normal market. There is no memorial. Do not expect one. The Ilidža thermal spa, outside the city, is overpriced and the facilities are from the Yugoslav era. The fake Ottoman princess experiences in the old town are costumes and photos for Instagram. Skip them.
Getting Around
The city center is walkable. From the Latin Bridge to the Yellow Fortress is 20 minutes uphill. The tram network, the oldest in continental Europe, runs on a single line through the center. A single ticket is 1.80 KM ($1). A day pass is 5.30 KM ($2.90). Buy tickets at kiosks, not on the tram, because inspectors do check and the fine is 50 KM ($27). The tram cars are loud, hot, and from the 1980s. They are also honest. Taxis are cheap by European standards. A ride across the city is 8 to 12 KM ($4.50 to $6.50). Use the Crveni Taxi or Sarajevo Taxi apps. The bus to the tunnel museum is 2 KM ($1.10) and takes 30 minutes from the center. The train to Mostar, 2.5 hours south, is 12 KM ($6.50) and one of the most scenic rides in Europe. The tracks follow the Neretva River through canyons. Sit on the left side going south.
Budget Breakdown
Dorm bed: $8 to $12. Private room: $18 to $25. Food: $10 to $15 per day if you eat local. Coffee: $1.10. Tram: $1. Tunnel museum: $5.50. Cable car: $11. Total daily budget: $30 to $35 if you are careful. $40 if you want a second coffee and a beer. Bosnia uses the convertible mark, KM, pegged to the euro at roughly 2 KM to 1 euro. Cash is king. Many places do not take cards. There are ATMs everywhere but they charge 3 to 5 percent. Bring euros and change them at exchange offices for better rates. The old town exchange booths on Ferhadija are honest. The airport exchange is not.
The Hard Truth
Sarajevo is not pretty in the conventional sense. The suburbs are gray apartment blocks. The river is not clean enough to swim in. The winter is cold and the summer is hot and the spring is short. But the city has something that Prague and Budapest lost twenty years ago. It is real. The people who survived the siege do not perform resilience for tourists. They just live. The cevapi cook at Željo has been making the same dish for 40 years. The coffee house waiters do not smile on command. The tunnel museum guide will tell you how his brother died. This is a city where $30 a day buys you more than a bed and a meal. It buys you a conversation with someone who has seen history up close. That is the best value in Europe.
About the Author
James Wright ran hostels in three countries before he decided that writing about them was cheaper. He has visited 70 countries, most of them on budgets that would make an accountant nervous. He believes that expensive does not mean better, and that the best travel stories come from the places with the least polish. He wrote this guide from a $8 dorm bed in Sarajevo, within earshot of the call to prayer and the tram bells.
By James Wright
Budget travel expert and former backpacker hostel owner. James has visited 70+ countries on shoestring budgets, mastering the art of authentic travel without breaking the bank. His mantra: "Expensive does not mean better—it just means different."