Sarajevo to/from Belgrade UNESCO Transfer Day Tour (Fees Incl.)
Description
PEACE OF MIND: Our products always include admissions/entrance fees to museums and attractions essential for unrivalled tour experiences. Explore six remarkable locations, showcasing the best of East Bosnia and West Serbia, including two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Sargan 8 train ride and stunning Drina river boat cruise. Sarajevo and Belgrade, once capitals of ex-Yugoslav Republics, are two cities that Funky Tours has brought together much closer by developing an amazing full-day transfer tour experience. This tour can go from Sarajevo to Belgrade or the opposite way, and will include the best of the remote areas of Eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina and West Serbia.
Tour Options
Itinerary
First stop are medieval Stecci - Tombstones Unesco Necropolis near village of Rogatica.
20 minutes of drive from Rogatica via Stjenice and a short hike through dense forest will take us to our first stop of the day, Borak Stećci necropolis near the Burati village. This hidden gem deep in the misty forests of East Bosnia was recently inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage. We will discover the unique history of the Medieval Bosnian Kingdom and figure out why these blocks of limestone are scattered all around Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We will ride for one more hour through mountain parts of Bosnia before we meet up with the turquoise Drina river canyon and arrive at Višegrad. Višegrad is home to UNESCO heritage too, an Ottoman time bridge built in 1577. by the Grand Vizier Mehmed Pasa Sokolović. The UNESCO summary: “The unique elegance of proportion and monumental nobility of the property as a whole bear witness to the greatness of this style of architecture.” is definitely a reason to visit such a beautiful place. The book: “Bridge Over Drina” by Bosnian and Travnik born, World famous Nobel Prize winner, and Yugoslav writer Ivo Andrić, has given most of the glory to this fantastic place and we surely recommend you to read this novel before coming to this region and for this tour. This way, you can better understand the historical importance of this area in regard to a local as well as a global aspect.
As soon as we see the Bridge and take the river cruise through the amazingly green Drina River, we’ll explore the stone town of Andrićgrad (eng. Andrić town). Small, stone-made town, recently built, named and dedicated after novelist Ivo Andrić. The site also interprets the story of once glorious and very successful Yugoslavian cinematography from the perspective of one of the best local directors – Emir Kusturica.
As soon as we finish the story of Višegrad, we’ll continue driving towards the east Bosnian border and, on the way, will pay a visit to one of the most important Serbian Orthodox monasteries, Dobrun Monastery. Initially built in 1343 with frescoes preserved until today is the ideal stop to learn more about local history and enjoy the fantastic nature surrounding it.
Time to cross the Bosnia to Serbia border, and as soon as we do, we will enter the fantastic area of the nature park of “Šargan-Mokra Gora”. The first stop (for lunch possibly) will be the village of Drvengrad (eng. Timber Town), also know as Küstendorf and Mećavnik. Village-town was designed by the movie director Emir Kusturica for his movie “Life is Miracle” and the design won the “Philippe Rotthier European Architecture Award” from the Brussels Foundation for Architecture. Why the place looks out of this world? Why it won one of the most prestigious awards in the world of architecture? The best is to come with us and see it for yourself.
After lunch, at Drvengrad, we are about to take a train ride, but not just any train ride; we will do the famous “Šargan Eight”. The Šargan Eight is a narrow gauge (760mm) steam railway initially built in 1925. It used to connect Sarajevo and Belgrade, and the name “eight” origins from the pure shape of the track, which, if looked at from the sky, looks like the number 8. It was famous for its impressive engineering, which enabled it to rapidly climb a height of 300m over a short distance of 3.500m, whereas the total length of the railway today is 15.440m. Stunningly, all of that was achieved by passing through 22 tunnels and five bridges. Quite fantastic stuff, even on the global scale of rail and train engineering at the time, but the most amazing for us is that we are going to experience this story. Today the train, after it was closed in 1974, is again reopened for tourist reasons but also for true lovers of old-school steam train engineering. Simply exciting and stunning.
We are driving amazing road which goes through Tara National Park.
As soon as we end the fantastic train ride, we’ll continue toward Belgrade. On the way, we will stop to explore the tremendous region of one of Serbia’s most beautiful National Parks – National Park Tara. National Park Tara (declared in 1981.), with its biological diversity, is one of the most amazing areas in the whole of Serbia, offering great nature experiences, stunning views, hiking and trekking opportunities, unique Picea Omorica, vast animal diversity, and many other ways to fully enjoy life. One of the most important stops will be the stunning viewpoint of “Banjska Stena,” which offers a fantastic panorama of Perućac Lake on the Drina River, which naturally borders Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
Amazing ride along the beautiful Perucac Lake built by artificial dam on Drina river.
Generally, after Tara National Park explorations, the rest of the roughly three hours rides to Belgrade will take us through Bajina Bašta town with a last short stop at “House on the Drina“, where at the end of the day, we hope to be in Belgrade no later than 8 pm.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
This is Sarajevo and Belgrade connecting door-to-door day tour. Enjoy the convenience of complimentary pick-up and drop-off services, tailored to your chosen starting and ending locations in either Sarajevo or Belgrade.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- A current valid passport is required on the day of travel
Reviews(58)
This is a full day transfer from Belgrade to Saravejo, just about 12 hours. While it's can be tiring but was very spent. It covers short hike, train ride and a short river cruise. That's just fun. The hike up the hill on rocky path might not suit for folks with mobility challenges but otherwise fantastic. The van we were provided was a Mercedes van but unfortunable all these vans were not adjustable, so cannot recline and cannot shift forward or back. It's not just the one provided to us but we had others of the same van was the same too. Our tour guide was fantastic, explained all the history about all the places we visited and allow flexible time for soak up the scenery. The drive include some highway and mostly undivided road with lots of curves up and down the hill, make sure you don't easily get car sick when you consider this trip. This is a highly recommended transfer trip.
We had a fantastic time on our transfer tour from Belgrade to Sarajevo. The walk up to see the views over the Tara National Park and the Drina river, and taking the train across the valley were particular highlights. Our driver Vedad was friendly, professional, punctual and well organised, and was a safe and careful driver. He’s also an excellent photographer, so make sure to ask him to take your photo at some of the scenic spots! Would absolutely recommend.
OMG what an amazing one way tour (Sarajevo to Belgrade). The moment we left Sarajevo till we arrived on the edge of Belgrade, the views were incredible. The stops were all different and superb experiences. My favourite part though has to be the steam train. It was so much fun. There were only 3 of us customers plus the guide Veda or Vedad? and his driver so we had plenty of room in the mini van. It’s a trip that will stay with me forever. I absolutely loved every minute of it.
One of the best days of our 3 week trip. Saw a lot of great stops and our guide Stefan and driver were excellent. From great views, history , a lovely boat ride, a fun train ride, etc etc. What a great way too see the sights while traveling between cities. Terrific.
It was a wonderful experience. The driver was very kind, prepared and very nice. A perfect trip!
We did a total of five different trips with Funky Tours. The company was a delight to work with and every single one of our tour guides was fantastic. We usually like to make our own plans while traveling but this company made it so easy and affordable to visit this magical part of the world.
This was a really enjoyable tour, although it was a long day. There were just two of us on the tour - me plus a really nice guy from the US. Adis picked me up promptly at the appointed time in Belgrade. Our small group of three got on well and we talked and laughed a lot. It was very interesting talking to Adis and hearing him talk about life in Bosnia. We had a couple of breaks which worked well. The tour is the reverse from the Sarajevo to Belgrade tour and so we had quite an early lunch in Serbia to ensure we were on time for the ride on the Šargan 8 rail tour. This was good as you could order quite big meals like pizza but I was able to order a homemade-tasting vegetable soup with bread which suited me fine. For me I guess the highlight was Višegrad as I read the Andrić novel several years ago so it was fantastic to see the bridge. Another great moment was when we entered Sarajevo at the end of a long but very interesting day! Thanks to Adis who kept us safe - and entertained - throughout our journey.
You do many activities during this trip to Belgrade. It was the most amazing trip with a fantastic guide. Boat ride, train ride, hike in the national park, visit a monastery, learn so much history. The scenery is amazing.
Amazing tour and guide. No complaints. Would recommend to anyone. Don’t know what else to say ………………………………………………………..
Great tour - our driver and guide were both knowledgeable resources for all the questions we had. Visegrad was particularly beautiful, but the other stops, and the whole region with its twisty mountain roads was amazing to drive through.
