Day Trips from Bosnia and Herzegovina

The classic southern run lands you in Mostar's stone-flagged Old Town before the coffee cools. Watch the Stari Most arc above the Neretva's improbable turquoise, listen as muezzin and church bells overlap, then drive 15 minutes to Blagaj where a 600-year-old dervish house crouches under a cliff that gushes ice-cold spring water. End with pomegranate juice on the riverside terrace before pointing the bonnet back up the highway.

Jajce perches where two rivers meet inside a walled medieval core. The 22 m waterfall explodes beneath wooden balconies, dusting café tables with cool pine-scented mist. Over the thunder you can pick out 14th-century catacombs and watermills that once powered Bosnia and Herzegovina's paper trade.

Forty-five minutes south-west lies Konjic, launch pad for the Rakitnica canyon. Paddle chalk-white water in the morning, then follow a guide through Tito's 1950s atom-proof bunker, a 6,500 m² diesel-scented maze carved into the mountain. Round off with grilled ćevapi in town while the train whistle floats across the Neretva.

Lukomir, Bosnia and Herzegovina's highest village at 1,495 m, grips the Bjelašnica ridge like a shepherd's mirage. Stone-and-slate cottages teeter above a 700 m plunge into the Rakitnica gorge. In May the meadows flare with wild crocus and birch smoke drifts across the lane. Village women sell hand-knit socks and hot somun bread pulled straight from the iron dome.

Travnik, once the Ottoman vizier capital, still flashes its painted mosque, hilltop fortress and the finest ćevapi in Bosnia and Herzegovina, smoky, finger-length, served with raw onion. After lunch climb Mt Vlašić for summer cheese stalls where shepherds carve sharp vlašićki sir while cowbells clang across flowery meadows.

South of Mostar the road hugs the Neretva gorge to Počitelj, a stone village stacked like stairs up a barren hill. Push on another 40 minutes and the river tumbles over tufa shelves into Kravice Falls: a 25 m horseshoe you can swim beneath while cliff swallows dive overhead.

The Blidinje plateau, wedged between two mountain massifs, feels lunar, karst fields scattered with shepherd huts and the scent of wild thyme crushed underfoot. The 2-hour climb to Hajdučka Vrata threads you through a natural rock window that frames the valley. Try lamb slow-roasted with sage before dropping back to Mostar.

Cross from Croatia and, within 35 minutes, Trebinje's mellow wine country develops. The 15th-century Arslanagić bridge doubles itself in the lazy Trebišnjica while cicadas rattle overhead. Up-valley, Tvrdos monastery pours žilavka white from cellars hacked into living rock as monks chant behind medieval walls.