Travel tips for Mostar

Bosnia and Herzegovina has no city-specific entry rules beyond what applies to the country as a whole, but a handful of practical points shape every trip through Mostar. The official currency is the convertible mark (KM or BAM), pegged to the euro at a fixed rate, and while some hotels and tour operators quote prices in euros, cash in KM is still expected in the old bazaar and at smaller sites. The country sits outside the EU and the Schengen area, so most visitors coming overland from Croatia or Montenegro cross a real border checkpoint, sometimes twice given the short strip of Croatian coast around Neum that splits the route.

Two arrival patterns cover most visitors: flying into Dubrovnik, Split or Sarajevo and driving or taking a coach in, or joining a day tour that handles the border crossing for you; Mostar's own small international airport carries only a handful of seasonal routes. The high season runs from June to August, when the Stari Most and Kujundžiluk get busiest and Kravice's car park fills before noon; May, September and October sit either side as quieter, cooler shoulder months.

The town still carries the scars of the 1992 to 1995 war — the Bulevar was the front line, and shell-pocked buildings stand a short walk from the fully rebuilt old town — and most visitors find that context, rather than anything to avoid, worth reading up on before arriving. Roads through the Neretva canyon and up toward Blidinje wind along narrow, sometimes unguarded stretches, and driving them after dark or in winter ice is slower and riskier than the distance suggests. Cards are accepted in most Mostar restaurants and hotels, but smaller towns, museum entries and the countryside sites still lean on cash, so it's worth carrying KM in small notes.