Customer Reviews

Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2nd: The Bradt Travel Guide

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is unfortunate that so few guides to BiH exist, but thankfully the Bradt guide is excellent enough to stand on its own. I lived in BiH for two years, and every expat I know had a copy of this book to help organize travel in the region. The historical overview and explanations of important customs are wonderful additions that help give travelers an inside look into Bosnian culture. Given that BiH is still recovering from the war in the 1990s, it can be extremely hard to plan a trip there without some inside knowledge; this guidebook provides that inside advantage to travelers who don't live in BiH or speak the language. An excellent addition to any travel library, this Bradt guide is a must-have for anyone planning to travel to BiH!

In July '05, I visited BiH and Croatia for the first time and used the Brandt guide to help me traverse BiH. BiH has many amazing cities and sites to visit, but they are difficult to find and not marked. The travel guide was helpful in that it served mostly to inform me of many of the sites. BiH is not very commercial and I found local assistance a necessity, but that was not stated in the book. For instance, I attempted to find some Illyrian ruins highly recommended in the book, needless to say, we got lost and even the locals could not help guide us to the reference found in the book. In Mostar, we went to look at one of the oldest Ottoman houses that was mentioned in the book and the owner was taken by suprise when we began looking at the house. Finally, street signs are difficult to find in some cities and maybe this explains why the maps in the travel guide were at times incomplete.

Overall, this book begins to expose many amazing BiH sites for travel, and as time passes and the wounds of war begin to heal, more tourists will again realized the history that lies in this beautiful country.

This is an excellent book. Very well written and inspiring and funny. Bought a copy for myself adn loced it so i had to purchase another copy to give to a friend as a gift. Would highly recomend it. !

This book was recommended to me by someone living in Bosnia. It seems to be the best guide book for that area at this time. I have since found a web site that is nearly as good a starting place but has BETTER maps on the site. I would say that subsequent editions will only improve the information content.

I made two trips to Bosnia and both times referred frequently to this book. Mr. Clancy provides a great mix of history, geography, tourist and cultural information. His love for this country and its people illuminate every chapter. I recommend this book to everyone who wants to learn more about Bosnia and Herzegovina

Well researched and impartial guide to a beautiful place with an incredibly turbulent history. Very insightful and honest. BiH's tourism infrastructure may not be the well oiled machine that your find in other European destinations - but that just increases the joys of travelling the paths less travelled and very soon, this too will change. I would have appreciated more information on travel times between towns/cities. For a first time traveller to the region, this book has proven invaluable. Overall: 4.5 stars!

It's about time someone produced a travel guide dedicated to Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a fascinating and beautiful country steeped in a complex and captivating history. And it is in desperate need of income from any legitimate source, so why not tourism? Like the author, I am particularly fond of Herzegovina, partly due to having lived in Mostar for two years in the 90s. I will attempt a fuller review of the book later, but most wanted to comment on two shortcomings in this mostly wonderful book that leapt out at me.

The first is that the Mostar restaurant guide section consists almost entirely of East Mostar locales. While I cannot disagree with the descriptions of the restaurants listed, I can't help but wonder what happened to Hrvoje, Admiral, Stela, and other standout restaurants in the area.

The other is the short shrift given to some of the wineries in the area. While some large wineries produce utter mediocrity, near Citluk and Medjurgoje are some rather good wineries, the best of which is Andrija. This winery is known for excellent whites and rose's, and also had a delightful cherry-flavored liquor made from grapes. While the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia is deservedly well known for its reds and rose's, the finer Herzegovinian whites must not be overlooked where available!

I might also add that, rather than staying and eating in Neum, it is well worth your while to head to Mali Ston, a few kilometers east in Croatia. The Kapitanova Kuca is one of the best restaurants in either Bosnia and Herzegovina or Croatia.

This is the only updated guide on the area so there it might be pointless to comment on it. I'd definitely buy it because the region is quite poor on information anyway. But a lot of time the book is limited and the maps are usually quite useless.

I tried doing to walking tour in Mostar and also looked for some locations mentioned in Sarajevo in vain. Sometimes the author mentions streetnames which are not usually marked, some locations he talks about are impossible to find without asking people.

On the positive side, the author is not some dude with a backpack visiting the country. He lives in BiH and has a lot of first hand information. I wish he would share more of it with us.

Very comprehensive guide book with a succint and fair hihstorical presentation. The author maintaind neutrality while carefully presented Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian views of the wars started in 1992 that ravaged the country. However, it is inexcusable to still have (in the second edition published in 2007!) "Yugoslavia consiting of Serbia and Montenegro" (p.37). Furthermore, stating that "for all practical purposes, Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian languages are one and the same" (p.47) is either ignorant or preposterous and should be taken out of this, otherwise, well researched and presented book. Several outstanding details testify to the author's understanding of the local customs: on p. 89 the description of the workings in the post office is hillarious. The culture of coffee and the special way to drink coffee in Bosnia is described on page 81.
Interestingly enough, the author had arbitrarily divided the country in six parts and dedicated one chapter to each, covering most of the interesting places, places to stay, and places to eat. I did expect a bit more about the town Pocitelj (p.176) which the Index erroneously locatesd on p. 177. Same for the town Radimlja, p. 179, shown in the Index on p.180. The map in the front calls Vetrjenica Caves, but in the text on p. 181 it is correctly spelled Vjetrenica!
Overall, an indispensable guide book for anyone contemplating to travel to these lands.

I have traveled thoughout much of former Yugoslavia, but have never made it to Bosnia. After reading this book cover to cover, I am thrilled for my upcoming trip. I had trouble locating any travel books for Bosnia-Herzegovina and so I was delighted to find this. A gem of a book (beautiful pictures, well-written text, excellent advice from an expat who has lived in the Balkans for years) that I hope will encourage others to explore this often overlooked area of the world.