Travnik is a town of about fifteen thousand people in a narrow valley in central Bosnia, ninety minutes west of Sarajevo under the bulk of VLASIC mountain. The first photograph is one of its streets. It looks like a pleasant provincial town, which it is, and it does not look like what it was.
FOR ABOUT A HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS THIS WAS THE CAPITAL OF OTTOMAN BOSNIA. From 1699 to 1850 the VIZIER of the Bosnian eyalet sat here rather than in Sarajevo, which means this small valley town held a provincial governor of the Ottoman Empire, his court, his garrison and the foreign consulates that came with him. That is why a town this size has the architecture it has: the mosques, the old quarters, the clock towers, the two cemeteries of viziers. Seventy-seven viziers governed from Travnik and some of them are buried here.
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What Is Here
AND THE TOWN PRODUCED THE ONLY NOBEL LAUREATE IN LITERATURE THIS COUNTRY HAS HAD. IVO ANDRIC was born in Travnik in 1892 and won the Nobel Prize in 1961. His novel TRAVNICKA HRONIKA, published in English as Bosnian Chronicle or The Days of the Consuls, is set in this town between 1807 and 1814, when the French and Austrian consuls arrived at the vizier's court during the Napoleonic wars, and it is one of the great novels about the collision of empires in a small place. HIS BIRTHPLACE IS A MUSEUM, a small stone house in the Zenjak quarter, and reading fifty pages of the book before you come changes the town completely: you walk the streets the consuls walked and the geography of the novel is still legible.
THE SARENA DZAMIJA IS THE THIRD PHOTOGRAPH AND IT IS ARCHITECTURALLY ODD IN A WAY WORTH NOTICING. The Many-Coloured Mosque, first built in 1757 and rebuilt after a fire in 1815, carries painted floral and architectural decoration on its exterior, which is rare in Ottoman Bosnia. AND IT IS BUILT ON TOP OF A ROW OF SHOPS, with the prayer hall raised above an arcade of small commercial units at street level that still trade. A mosque over a bazaar is unusual anywhere, and it tells you something about how the town worked.
THE FORTRESS IS THE SECOND PHOTOGRAPH AND IT IS A TWENTY-MINUTE CLIMB. STARI GRAD TRAVNIK is a medieval Bosnian castle, pre-Ottoman in origin, substantially intact, sitting on a spur above the old town with a well-preserved octagonal tower. It has a small admission and a museum, and the view down the valley is the point. The climb is steep and cobbled.
PLAVA VODA IS WHERE THE TOWN ACTUALLY SITS IN THE EVENING. The Blue Water is a stretch of the Hendek stream running through the old quarter in stone channels, crossed by small bridges, lined with restaurants and cafes. It is cold, loud and shaded, and in a hot valley that makes it the centre of local life.
AND VLASIC IS THE MOUNTAIN ABOVE, AT 1,933 METRES, with a ski resort at Babanovac, walking in summer, and a cheese the whole country knows: VLASIC CHEESE, a salty white sheep's cheese matured in skins, which is sold in the town and is genuinely good.
When to Go
May, June and September are the best for the town. Central Bosnia at this altitude is comfortable then, the valley is green, the fortress climb is pleasant and Plava Voda is at its best.
JULY AND AUGUST ARE HOT IN THE VALLEY AND THAT IS WHY VLASIC EXISTS. The town can reach the mid thirties and the mountain is ten degrees cooler, which is where everyone goes.
WINTER IS A SKI SEASON AND IT IS CHEAP. Vlasic runs from roughly December to March with reliable snow, and it is one of the main Bosnian resorts. The town below is cold, around or below freezing, with snow and short days, and winter tyres are a legal requirement.
Bosnia and Herzegovina carries no advised-against areas at all. The FCDO publishes no regional risks page for this country and the phrase advise against does not appear on either its landing page or its safety and security page, which is worth stating plainly because a country that was at war inside living memory is assumed otherwise. Travelling here is not travelling against official advice and it does not touch your insurance. What the advisory does carry is specific and practical, and it is in the sections below rather than in a warning at the top.
Getting There
Ninety minutes from Sarajevo and the bus is frequent. SARAJEVO has the main airport. Travnik sits on the main road between Sarajevo and the north west, so buses run several times an hour in each direction and also connect to Mostar, Banja Luka and Split. The town is walkable.
THE ROAD FROM SARAJEVO IS THE ONE TO PLAN FOR RATHER THAN THE DISTANCE. It is a single carriageway through a valley with heavy lorry traffic and limited overtaking, and ninety minutes is optimistic in the afternoon. A car is useful for Vlasic and for Jajce beyond it.
Winter tyres are a legal requirement from November to April and the specification is exact. The FCDO states that between November and April you must have tyres marked MS, M+S or M&S with a stylised snowflake symbol and a tread of AT LEAST 4 MILLIMETRES, and that you must carry snow chains and use them when road signs tell you to. Four millimetres is deeper than most hire cars arrive with elsewhere in Europe, so this is a question to ask the hire desk rather than assume. It also warns that road conditions outside the main towns can worsen quickly. Separately, third-party insurance is a legal minimum and the border police can ask for printed proof, with border insurance available to buy at named crossings if yours does not cover the country.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is one state made of two entities and the practical consequences reach a visitor on her first day. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska have their own police forces, their own institutions and in places their own signage and alphabet, and the FCDO records that TAXI DRIVERS FROM THE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA MIGHT REFUSE TO DRIVE TO A DESTINATION IN THE FEDERATION, AND THE SAME IN REVERSE. So a journey that looks like one short hop on a map can need two cars, and the answer is to agree the whole route and the price before the doors close. The FCDO also notes an increase in anti-UK rhetoric from some politicians in the Republika Srpska and says this could translate into wider anti-UK sentiment: that is a reason to keep politics out of conversation with strangers and to avoid planned demonstrations, not a reason to avoid half the country.
The Travnik Packing List
A steep cobbled fortress climb, active mosques, a hot valley with a cold stream through it, a 1,900 metre mountain above, and real winters.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women earns its place here on two counts at once. It covers your shoulders for the mosques, which is expected and which a strappy top is not, and it manages the particular swing of a Bosnian mountain valley: hot in the street, ten degrees cooler at Plava Voda in the shade with running water, and cooler again if you go up Vlasic in the afternoon. Wool is the one fabric that does not make you choose.
Salomon X Ultra 4 GTX hiking shoes, for the cobbled climb to the fortress and for anything on Vlasic, which is a real mountain with real weather.
A Columbia Fast Trek II fleece, which you will want on Vlasic in any season and in the valley on a spring or autumn evening.
A Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket, because central Bosnia gets substantial rain and the mountain generates its own weather.
Columbia Saturday Trail stretch trousers, which cover the knee for the mosques and are right for the fortress and the hill.
A merino beanie for Vlasic, which at 1,933 metres is cold even in summer, and for the valley in winter.
Not linked and worth packing: A LIGHT SCARF for the mosques, which are active and where it is expected in the prayer hall; SUNSCREEN, which this registry does not carry; and CASH IN CONVERTIBLE MARKS for the fortress, the Andric house and the cheese.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Travnik
Emergency numbers in Bosnia and Herzegovina: police 122, ambulance 124, fire 123. These are the numbers the FCDO's own getting-help page lists and no others are printed here.THE FORTRESS CLIMB IS THE EVERYDAY HAZARD AND VLASIC IS THE SERIOUS ONE. The path up to Stari Grad is steep cobble and stone, slippery in wet and icy in winter, with some unfenced sections once you are inside the walls. That is a care-and-footwear problem. Vlasic is a different category: a 1,933 metre mountain with weather that changes fast, fog, and in winter avalanche terrain off the pisted areas. If you walk or ski there, treat it as a mountain rather than a hill resort, tell somebody your plan, and do not go off marked routes.
Landmines and unexploded weapons remain from the 1992 to 1995 war, and the FCDO lists exactly where to take care. Its words are that highly populated areas and major routes are largely clear and that there is still a risk in less populated and rural areas, with the instruction: do not step off roads and paved areas without an experienced guide. The places it names are THE FORMER LINES OF CONFLICT, THE EDGE OF ROADS, OPEN COUNTRYSIDE, DESTROYED OR ABANDONED BUILDINGS INCLUDING IN TOWNS, NEGLECTED LAND, UNTARRED ROADS, AND WOODS AND ORCHARDS. Read that list rather than skimming it: three of the seven are things a visitor walks into without thinking, because the edge of a road is where you park, an abandoned building is what a photograph is taken of, and an orchard is what a shortcut crosses. The operative rule is that tarmac and maintained path are safe and the verge is not, so this changes where you put your feet rather than whether you come. The Mine Action Centre of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BHMAC, is the authority on which ground is cleared. TRAVNIK WAS CLOSE TO FRONT LINE IN THE 1990s AND THE HILLS AROUND IT ARE AMONG THE CATEGORIES THE FCDO NAMES. The town, the fortress path, the streets, the Plava Voda quarter and the roads are cleared and in daily use, and the warning does not reach them. What it reaches is the open country on the valley sides, the woods and orchards on the slopes, the former lines of conflict in these hills, and abandoned buildings. So the rule is specific and easy: walk the town and the marked fortress path, take the lift or the road to Vlasic rather than a cross-country shortcut, and if you want to walk in the hills go with a local guide, which is what the FCDO advises in terms.
Carry your passport or official photo identification at all times. The FCDO is explicit that you must be able to show identification if required, including when checking into a hotel, so this is not the softer carry-a-copy advice some countries get. Local police do not always speak English and the FCDO's own suggestion is that you may need a translator, which is worth knowing before a routine check turns into a long one.
Neither the EHIC nor the GHIC covers Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the FCDO says so directly. It also records that medical and dental facilities are limited, particularly outside Sarajevo and the major towns, and tells readers to ensure they have appropriate travel insurance for local treatment or UNEXPECTED MEDICAL EVACUATION. Those two sentences together are the single most consequential thing on the health page: a European card that works in Croatia next door is worth nothing here, and the cover you need is the kind that moves you rather than the kind that reimburses a prescription. The emergency medical number is 124.
US State Department travel advisory: the Bosnia and Herzegovina advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/bosnia-and-herzegovina, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital or clinic: Travnik has a hospital, the KANTONALNA BOLNICA TRAVNIK, which serves the whole Central Bosnia canton and has an emergency department, so for a town this size the medical position is better than most of this batch. SARAJEVO, ninety minutes away, has the country's main clinical centre. A pharmacy in the town handles minor problems. THE EHIC AND GHIC DO NOT COVER BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, so insurance is your only cover, and the FCDO says to make sure it includes medical evacuation, which matters more if Vlasic is in your plan.
Official health authority: the Federal Ministry of Health of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is the Federal Ministry of Health
US Embassy: the US Embassy in Sarajevo.
Official tourism authority: Tourism Bosnia and Herzegovina, the national tourism body, covers the country, and the Travnik tourist office publishes the fortress and Ivo Andric museum opening hours and the Vlasic lift season, which is the practical document for this town
Takeaways
This was the capital of Ottoman Bosnia from 1699 to 1850. Seventy-seven viziers governed from a valley town of fifteen thousand people.
Ivo Andric was born here in 1892 and won the Nobel Prize in 1961. Read fifty pages of Bosnian Chronicle before you come.
The Many-Coloured Mosque is painted on the outside and built over a row of shops that still trade.
Plava Voda, the cold stream running through the old quarter, is where the town actually sits in the evening.
Vlasic above the town is 1,933 metres, a ski resort in winter, and the source of a cheese worth carrying home.
Solo women safety assessment: Travnik is a comfortable place to travel alone. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA CARRIES NO ADVISED-AGAINST AREAS AT ALL and the FCDO publishes no regional risks page for it. This is a working provincial town rather than a resort, which means fewer English speakers and more genuine hospitality, and the Plava Voda quarter in the evening is busy with families and entirely comfortable for a woman alone with a coffee. A translation app is more useful here than in Sarajevo or Mostar. FOUR PRACTICAL POINTS. The fortress path is steep cobble and needs a proper sole. Vlasic is a real mountain: do not walk off marked routes alone, and in winter treat the off-piste as avalanche terrain. The mine warning reaches the hills rather than the town, so stay on roads and marked paths and take a guide for hill walking. And the FCDO records that taxi drivers from one entity may refuse to cross into the other, which matters if you travel on towards Banja Luka, so agree the route and price before setting off and avoid unlicensed cars. Dress for the mosques, with shoulders and knees covered and a scarf for the prayer hall. Carry your passport at all times, which Bosnia requires and fines for. Police 122, ambulance 124, fire 123.
Reading On
Travnik sits on the main road through central Bosnia, which this library covers at both ends. Ninety minutes east, the Sarajevo packing list covers the capital, the siege lines and the airport most visitors use. Two hours south, the Mostar packing list covers the bridge and the divided city. Across the border, the Split packing list covers the Dalmatian port three hours west and the Dubrovnik packing list the walled city further south, which are the other two airports visitors arrive through. In inland Croatia, the Plitvice packing list covers the lakes and the Zagreb packing list the Croatian capital. For the country as a whole, the Bosnia packing list and the Bosnia travel guide for women carry the regions, the entities, the seasons and the costs in full. For why wool suits a valley that is hot in the street and cold by the water, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection. An hour west on the same road, the Jajce packing list covers the waterfall in the middle of the town and the room where Yugoslavia was founded.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
