Seeing Mostar’s Stari Most Bridge and its bullet-holed history

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
6
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
8
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
5
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
3
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
3
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
8
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
60 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
288th/454
Top 70%
continent
Europe
country
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Length of time
1 day or less
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$40 (typically $10 - $60)
Time of year visited
July
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Bridges Old town River Experience
All Tags
UNESCO world heritage site
Wow Factor
The wow factor reflects just how much you’re likely to say “wow”. As there’s a lot of experiences in the world, and a lot of wows, i’ve gone with a simple ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️ score, and a separate category for the truly "gash"
⭐⭐

Summary

A visit to Mostar is all about the famous UNESCO World Heritage-listed Stari Most bridge.  The bridge itself looks like something straight from Naboo in Star Wars with its beautiful sweeping arch held high by the two cylinder towers and with its setting as the focal point of the town surrounded by the Herzegovina mountains.

Despite being part-destroyed by the bombing in the 1990 Civil War, they have done a superb job of repairing it and you can still get a great feeling of its history that stretches all the way back to 1474 and the first arch that was added by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1557.

Sitting by the river having lunch overlooking the bridge is beautiful, and when combined with a wander through the nearby Old Town, very much justifies the 2.5 hour / 3.5hour trip from Sarajevo / Dubrovnik.

Highlights

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#1 Sitting having lunch overlooking the beautiful Stari Most, maybe being lucky enough to see some people making the brave jump into the waters

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#2 Enjoying Mostar's minaret and mountain-ringed setting

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#3 Staying for the evening to be able to experience a far quieter Mostar and having the river beach, at times, largely to yourself

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#4 Having a wander further through the Old Town and along the river front - looks like something from Naboo in Star Wars

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#5 The rather eerie pillars showing the bullet holes from the not so distant Civil War

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#6 The shell-pocketed and hollowed out buildings that show just how much in the middle of the civil war Mostar was

Travel Tips

The experience itself is relatively straightforward, but a few high level tips:

  • Bullet holes – the slightly unusual and eerie thing to check out in Mostar are the various scars from the civil war.  As you walk from Spanski Trg to the bridge along the rods that follow the east of the river, you’ll see various walls / pillars riddled with bullet holes and a variety of shell-pocketed buildings.  They’re very much worth checking out
  • The Old Town – the bridge is indeed the focal point, but the Old Town of Mostar, which wraps around and near the bridge, is also quite lovely and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing
  • Restaurant for views – best views of the bridge are when sitting having food with the view in the background.  Best spot is the restaurant Konoba Mlinica Neretva – food is basic, but you’re there for the view
  • Stay overnight – the Old Town really is nice, and in the evening the place quietens down as the day tripper leave
  • Part of a 2-3 week itinerary – the Western Balkans are a seriously underrated part of Europe and represent one of the best 2-3 week trips you can do, with stunning castles and old towns, and some of the best coastline in the world all compactly housed within 8 countries.  For the 2-3 week itinerary for the highlights and general tips for this part of the world, see this travel entry and where Mostar fits in –3 week trip around the Balkans States.

Experiences nearby

The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences

Other Old Town Experiences around the World

Arequipa old town
⭐⭐

Wandering Dubrovnik’s Old Town City Walls
⭐⭐

Zanzibar’s 5 highlights
⭐⭐⭐⭐

A long weekend for Lisbon and the surrounding gems of Sintra and Cascais
⭐⭐⭐

Wandering the Old Town of Tallinn in winter and taking the ferry over to Helsinki
⭐⭐

Soaking up the Cartagena Old Town
⭐⭐⭐

Nights out and soaking up Havana
⭐⭐⭐

Soaking up Antigua
⭐⭐

Venice in January
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A few days in Penang for George Town and beaches
⭐⭐

Day trip to Macau from Hong Kong
⭐⭐⭐

Score Detail

The scores above are the real point of this site.

Over 20+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve tried to rank the world’s best travel experiences — from genuinely mind-blowing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to the properly gash.

Every one of the 500+ places on this site has both a Wow Factor rating and a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score based on the things that actually make travel memorable.

If you're curious about the thinking behind it, head to the About page.

Otherwise, explore the map above or on the Home page and see which places truly deliver maximum wow.

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