Why a travel guide for Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Bosnia and Herzegovina is still an insider tip as a travel destination. The country offers its visitors varied landscapes, but is still usually associated with negative headlines. If you talk to other travelers, countries such as Croatia, Albania, Montenegro or Slovenia come to mind, if it is the Balkans at all.
For this reason, there is currently not much information about Bosnia to be found on the internet. You can get a lot of good and useful tips in relevant social media groups, but it is difficult to find information for the whole country. Too little is currently known about the country, only the larger and better-known places can now be easily found in various blog reports. A good travel book is therefore worth its weight in gold when preparing for a vacation.

Our own travel guide to Bosnia and Herzegovina

The few travel guides that are available did not convince us. We collected the best tips from various sources, but that didn’t work either. So we often set off on our own and painstakingly researched many places using Google Maps and the satellite function. This enabled us to find the little places that were previously nowhere to be found. Definitely a sense of adventure. Over time, the idea of writing our own book for Bosnia grew more and more. This should stand out from the others and be something special.
We have now managed to do this and have published published our travel guide for Bosnia and Herzegovina published.

Start of the project “Travel guide for Bosnia and Herzegovina”

In fact, my (Ricardo’s) first trip to the Balkan country was back in 2011, when my vacation in Bosnia-Herzegovina was part of a small tour of the Balkans. I was immediately blown away by the landscape. I entered the country from Croatia with a friend without any expectations. Our first stop was Mostar. The drive there, always along the Neretva, was unique. Since then, many other visits have followed, but it has mainly been Sarajevo and the surrounding area.

In 2016, Melanie and I traveled to Bosnia together for the first time. We then visited more and more destinations in the country and explored them by car. At the end of 2021, we moved out of our apartment and moved our lives into the camper. A year later, we embarked on our first longer trip and the crazy project of writing our own book began.
In 2022, we spent three months traveling around the country and were able to discover a lot more. However, the step to becoming a travel guide for Bosnia was still too big. Too many concerns and fears coupled with the fear of not having enough information and our own pictures. We also didn’t have the necessary small change for such a big project.
So we postponed everything another year. In 2023, we were back in the country for a total of 4 months. The focus that year was on the small places. We wanted to discover and photograph what was missing in other publications and what you can’t just find on the internet or get as a tip on social media. What can I say, it was worth it and we were finally able to start the project properly.

Our workflow for the travel guide for Bosnia and Herzegovina

A project like this involves several steps. It all started with the search for a graphic designer. Thanks to Miri & Micha from the Outdorrnomaden we got in touch with Anna directly. We wrote to her, explained our plans and luckily she had the time and inclination for the project. So the first step was taken. We sat down together, worked out a rough design and then it was up to us.
We were also already looking for a suitable print shop at the time. Once again, our thanks go to Outdoornomaden. They also supported us here and gave us the contact details of their print shop. They had already had good experiences with the print shop for their own two books. In addition to this print shop, we also wrote to two others and had sample copies sent to us.

Our accommodation in Greece. Here we were able to work in peace and quiet.

The great writing begins

After our last stay in September 2023, we went straight down to Greece with a stopover of 4 weeks in Albania. We wanted to spend the winter in the slightly warmer south and take some time to write the travel guide. To do this, we rented a small apartment near Kalamata for 3 months.
After the initial discussions with our graphic designer were over, we set to work on the text.
We started systematically with the canton of Una-Sana. It was absolute chaos without any structure or proper procedure.

Bit by bit, however, we then worked out a system. First, we wrote down the municipalities of each canton. In the “capitals” of the municipalities, there were then the following sub-items:

• History
• Excursion destinations
• In the surrounding area
• Activities
• Restaurants
• Camping

This was followed by key points on the respective things we wanted to write about. With this system, we could at least make sure that we didn’t forget anything.

After writing and researching the text for several hours every day for two months, the rough text was finished at the end of December. Thanks to family and a very good friend, we had someone else on hand to proofread the entire text. We wouldn’t have been able to do it so well ourselves without their help and we simply didn’t have the financial means for an editor.

Image selection for our Bosnia-Herzegovina travel guide

The selection of pictures was anything but easy. After almost 8 months in the country, a lot of pictures have naturally accumulated. Pictures are a must in a travel guide and the best way to convey the beauty of a country. We wanted to use as many pictures as possible, but we also knew that the book couldn’t be too thick.
Fortunately, we have a really good designer. She incorporated a lot of pictures into the design of the book, but it doesn’t look too overloaded with images. After all, the information about the country shouldn’t get lost and is just as important.

In the end, we actually managed to fit 393 pictures onto the 320 pages.

Two important correction phases

We had agreed two correction phases with Anna. The first correction phase was an absolute disaster. An unbelievable number of errors had to be corrected and improvements added. The pages in the online tool looked like a battlefield with different colors and characters.

During the second correction phase, things were a little more relaxed and not quite as bad. However, it was here that we started to feel like absolutely nothing. We were in a really low mood and didn’t feel like reading the text again or correcting anything. By this point, each of us had probably read the whole book 5 times. We were “blind” and at the end of our tether. If it hadn’t been for Melanie, I probably wouldn’t have finished the book to this day. So we gritted our teeth and continued to work on it as best we could.

After the 2nd correction phase, everything was fine so far.

In January, we were once again on the road in the Balkans. We crossed the country again and collected missing pictures. Thanks to friends, we could also have used their pictures, but our aim was to only use our own pictures in the book.

So we needed a third correction phase.
Here, however, we only changed the images, checked the captions and generally checked the design again. We no longer read the text. We simply didn’t have the energy to read the whole text again. All the errors that are still in our travel guide deserve to be included in the first edition.

So if you find any errors, please feel free to contact us. This will enable us to correct them for a possible second edition.

Get your print data ready and off to print with our travel guide for Bosnia

Once everything was done, our designer finalized the print data and we were able to send everything to the print shop.
Now we had to wait anxiously for the books to arrive.

At the time (early February 2024), we were still traveling around the country. We wanted to enjoy the time and get a few things done.

Delivery and shipping

On Friday, February 23, 2024, the time had actually come. The books were delivered. We were as excited as little children at Christmas. Would everything fit? Are there any damages to the books? Are there any printing errors? How does the book feel in general and how is the quality? Questions upon questions and absolute ecstasy for both of us.

At that point, the pre-sale had already been running for a week and 220 books had already been sold – absolutely amazing. For this reason, nothing could go wrong and thank goodness everything was perfect.
The books make a high-quality impression, the printing is great and the pictures really come into their own. Awesome!

As a pre-order customer wanted to leave five days later, we took the first book to the post office two hours after delivery and sent it off. We finished the rest of the books at the weekend.
We printed shipping labels, wrote personalized cards and packed the books. It was a lot of work, but also an incredibly wonderful feeling. Now we could finally take a deep breath and after the first wonderful feedback, a huge weight was lifted from our shoulders.

We have actually done it. We have published a travel guide for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Not just any guide, but a very special one that will help and bring joy to many people.
Completely without a publisher or financial backer.
All by our own efforts, with the help of our families and friends.

What can you expect in our book for Bosnia-Herzegovina?

We wanted to create something special with this book and set ourselves apart from other travel guides for Bosnia stand out. We achieved this in particular by not only mentioning the now well-known places such as Una and Sutjeska National Park, Kravica Waterfalls, Mostar or Sarajevo, but also the smaller beauties such as nature parks, various waterfalls or the Rakitnica Gorge. Just those things that you can’t find everywhere. We also talk about various activities. Be it rafting on the river Neretva, canyoning, via ferrata, mountain biking or simply hiking. As soon as we think a region has an activity worth mentioning, we have mentioned it.

What you won’t find here, however, is a detailed history of the country and many pages on politics. We have deliberately kept these topics short, as there are much better sites on the Internet or books for this.
Our expertise does not lie in being able to tell the history and politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We would probably have made far too many mistakes in the book.
Having spent almost 8 months in the country so far, we have the advantage of knowing it very well in terms of the sights, people and natural beauty. We also enjoy eating out, which is why there are many personal restaurant tips in the book. For campers, we also have a section for possible free-standing pitches and campsites.

Also included are three route suggestions. Here we have chosen routes for a travel time of 7-15 days. These should serve as a source of ideas for your personal journey.
Last but not least, write-on pages have found their way into the book. You can use them to plan your trip individually and capture the best memories.
There are always QR codes that lead to our online maps. You can also download all the maps and route suggestions from a password-protected website.

We can therefore proudly say that our book clearly stands out from the other popular travel guides and is the perfect preparation for your vacation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
For those who like to travel off-road, we recommend in addition to our travel guide the off-road guide from the Hobo team.