Sitting on the bank of river Pliva and Vrbas, lies a small royal town not as famous as the capital, Sarajevo (Part 1 & Part 2) and Mostar.Today, Jajce is an open-air museum where activities are centred in its wall city of Jajce. Travellers tend to skip Jajce, thus the presence of little travellers.
Jajce becomes a royal town in the 15th century. In 1461, in the Church of St. Mary, the last Bosnian King, Stjepan Tomasevic, was crowned. He reigned for two years before being executed by the Ottomans, during their march on Europe. Thereupon, many historical happenings occured in Jajce, including the occupation by the Hungarian King Matijas Korvin and conquest of Ottoman empire to being Austro-Hungarian government in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
With a fortress on top of the hill and waterfalls beneath the town, Jajce Old Town offers a unique complex of cultural-historical heritage and natural beauty.
How to Get to Jajce
As I was coming from Plitvice Lakes (Day 1 & Day 2), I took the bus from Plitvice Lakes to Zagreb (3-4 hours), and then Zagreb to Jajce (5 hours). I supposed there was an easier option but we had little information on the routes and frequency of the bus, thus we chose to play safe as we had quite a tight schedule.
Bus from Mukinje, Plitvice Lakes to Zagreb : HRK92 (RM52.17)
Luggage storage in the bus : HRK7 (RM3.96)
Bus from Zagreb to Jajce : HRK141.75 (RM80.37)
Luggage storage in the bus : HRK8 (RM4.53)
The road from Sarajevo to Jajce takes about three hours and the nearest train station is in Banjaluka.
Finding Jajce Old Town
As soon as we arrived at the Bus Station, which is located on the main road to Bihac, right after the bridge on the river Vrbas, we saw few cars which offer taxi services.
We decided to walk to Jajce Old Town where our accommodation was located because it seemed near to us from inside the bus. We passed by the Vodopod waterfall and crossed the bridge on the Pliva river (150m from the Volopod).
We reached a T junction where there were restaurants lining up the street. About 20m on the left side of the junction, you can find the Tourist Office. Advisable to buy a map because tour in Jajce in on a D-I-Y basis. To get to Jajce Old Town, we took the right turn into the Medieval Wall Entrance, known as Travnik Gate.
Aida’s House, Jajce – The Review
We stayed at Aida’s House, Jajce Old Town. Apart from having to wait for the key to be handed over to us for nearly an hour, our overnight stay at Aida’s House was lovely. We were received by bubbly Muammer. We really enjoyed his company and discussion on political game in Bosnia and match-make game, of course. The room was clean and even the shared bathroom went by 5-star hotel’s standard. Aida’s House is located inside the medieval wall, a walking distance from the pubs and lounges, if you are into night hangouts.We paid EURO27 for the room with 2 single beds through Airbnb.
It used to be a medieval house belonged to one of the royal families.
4.5**** | Excellent wifi, next door groceries stores, within walking distance to almost all tourist attractions except for the Pliva Lakes & Jajce Windmills. Free laundry. Would definitely recommend a stay here. Money for value.
After the sun set down, we went for dinner at Omar Bey’s House and ate quite lavishly. We could not get enough Cevapi and begova corba.
3 Comments
Hi Farah,
I’m planning to visit Bosnia soon and came across this lovely blog of yours. Just wanna ask few questions about your trip there. How was the public transportation in Bosnia? I was in Croatia last year but had a bad experience in terms of public transportation. Are there frequent buses to and from Jacje? And since im a budget and solo traveler, are there many options for getting a hostel room? Thanks. Have a good day. 🙂
Public transportations in Bosnia? As in inter-city? We booked all buses in advance via GetbyBus website and they were reliable. We did not miss any connections and the buses were on time. From Sarajevo, there are 4x daily. There is a backpackers’ lodge in Jajce and other cheaper options though not publicised in the net. They are inside the walled city. However, the watermills and the lakes are quite far off. You can go camping at the lakes if you want!
We travelled in Croatia but did not have issues with public transportation. Ikut nasib?
Beautiful. =)