The Globe and Mail, 8th September 2007
We travelled to Bosnia from the sun-baked Croatian port city of Dubrovnik - an ancient walled beauty that once rivalled Venice during the age of great city states. A three-hour bus ride through twisting valleys and rugged green hills took us to the Bosnian city of Mostar , located halfway between Sarajevo and the Adriatic Sea .
From Mostar, the train to Sarajevo passed through Bosnia 's beautiful landscape of lush hills cut through by emerald rivers. It is the sort of views featured today in a series of European television ads promoting Bosnia as an ecotourism destination under the slogan "Enjoy Life."
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The Independent, 29th July 2007
In the afternoon I trawled the old town's narrow alleys. Kazandziluk Street echoes to the tinny tapping of coppersmiths at work in their open-fronted shops. They fashion coffee pots and cauldrons from spent shell casings, ballpoint pens from bullets. Nearby is Morica Han, once a caravanserai offering shelter for travelling traders and now a place to browse bright woven carpets and relax with a coffee.
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The Times, 8th July 2007
Snug in its valley of evergreen hills, the capital of Bosnia has come far since the grim days of the 1990s. Now, on warm nights, as a silver moon splashes the cypresses that stand sentry at the mosques, the passeggiata has all the strutting glamour of a small Italian resort: leather, hair gel, hips (and as for the girls...). On a long weekend, Sarajevo reveals its past slowly: in bullet-pocked facades and pavement memorials to the dead; over cafe chat and Turkish coffee with oriental and Viennese cakes. Without knowing it, you'll return wiser – and wider.
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Guardian, 25th April 2007
At first no one believed people would pay to go hiking. Now adventure travel in Bosnia-Herzegovina is helping this war-torn country get back on its feet…
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The Times, 7th April 2007
First impressions are of a compact city in a soul-stirringly beautiful setting. All around are the snow-covered mountains where alpine skiing events were held during the 1984 Winter Olympics. From pigeon-fluttered Sebilj Square in the Bascarsija old Turkish quarter, the views between minarets built by the Ottomans who founded Sarajevo in the 15th century remind me of Switzerland .
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The Telegraph, 1st March 2007
Welcome to Sarajevo - Martin Bell writes about his emotional return to Sarajevo
“There are few undiscovered cities in Europe . Sarajevo is one of them. For all sorts of reasons, mainly war-related, travellers have been reluctant to go there unless, like soldiers and reporters, they had a professional reason to do so. Now the dangers are in the past and Bosnia is as safe for visitors as any country in Europe - safer than most, in my view. And for old hands like myself the most remarkable innovation is the freedom of movement granted by the blessed absence of roadblocks.
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Georgia Straight, 1st march 2007
As we walk down the winding streets from our hotel the next day, the morning sunlight gives us our first glimpse of the mountains that embrace the city, houses with red-tiled roofs clinging precariously to their slopes. Charcoal smoke hovers like a beacon over the cevapcici grills of Bašcaršija, and we listen to a call to prayer emanating from one of the nearby minarets.
The bazaar is bustling. All the stalls are open, their wares spilling out into the narrow lanes. Most of the shops offer tourists one of two local specialties: hammered copper Turkish coffee sets decorated with Sarajevo skyline motifs, or silver filigree jewellery.
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Observer, 7th January 2007
Sarajevo in “The fabulous 50 for 2007”
The capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina is tipped to become a major centre for culture in the next few years. Michael Palin's next TV travel series, Palin's New Europe, coming this autumn, is bound to inspire a surge of interest in central and eastern European destinations.
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