PragueBuzz!

CAR

Update: By car go Prague - Vienna - Graz - Zagreb - Slavonski Brod - Sarajevo. [thanks novala]

I don’t know how. I guess you just buy a map, locate the highway and drive.

BOAT/FERRY

Sorry! Both countries are land lock. Suck heh? No wonder tourists keep flocking to the Croatia’s seaside.

FOOT

Right! You do it and let me know. I promise to write about you and your foot journey for a week straight.

AIR

1. Czech Airline (CSA ): This will take the least time, ~ 4 hours. There used to be direct flights, but I think due to Sarajevo’s out-of-beaten-path location and CSA’s losing money, all flights will stop at some other cities, for example Budapest. This explains the 4-hours instead of two. Oneway ticket can be overwhelming from $400 up to $900.
2. Low-cost Germanwings : Depend on when you fly, you can grab a really cheap oneway, about 20 EUR flying in and out many major cities. (Best chance if you fly in and out of Germanwings’ main hub, Cologne-Bonn). So you can make a multiple point-to-point trip. By the way, if you buy a ticket from Germanwings to and from Cologne, you can get a 2 beer for the price of 1 . Double check the offer though.

Prague-Cologne/Bonn-Sarajevo: Germanwings has recently added Sarajevo to its flight destination so there might not be any scheduled flights at the moment, but check to see if there is during your travel period. Unless you’re really lucky and find two flights scheduled close to one another, you might have to wait at Cologne airport, possibly overnight.

BUS/TRAIN: From Prague, the 2 shortest routes to Sarajevo are through Vienna and Budapest.

Via Vienna:

• Student Agency bus or “Yellow Bus”: Web site in Czech only. Once you’re on that page (to get to the page from the home page, locate the yellow bus and click “Praha-Brno-Viden (Vienna)”) click “Jízdní rád/Rezervace” (Schedule & Reservation), scroll down and you’ll see the bus schedule from Prague to Vienna. At the time of this post, the buses depart at 4 different times: 23:55, 3:00, 10:30, and 12:30. It stops in Wien, Nord-Praterstern and Wien, Flughafen Wien (airport). To buy: go to one of SA’s agencies. Costs are 300KC/$15 to Nord-Praterstern and 450KC/$23 to the airport or Flughafen.
• Also check this web site written in English. They also sell Yellow Bus’s tickets and currently have a promotion Praha-Vienna for only 200KC/$10.
• Eurolines bus to Sarajevo: You can book online at Eurolines Austria (*) (45+ EUR oneway) or buy it at at Sud Bahnhof. My friend say that you can buy ticket on the bus for the same price, but he’s not too sure. Buses here depart to former Yugoslavia. It’s likely that you leave from here to Sarajevo.
• To get to Sud Bahnhof from Nord-Praterstern bus stop: Praterstern Wien-Nord metro station, Red Line, is near the bus stop. Take the subway to Sudtiroler Platz. Metro ticket cost €1.5. Trip lasts 20 minutes. From Sudtiroler Platz, you can walk about 10 minutes to Sud Bahnhof.

Via Budapest :

• Never tried this route, but I think it’s the longest and most costly.

Additional Remarks:Try this amazingly cool National timetable information system where you can search for a detailed of transportation means + schedule from a Czech city to another domestic or international city.

COMBO: Remember that from Prague direction, there are 4 shortest possible routes into Sarajevo: Budapest, Zagreb, Split, and Dubrovnik.

You can make a combo air, bus, train, etc. Again depend on your travel plan if you want to stop at those three cities. I suggest you should if you’ve never been there and do not have too much luggage.

Via Budapest:

• Prague-Budapest (Smartwing).
• Budapest-Sarajevo (by train): See Budapest-Sarajevo train schedule here. Read more about train transportation in Sarajevo.

Via Zagreb:

• Prague-Cologne/Bonn-Zagreb (Germanwings flight ): Tickets can be booked easily online. Bookmark T ravelJo! and know when Germanwings offers promotions. (*)
• Zagreb - Sarajevo (Croatia bus or other): Buy at the main bus station. In late 2005, an oneway ticket cost $35. If you have to wait for many hours before the departure, then explore the city. It’s quite nice .

Via Split:

• Prague-Split (SkyEurope): Flights might be seasonal, available only during the summer.
• Split airport to bus station: Don’t know.
• Split to Sarajevo: Can easily be done once there. Buses depart often to Sarajevo. Probably less than $30/oneway.

Via Dubrovnik:

• Prague-Dubrovnik(SkyEurope): Flights might be seasonal, available only during the summer.
• Dubrovnik airport to bus station: Don’t know.
• Dubrovnik to Sarajevo: Can easily be done once there. Buses depart very often to Sarajevo. Probably less than $30/oneway.
• If you choose this route, please do yourself a favor by heading to Mostar first as it’s on the way to Sarajevo. The city is amazingly nice. One-day stop might not be enough. Mostar is only 2.5 hours away from Sarajevo. Getting to Sarajevo from there is a piece of cake.

Notes:

(*) I used to think there is nothing to see in Cologne-Bonn. But CNN Travel seems to disagree. You might want to check out their story for possible activities in Colgone.

(*) Eurolines.com web site sucks as you can’t do much thing there. Instead try locate Eurolines’ web sites for their operating countries, for example Austrian Eurolines is eurolines.at, Czech Eurolines, eurolines.cz, etc.

Tags: Sarajevo, Prague, PragueBuzz, Travel