First stop are medieval Stecci - Tombstones Unesco Necropolis near village of Rogatica.

20 minutes of drive from Rogatica via Stjenice and a short hike through dense forest will take us to our first stop of the day, Borak Stećci necropolis near the Burati village. This hidden gem deep in the misty forests of East Bosnia was recently inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage. We will discover the unique history of the Medieval Bosnian Kingdom and figure out why these blocks of limestone are scattered all around Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We will ride for one more hour through mountain parts of Bosnia before we meet up with the turquoise Drina river canyon and arrive at Višegrad. Višegrad is home to UNESCO heritage too, an Ottoman time bridge built in 1577. by the Grand Vizier Mehmed Pasa Sokolović. The UNESCO summary: “The unique elegance of proportion and monumental nobility of the property as a whole bear witness to the greatness of this style of architecture.” is definitely a reason to visit such a beautiful place. The book: “Bridge Over Drina” by Bosnian and Travnik born, World famous Nobel Prize winner, and Yugoslav writer Ivo Andrić, has given most of the glory to this fantastic place and we surely recommend you to read this novel before coming to this region and for this tour. This way, you can better understand the historical importance of this area in regard to a local as well as a global aspect.

As soon as we see the Bridge and take the river cruise through the amazingly green Drina River, we’ll explore the stone town of Andrićgrad (eng. Andrić town). Small, stone-made town, recently built, named and dedicated after novelist Ivo Andrić. The site also interprets the story of once glorious and very successful Yugoslavian cinematography from the perspective of one of the best local directors – Emir Kusturica.

As soon as we finish the story of Višegrad, we’ll continue driving towards the east Bosnian border and, on the way, will pay a visit to one of the most important Serbian Orthodox monasteries, Dobrun Monastery. Initially built in 1343 with frescoes preserved until today is the ideal stop to learn more about local history and enjoy the fantastic nature surrounding it.

Time to cross the Bosnia to Serbia border, and as soon as we do, we will enter the fantastic area of the nature park of “Šargan-Mokra Gora”. The first stop (for lunch possibly) will be the village of Drvengrad (eng. Timber Town), also know as Küstendorf and Mećavnik. Village-town was designed by the movie director Emir Kusturica for his movie “Life is Miracle” and the design won the “Philippe Rotthier European Architecture Award” from the Brussels Foundation for Architecture. Why the place looks out of this world? Why it won one of the most prestigious awards in the world of architecture? The best is to come with us and see it for yourself.

After lunch, at Drvengrad, we are about to take a train ride, but not just any train ride; we will do the famous “Šargan Eight”. The Šargan Eight is a narrow gauge (760mm) steam railway initially built in 1925. It used to connect Sarajevo and Belgrade, and the name “eight” origins from the pure shape of the track, which, if looked at from the sky, looks like the number 8. It was famous for its impressive engineering, which enabled it to rapidly climb a height of 300m over a short distance of 3.500m, whereas the total length of the railway today is 15.440m. Stunningly, all of that was achieved by passing through 22 tunnels and five bridges. Quite fantastic stuff, even on the global scale of rail and train engineering at the time, but the most amazing for us is that we are going to experience this story. Today the train, after it was closed in 1974, is again reopened for tourist reasons but also for true lovers of old-school steam train engineering. Simply exciting and stunning.

As soon as we end the fantastic train ride, we’ll continue toward Belgrade. On the way, we will stop to explore the tremendous region of one of Serbia’s most beautiful National Parks – National Park Tara. National Park Tara (declared in 1981.), with its biological diversity, is one of the most amazing areas in the whole of Serbia, offering great nature experiences, stunning views, hiking and trekking opportunities, unique Picea Omorica, vast animal diversity, and many other ways to fully enjoy life. One of the most important stops will be the stunning viewpoint of “Banjska Stena,” which offers a fantastic panorama of Perućac Lake on the Drina River, which naturally borders Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

Generally, after Tara National Park explorations, the rest of the roughly three hours rides to Belgrade will take us through Bajina Bašta town with a last short stop at “House on the Drina“, where at the end of the day, we hope to be in Belgrade no later than 8 pm.