My observations while living some months in the region.
TLDR: region is affordable, charming and raw
For EU citizens no visas needed. EU citizens can stay for up to 90 days. During
the stay need to register where You stay at Tourist info centers. 1 Eur per
adult per day, for first month, the latter 2 months - just register. Kids need
registration also, for free.
ID cards are nothing here, only passports. While in
some cities You may stay longer than 90 days, it is kinda illegal. Learned it
the expensive way. South cities are more agile, whereas the north is more
strict. official website for visa information
Same 90 days, registration is cheaper, like 5 Eur per person per registration, including kids. Cannot comment on how strict Bosnian police and border control are. official website for visa information
It is generally cheap to eat out and dish sizes are impressive, in Bosnia it becomes super cheap, yet I will still complain. Food is My greatest disappointment in Balkans.
It is hard to find something that would taste good. Best dish I would advise is “Chevapi”, has 3 ingredients on plate: meat, bread, raw sliced onions That is it. No sauces or mustard - nothing. Still consider it the best thing I have eaten here. That is saying something.
Mashed potatoes are often served from a packaged mix. There is no soup in traditional way, when it is called soup - most likely it comes from a package also, would suggest to look for “Chobra” - that is half porridge-soup, cannot imagine it coming from a package.
Eggs, don’t know why, but smell somewhat bad, when You cook them. Same goes for chicken and sometimes pork. Beef is the safest choice of meat in this region.
Bread is always fresh, variety of sizes and shapes. Burek - the tastiest product of local bakeries, pastry and meat. Bit hard to digest though.
Since butter for some reason is super expensive here, and grocery stores have huge variety of margarine, the latter, I would imagine, is heavily used. Same goes for special pasta sauces, containing non-trace amounts of palm oil.
And one thing I cannot understand, there are lots of BBQ or Grill places, not ever I seen a meat that been cured before cooking. In my home Baltics, everybody cures meat before grill. Can also generalize, that when a dish has minced meat - it is going to be good, meat in pieces - lottery.
Cakes & deserts - almost perfect, need to exclude the creamy cakes, I am speculating it(cream) comes from spray cans.
Great coffee in every place I ever been. Maybe there are no Lattes with oat-milk
type of coffee in every place, but usual espresso-likes are perfect.
Local beers taste like beer. Rakia - very pleasant strong booze, while being
served in shot-like glasses, is a long drink. You suppose to sip it. Never saw
a local person being drunk, while locals sip something “everyday”. The alcohol
consumption looks kind of pleasant here.
Tall, strong, fit and friendly. Very welcoming and polite towards small children. Seems like families are still important here. Big families. Healthy man-woman relationship climate (patriarchy). Pleasantly surprised by people here.
Several options on the internet:
It feels that most rentals are on the small side, like 1 bedroom studio, or just studio. Feels like scams are not too common here. Nor I had myself, or heard of something.
Internet physical network and services, seem to be less developed than in Estonia or Latvia. No app to call taxi, or food delivery. Chat messengers are heavily used for everything. Sometimes need a passport to buy a SIM card.
Heavily relied on taxi, only once I got a bigger bill that it is suppose to be. And as usual, near the airport.
Russian language seems to be wider known in tourist regions than English. Given that locals are welcoming, they will wait for You to google-translate, if You get stuck. Never seen an odd look for Me not speaking or mispronouncing.