I have started a new blog series called ‘Van Life’ and it will mainly highlight wild camping and vegan tips in each country we visit. I really appreciate finding out information about this kind of thing whilst travelling to put me at ease and save time on finding wild spots and decent food.
From Split, Pete and I headed to Imotski to see the magnificent red and blue lake which were definitely worth a visit. The town lies very close to Gornji Vinjani border crossing which we went to firstly. Turns out the staff had no idea whether they need to stamp our passports (they did need to) or if we needed green card insurance for our van (we did!). The very friendly guard gave us the name of a bigger border crossing called Donji Vinjani just 10km south where we you can buy it and suggested we turned around back through Croatia to cross there. Even though the woman on the Croatian side had just seen us, she made us pull over and made a guard search our van. It was a light search but still, we were in that country 30 seconds ago!!
After reaching the Donji Vinjani border, we easily purchased car insurance which was €15 for 7 days and set off on our first camp spot which was Busko Blato lake. As the sun was setting we arrived pretty much at the lake shore and enjoyed a super quiet night here with 2 other vans.
The next day we took a road trip around some smaller roads which turned out to have some of the best views. We stopped by Rama Lake and took a lot of photos which just didn’t do the place justice. Every corner we turned was just a wow moment.
We stopped in a free car park in Mostar and stayed there overnight, which was surprisingly quiet at night time despite the bar next door playing Shania Twain until I dozed off. We used the same cafe/bar for coffee and a toilet stop the next morning.
Wild camping is pretty easy in Bosnia and Herzegovina as there is no law against it. Unfortunately there is a lot of rubbish everywhere in this country and we did try our best to pick bits up around where we slept. Still, a beautiful country and well worth a visit. Do check online which border crossings sell car insurance before you cross or you can risk driving without it but it can incur a large fine if caught. Also good to note is that a lot of the petrol stations have free water, toilets, sometimes showers and usually WiFi.
Park4Night free camping spots:
Busko Blato Lake
Mostar town
Vegan food highlight:
Falafel salad at Food House, Mostar
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