When you think of Bosnia and Herzegovina, images of the Bosnian War may come to mind masking the fact that the country is actually home to some of the worlds best scenery thanks to the Dinaric Alps. It maybe for this reason, in addition to the lack of information regarding accessibility that it is often overlooked by disabled travellers. To oneself, it simply sounds like a challenge!
Getting to the Hotel Holiday in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina (and where we will be basing ourselves for the next 4 nights) from the UK wasn’t exactly straightforward, let me explain. As of September 2024, the only airline flying direct from London to Sarajevo is Ryanair which, for those that follow ones travels, refuse to carry Superbunny because its “too high for the cargo door”. Whilst this may not be true in reality, one isn’t willing to take the risk, the cautious flyer here! As such, one has decided to take the safer (ish) option of flying from good old Heathrow to Frankfurt and then onto Sarajevo, both flights operated by Lufthansa.
Although one had successfully tried connecting flights to and from Armenia, this was the first time that the same airline had been used for both legs. It may be the case that Frankfurt, being one of the major European air traffic hubs, are accustom to connections, however the process was as easy as it gets. As Heathrow had already put both wheelchairs in their own container, all that was necessary was to unload and load said item into the next aircraft. Frankfurt were also willing to take a wheelchair out of the container for the journey across the vast airport, seemed to much hassle for one!
The only thing needed now was to transport us from the aircraft to the next gate. Of course, this had to include boarding a people mover…
However, this journey plan subsequently created a secondary challenge due to the flight from Frankfurt touching down at 22:35pm, 35 minutes after the last bus departs from the airport to the centre. Due to various reasons, Bosnia and Herzegovina isn’t a country full of wheelchair accessible vehicles (or taxis from a brief Google search), however, we have learnt over the years that it is likely that countries will have some form of ‘medical transport’ which is accessible to wheelchairs (I swear that one of these days a private ambulance will be hired!) hence Care390 was discovered. Granted, its not the biggest van in the world but it serves it’s purpose for the 20 minute journey from the airport.
On the journey from the airport, one observed that Sarajevos tram network now possess a fleet of low floor vehicles which may come in handy this week.
Upon ones arrival at the Hotel Holiday, it was clear that the term ‘accessible’ does not mean much to the hotel hence one will omit a review, plenty of space for Superbunny though!
Tomorrow, we plan to head into the city and explore the Old Town before catching the famous cable car up to the site of the 1984 Olympics situated on Trebevic Mountain and the well documented abandoned bobsled track.