Local Transportation
Buses and trams
If you want to save the extra money, I recommend that you walk as the
bus fares are not cheap. Prices for one-way bus and
tram tickets are 1.60KM (bought at kiosk) and 1.85KM (bought in the
vehicles) respectively regardless of the destination. There are
one-day, three-day and one-week passes. A monthly pass costs over 55KM.
Discounts are only given to local residents, I
think. The daily pass is called "dnevna
karta", and sold in the sales offices of the Transportation company "GRAS".
The one is at the tramway terminal Ilidza,
another at the terminus of the tram line 6 "Skenderija"
in the city centre. I think another one holt be at the main railway
station. The ticket cost (in 2006) 5,30 KM (2,70 EUR) and the lady in
the shop writes the date on it. No further validation necessary. (Information
provided by a blog reader. Thanks!)
Don't worry, the city center is small
enough to walk around.
Bus stops: There are two that I know of. One is next
to the center's square, in front of the yellow Orthodox church, across
from BuyBook bookstore. The other is near the main post office, along
the river bank.
Tram lines: From the center, go to the river bank,
Obala Kulina, to take tram heading eastward. Go to the street behind
the Cathedral for tram going west toward Skenderia. From there, you can
catch more trams going to other directions.
Line 1: Bašcaršija to Railroad St. to Bašcaršija
5:56 am to 10:30 pm
Line 2 Bašcaršija to Vila to Bašcaršija
6:17 am to 3:30 pm
Line 3 Bašcaršija to Ilidža to Bašcaršija
5:15 am to 11:30 pm
Line 4 Ilidža to Railroad St. to Ilidža
6:36 am to 5:36 pm
Line 5 Bašcaršija to Nedžarići to Bašcaršija
6:49 pm to 19:22 pm
Line 6 Skenderija to Ilidža to Skenderija
6:43 pm to 19:27 pm
Line 7 Skenderija to Nedžarići to Skenderija
6:10 am to 9:00 pm
12:00 am to 16:30 pm
Hours: Operate from ~ 5:00 a.m. to ~ midnight.
Taxi
If you feel like to indulge yourself by treating your "behind" and legs a comfortable place in a taxi, Sarajevo is the place to do it. I don't think you can find cheaper taxi fares in other European metropolitan cities. I paid as little as 7KM/3.5 Euros for a roundtrip from the center to the main bus station and as high as 5KM for one-way.Starting price is only 1KM/0.5 Euros and 1KM per additional kilometer. You might have to pay extra for bulky luggage. (A medium sized one should be fine.) Taxis are everywhere in the city. You can't miss it. Go the big street if you don't see any close by.
You might be warned against taxi driver kidnapping dumbfound riders, but I used taxis for more than half-year without any incident. Don't act like fresh tourists who know nothing about the city. Pretend as if you've lived there for an extended time so those taxi drivers won't rip you off. Most of them were nice, at least to me. Strike a conversation with them if you can. I wasn't able to speak much but I think they would like it.
I always paid an appropriate fare when riding on a taxi except for once incident. Ironically, it was when I rode with a tourist who spoke the local language. This person gave the taxi driver my address and told him that I did not know where I lived. What do you think? He chose a much longer route to take us home which cost us 2KM extra, and the changes as he did not have any change in the car. How convenient!