Where to work in Mostar
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Enjoying a coffee with friends.
This is the kind of vibe that I would say sums up my month experience exploring the town of Mostar and the surrounding region of Herzegovina. Everything revolves around a coffee - or something stronger - and taking the time to hang out. I forget how much I love Balkans coffee culture for this in general.
So what brought me to Bosnia & Herzegovina to begin with?
Along with four other digital nomads, I was selected to participate in a pilot programme that would look to attract remote lifers to the region in the future. We would spend one month staying in Mostar and a couple of the surrounding areas to get a feel for what remote life could be like. Exploring the town, working in town and discovering some of the surrounding regions as well.
To be completely honest, I had no idea what to expect, as did most of us in the group, and I think I can confidently say the reality blew us all away. In our first week, we were asked several times about what we knew of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to which we would blush a bit and say ’not a lot’. But by the end, the team at Intera and the project operators and brands ensured we were very much in the know.
During the course of our stay, we were given access to several accommodations, restaurants, activities and passes to the coworking space in Mostar. Which gave us a good foundation for our experience in town.
Where to work
On Han Meets World, I typically tend to opt for cafes to work from - or whichever apartment I stay in. But on this trip, I gave a few different options a go - which in turn I believe you’ll enjoy too:
CodeHub: we were given access to this coworking space for the month and it was a great space to work from with good wifi for work and calls. There is a little kitchen area and some occasional events for people to learn from each other.
Urban Grill: officially recognised as one of the best views of Mostar, this restaurant has one of my all time favourite breakfasts and decent enough wifi. Although if you need to do calls, I’d suggest heading elsewhere for better signal. The staff are incredibly welcoming and even packed breakfast up for us to take on a day tour one day.
Hotel Verso: if you’re comfortable with occasional smoke inside, then definitely check out Hotel Verso. A nice little hotel on the way into the Old Town with good wifi and a decent menu. Whether you’re a guest or not, you can stay for a little while, as the locals do, and get a lot done here. When we eventually did stay there, they were also happy for us to use the breakfast room as an ‘office’ to avoid the smoke - which could be a bit much at certain times of the day.
Honourable mention: Resort Zlatni Dol. For installing wifi hotspots in our rooms. A couple of us loved working downstairs in the restaurant, but every so often we wanted alone time. Or in the case of one of the days, there were team building sessions happening.
Generally speaking, you could ask for the wifi in bars and restaurants, but beyond the basics of answering messages and possibly an email, they didn’t really compare. For someone like myself who needs to run online editing programmes, spreadsheets and virtual calls, I need more power. So my hope is that the region as a whole takes on the advice they were given by many at the Cross Border Coworking Conference to properly invest in their wifi.
Other options that I wasn’t able to try but were recommended: FitBar and Egoist.
Working in Mostar and Herzegovina
Currently, settling in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a lot tougher than it seems, so visas and properties are essentially off the cards for the moment. But for digital nomads who are travelling through for up to three months, I would say it was worth it! Whether flying in specifically or via Croatia or another neighbouring country. Make sure you stay at least a month to fully experience Mostar with maybe a couple of weekend trips away to begin with. There is a lot to see and do, but I’m glad we made time to really experience living locally and being present.
Wifi
For connecting to social media or Google Maps, the wifi was generally decent. Other members of my team bought local sims, but I opted to only use wifi for the month and overall it worked out quite well.
To run Canva and other slightly more heavy duty software however, it wasn’t always easy to even connect in some hotels and restaurants outside of Mostar. So if you’re planning a road trip around the area - which I recommend you do - have a back up wifi plan. Whether that be a portable hotspot or local sim with plenty of data.
Affordability
For someone from the UK, the cost of living is very affordable by comparison in terms of accommodation, food and general day to day activities. It’s good to tip in BiH and generally one person picks up the bill each time. The only thing, that was interesting to notice, was that petrol cost seemed to not work out that much cheaper than the UK - and apparently it was put up again after the last election…
There seemed to be some decent hotel and Airbnb options for reasonable prices per night - and I’d recommend staying relatively close to the Old Bridge. Understandably, prices are that much higher in the Old Town though.
Safety
While as a country they aren’t without the problems, I generally felt very safe physically as a woman in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Walking around alone wasn’t really a problem.
There were some comments made here and there which did bother me that were made based on outdated gender roles and also the views of more conservative groups in society. There are several religious and cultural influences within the country and it’s important to keep in mind, but not necessarily something that needs conforming to - unless there are specific and obvious rules. For example, an older man wasn’t happy about our shoulders being out for a bike ride vs very clear rules for entering a monastery.
Future of the region
“Bosnian life can be summed up as ‘rahat lokum’ like the name of the Turkish delight sweet.”
Previous to the programme, I really didn’t know anything about Mostar, other than it had a cute old bridge and was a nice enough day trip from Split. But with the right marketing about the local history, the experiences and operators and businesses in the areas, I think there is real potential for longer term travel in this region.
As Croatia enters the Schengen, for Brits like myself, we’ll be looking at the likes of Mostar and the rest of Bosnia & Herzegovina (along with other surrounding Balkan countries) for alternatives to spend those three months of the six we’re allowed in the Schengen countries.
Which provides for an exciting opportunity, but brands and companies will need to act fast with some looming competition from the likes of Montenegro, Albania and Greece. Which have some appealing travel and visa options.
It’s a beautiful region with so much to offer from the lifestyle perspective. The community is welcoming and there is a lot to do outside of work. Both locally in Mostar and for day and weekend trips out in the wider region.
There is a beautiful, so I’ve been told, train ride from Mostar to Sarajevo for day trips. And there is also another town on the way that is quite popular for skiing. Which makes me wonder if this could be the next winter destination for digital nomads…
While the project itself was full on, the general vibe and life in Mostar is completely the opposite. So if you’re looking for a chilled out destination that focusses a lot on outside life: Mostar needs to be on your list.
Han x
