Foča

Not to be confused with Foça in Turkey.

Foča is a city on the bank of the Drina River in the Sarajevo Region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Serbian part of the country.

Understand

The city lies close to the border with Montenegro and Serbia.

Get in

By road

The 75-km road from Sarajevo to Foča is very scenic.

By bus

There are bus connections to Sarajevo (east, 1½-2 hr) and Podgorica (5 hr) via Nikšić (Acency Sons, last updated August 2022).

There are also long distance buses to all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to Serbia, see Intertours Foča.

By taxi

A taxi to Sarajevo should cost not more than €50 (August 2022).

See

• 1 Sutjeska National Park, Tjentište, ☏ +387 58 233 102. A mountainous area in southeastern Bosnia known for being the site of a major World War II battle. At Sutjeska in June 1943, the Partisans repelled a German offensive, and despite casualties turned the tide of the war in their favour. The battle was later the subject of a popular film with Richard Burton in the role of Tito. 5 KM. (updated Mar 2019)

Do

Foča is a good base to explore nature from. For example, to go rafting on the Tara river, running through the deepest canyon in Europe, or go hiking through Perućica forest, one of the last first-growth forests left on the continent, with trees measuring up to 60 m. Also a challenge is to try to climb Maglić Mountain, right on the border with Montenegro. Maglić ("fog") is the highest peak of BiH, and if you make the ascent without a guide, you will probably need 2 days to reach the peak.

The road to Montenegro is used by long distance cyclists. Especially the continuation in Montenegro to Plužine has magnificent views onto the blue river.

Rafting

There are at least 20 different rafting camps next to the road between Foča and (even beyond) the Montenegro border 20 km from town. They all operate more or less in the same mode: Full board accommodation in bungalows and guided rafting or hiking daytrips. Some have pools, some claim to serve organic food, all make a good margin with sold drinks. It remains a mystery how their waste water management works, but Drina is a large river.

The camps vary in size from a dozen beds to more than hundred guests per night. On high season weekends there is even rafting traffic jams. If youa are not with your own car or cycle you can hardly escape the camps with their package holiday atmosphere as there is barely anything nearby. So if you are more into individual tourism stay in Foča, organize a rafting daytrip from there and enjoy being on your own rather than part of the rafting camp machinery.