Orient – Express AirBnB (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

We stayed eight nights at Orient – Express AirBnB in Sarajevo. We booked for $191.60 total – so an average of $23.95 per night for the fully furnished apartment in a great location.

The Hosts

The AirBnB is run by a couple. The wife communicated with us on AirBnB while the husband met us at the bus stop when we arrived. He drove us to the apartment and showed us around the apartment. His English was certainly good enough to converse and show us around.

The hosts left a stack of Sarajevo information in the apartment. There was a visitors magazine and an October guide that were really informative.

The couple was very kind, from picking us up at the bus stop to even offering to drive JT to the airport for his 9am flight since no buses were convenient for his flight.

The Apartment

The apartment had five rooms. We spent most of our time in the combined kitchen and living room that faced the street.

The kitchen had all of the supplies we needed, although we never cooked. It was perfect for making tea and coffee. There are pots for cooking though and a stove – and all of the plates, glasses, and mugs match. Our hosts left us some pineapple juice and cookies with chocolate to welcome us.

Kitchen and JT’s work area at the dining table.
Plates and cups in the kitchen looked new and matched.

The living room had a couch with a coffee table, a TV, and a table with two chairs. The table and chairs weren’t really comfortable for working – mainly due to the chairs. But JT worked at the table and Katie worked on the couch. The TV had a surprising number of channels, including some music channels (the hosts had some light music on when we arrived). The wifi was really good at 38Mbps up and 5Mbps down. There was a heater next to the windows.

Living room with large windows.
The living room couch was comfortable, and the pillows provided good pack support.

The bedroom faced a garden area and was adjacent to the apartment complex’s stairs. There was a queen size bed, which was incredibly comfortable. The bed had two individual comforters and a quilt on top of these comforters. We found that the bedroom was quiet. There was only a nightstand on one side due to space limitations, but this wasn’t an issue.  There was a heater next to the windows and patio.

The bed was super comfortable.
There was a patio accessible from the bedroom. Katie saw this cat on the last morning in the garden that looked like Grace.

The bathroom was split into two rooms: a toilet room and a room with the rest of the bathroom. The toilet room contained just the toilet.

The rest of the bathroom contained a shower cabin, large sink with plenty of cabinets and shelf space, small heater, washer, and two draws with the hair dryer and laundry detergent. The shower had good water pressure and didn’t leak.

Bathroom with shower cabin, sink, and washer.
The cabinets and shelves in the bathroom were very useful.

The water heater in the bathroom was big enough to allow both of us to shower consecutively with hot water as long as we allowed the water to fully heat before starting. There were shampoo, conditioner, soap, band aids and make-up remover pads in the cabinet – and two large towels and four hand towels on the counter.

Provided essentials in the bathroom cabinet.

Finally, the entrance area had a bookcase and a storage area with hanging space, drawers, shelves, and hooks. There were pictures and artwork on the bookcase, but these would shake when we walked through the entrance area so we laid them down flat so they wouldn’t break.

Book case in the entrance area. This was really useful for storage during our stay.

The hosts didn’t want shoes to be worn in the house, so there was also a shoe mat – this made me sense once it rained and we noticed how muddy it got on the unpaved street outside the apartment.

We never got the story on this plate – but it highlights two of Katie’s favorite cities in Europe.

The Neighborhood

We loved being about a 10 minute walk from the Old Town area and about a 35 minute walk from the train station. The road the apartment was on seemed to be a primary walking route for those living farther up the valley, so it was always active.

View towards the city and river from just outside the apartment.

The road was undergoing construction during our stay, so it was unpaved. The unpaved road combined with the crumbling and damaged building facades made the area around the apartment seem rough from a western perspective. This being said, we never felt even a little unsafe.

The walk towards the apartment

The construction also seemed to lead to the trash dumpsters down the street not being emptied. We saw packs of stray dogs by the dumpsters multiple times, but they were always much more interested in the trash than in us.

Overall Thoughts

This was our best AirBnB to date. I agree with the other comments that the apartment is much better in person than the pictures show online. The internet was excellent, location perfect, hosts kind, and it was well equipped and comfortable.

We only had two complaints: (1) the chairs at the table in the kitchen/living room were not comfortable for working and (2) we had serious trouble opening the front door to the apartment complex multiple times, effectively locking us in. One time we were able to get the door open, but the other time we tried for our 10 minutes before giving up. This is a serious potential safety issue.

We’d stay again, especially if they can fix the front door issue.

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