The Best Hotels in Mostar, Bosnia, for Every Traveller

Staying adjacent to the city bus station might not fill everyone’s sails, but if instant onward transport is your thing, then City Hotel’s the place. A spacious lobby (with airport-style massage chairs and a drinks-vending machine) belies comfortable and stylishly minimalist rooms featuring large Old Mostar photographs above the beds and mustard-yellow marble in the bathrooms. The U-shaped complex includes a small indoor pool, gym, spa and beauty salon.

If you’re opting for a shopping binge in Mepas Mall, you might want to recover in its top-floor hotel. Found in the heart of the city, beside the old quarter, Hotel Mepas offers spacious contemporary rooms with tub chairs and white leatherette headboards. You have complimentary access to the spa and relaxation centre, which includes an indoor pool, steam baths, infrared saunas, a gym and something called a “shower of pleasure.”

Hotel Almira’s simple pine-furniture rooms, with an almost Greek-Mediterranean feel, have easygoing guests in mind. It’s a small family-run property standing on what was once an apricot orchard; plenty of trees and gardens still stand between the hotel terrace and the river beyond, lending appealing views from some windows and balconies. The restaurant features plenty of grills and roasts along with freshwater fish and lays out a good spread for breakfast.

While the small indoor pool at Eden has fetching city and valley views through open veranda windows, it’s the spa, wellness and beauty centre that really draws a clientele. Their “Mostar makeover” embraces masseurs, a Finnish sauna, a Turkish hammam and an array of facial and body treatments. Rooms are straightforwardly modern and uncluttered with photographs depicting close-up architectural details.

Situated on one of the main pedestrianised roads leading straight to Stari Most, the cosy Emen is for those who embrace Mostar’s hearty tourist scene. Surrounded by souvenir shops and craft boutiques (including an organic products outlet on the ground floor of the hotel), it has two upper storeys with simple, neat rooms with stripped wooden floors and modest furnishings. The partly al fresco, street-facing restaurant draws a sizeable crowd, especially for dinner, so you might want to retreat to the quieter upstairs hotel terrace post-meal.

On the main road a few kilometres south of Mostar, Hotel Hercegovina initially resembles a pit-stop hotel, one neither set in an appealingly remote countryside nor steeped in twee old town-ness. But places like this often have to work harder, and accommodation – modern rooms and apartments in shades of silver, pewter and brown with large sepia old town prints – is more inviting than suggested by the exterior. There’s a free shuttle service into town, and the popular Dva Fenjera garden-restaurant is a great place for traditional grills and seafood.

Just off the main drag leading directly to the famous bridge, this hotel is a low-key blend of practical comfort with a heritage vibe. The luridly lit lobby and dining room – plenty of neon blue and golden yellow – suggest things could go awry upstairs. Yet, simply furnished rooms have a pleasingly rustic feel with stripped kilim-strewn floors and decorative wooden mouldings gracing window frames and balcony doors. The garden features a striking wooden pergola, with a decorative lantern suspended from an open-ribbed dome.

Tucked away in the old quarter overlooking Crooked Bridge, a diminutive near-facsimile of Stari Most, Deny features compact, sparingly furnished rooms for unpretentious travellers. Some have fetching views, looking across brick-red tiled roofs and minarets to the rugged hills beyond. There’s a small breakfast room and cafe, and the top-floor, one-bed apartment with arched windows offers a notable upgrade in decor, comfort and views.