Mar 16 2008
Skiing in Bosnia Hercegovina
The skiing in Bosnia Hercegovina has not been very good this year. The closest ski resort to Split, Kupres, has suffered from poor snow falls and has been closed for most of the season.
Finally, last weekend weather cold enough to throw a white blanket across the region blew through and most of Split headed to the mountains across the border. Believing that Kupres would be too crowded, we headed a little further into Hercegovina, to the town of Blidinje. Blidinje is more remote than Kupres and takes a little effort to get there, but because it is higher the snow is consistently better.
The road between Blidinje and Tomislavgrad was closed due to snow meaning that we had to take the long way around. For about 15kms towards the end of the drive the road it is not yet finished - it is gravel (or makadam as the locals say). The resort is only 5 years old after all. It took us 3.5 hours to get there - an hour longer than what is usual.
We found the Motel Risovac on the internet. It was small and basic, but the staff were friendly and it was only 17€/person/night - a little more for half-board.
The ski resort is also small and basic. It only had a quad-chairlift to the top of the mountain and a children’s t-bar operating. But once again it is cheap. The day lift tickets are 10€ for adults and 5€ for kids and ski hire is 10€.
Balkan skiing is very rural - amazed local farmers stood at the bottom of the runs smoking and watching the crazy strangers struggling down the hills in their colourful outfits.
Many of cars in the car-park had Dubrovnik registrations - Blidinje is a similar distance to there as Split.
Dalmacija Ski is a good website (if you can understand Croatian) for all information on skiing in Bosnia Hercegovina.
We had two excellent days and hope to go back next weekend as more snow is forecast.
