🇧🇦Halal Travel Guide to Bosnia & Herzegovina

The finest Ottoman building in the Balkans, endowed by the governor Gazi Husrev-beg with a madrasa, a library, a hammam and a covered market in the same foundation. The madrasa has taught continuously since 1537. Visitors welcome outside prayer times.

Built around 1520 for the Bektashi and later Naqshbandi dervishes, standing at the foot of a 200-metre cliff beside the cave from which the Buna river emerges. The prayer room, tombs and wooden cells are open to visitors; scarves are lent at the door.

A 1618 mosque on the Neretva whose minaret can be climbed for the best view of Stari Most. The courtyard over the river is the classic Mostar photograph.

Founded in 1457 and rebuilt in 1566, the first mosque built in Sarajevo and dedicated to Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. Across the river from Bascarsija.

A 1561 mosque in classical Istanbul style, with a domed portico and a graveyard of Ottoman-era headstones in the centre of the modern city.

An 18th-century mosque raised over a row of shops, with its exterior painted in landscape scenes - almost unique in Ottoman architecture, and quite unlike anything else in the Balkans.

A 1579 mosque dynamited in 1993 during the war and rebuilt from recovered original stones, reopening in 2016. A UNESCO-recognised restoration and a monument to the destruction as much as the building.

A 1563 mosque in the stepped Ottoman village above the Neretva, restored after war damage, with a medresa and a clock tower alongside.

Not a mosque but the great Ottoman monument of Bosnia - an eleven-arch bridge built in 1577 by the grand vizier, and the subject of Ivo Andric's Nobel-winning novel.

On the Vratnik hillside above the old town, with a view over the whole valley and one of the more atmospheric small mosques in the city.

One of Mostar's older Ottoman mosques, rebuilt after the war alongside the bridge restoration.

The Lasva and Bosna valleys are full of small village mosques, many rebuilt in the 2000s, and are where ordinary Bosnian Muslim life happens away from the tourist route.

Founded in 1537, holding over 100,000 volumes including around 10,500 Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Bosnian manuscripts. Much of it was saved by hand during the siege and it is now in a purpose-built modern building.

Founded in the 1460s, with the Sebilj fountain at the centre, the coppersmiths' alley, the Morica Han caravanserai and the Bezistan covered market. A working bazaar rather than a museum.

A single-arch Ottoman bridge from 1566, destroyed by shelling in 1993 and rebuilt in 2004 using stone from the original quarries and the original construction methods.

An 800-metre tunnel dug by hand under the airport runway during the 1992-95 siege, the city's only connection to the outside world. A short section survives as a museum.

The memorial and cemetery for the more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys killed in July 1995, in a genocide recognised by two international courts. Three hours from Sarajevo.

A fortified Ottoman village stepped up a limestone hillside above the Neretva, with a mosque, medresa, hammam, clock tower and fortress, all in pale local stone.

The most famous cevabdzinica in the country, with two branches facing each other on the same lane. Beef only, ten or five in somun, kajmak on request. Cash, queues, and a national institution.

Zeljo's main rival, a few streets away, and the choice of many Sarajevans. Same dish, argued over endlessly.

A third cevapi institution with several branches, including one open late. Consistent and slightly less crowded.

Burek and pita sold by weight from a coiled tray, with yoghurt. Two euros for a substantial breakfast.

Grandmother's kitchen - home-style Bosnian cooking, japrak, sogan-dolma and begova corba, in a small room in the old town. Book or arrive early.

An Ottoman house moved brick by brick across the Miljacka by an owner who refused to let it be demolished for the City Hall. Traditional Bosnian menu; alcohol is served.

A tiny, cluttered room in the old town doing Bosnian classics well. Popular and small - book ahead. Alcohol is served.

Sarajevo's coffee culture is the best in the Balkans. Bosnian coffee in a dzezva costs about a euro and is meant to take an hour.

A courtyard restaurant on the lane up from the bridge, with a fountain and traditional dishes. Touristy and genuinely good.

On a terrace over a tributary of the Neretva, quieter than the bridge-side restaurants, with grilled trout and Bosnian dishes.

Cevapi and grilled meat on the east bank, used by locals rather than tour groups, and cheaper than the riverside terraces.

A row of terraces over the Buna beside the tekke, serving trout from the river. Worth staying for lunch after the tekke visit.

The Agency for Halal Quality Certification lists certified hotels and restaurants, several of them in Ilidza near the airport, which are fully alcohol-free and cater to Gulf visitors.

Old-fashioned Bosnian home cooking near the cathedral - klepe, bosanski lonac, tufahija - at local prices.

Small hotels and guesthouses inside the Ottoman quarter, walkable to everything, with the adhan from several mosques at once. The best base for a short stay.

Ten kilometres from the centre near the airport and Vrelo Bosne, and where most of Bosnia's halal-certified, alcohol-free hotels are. Popular with Gulf families in summer.

The Austro-Hungarian half of the city, walkable to Bascarsija, with more modern hotels and the best cafés.

Guesthouses in stone houses within a few minutes of Stari Most. Hot in summer; ask for air conditioning.

A handful of guesthouses beside the Buna spring, far calmer than Mostar and twelve kilometres away.

The 1984 Olympic mountains, twenty to thirty minutes from Sarajevo - skiing from December to March and 15C cooler than the valley in August.

Guesthouses in Ottoman towns on the route north, with fortresses, waterfalls and very few visitors.

Around Bihac, with rafting on one of the cleanest rivers in Europe and waterfalls at Strbacki Buk. Far from the main route and worth the detour.