Things to do in Travnik

Travnik sits 90 km and around 1 h 30 from Sarajevo, and it rewards a half-day rather than a detour. This was the birthplace of Ivo Andric, the 1961 Nobel laureate in literature, and his childhood home is now a small museum.

Above the old town, the Ottoman fortress climbs the hillside with views over the valley, and downhill from it stands the Sarena dzamija, the coloured mosque whose painted exterior patterns are rare anywhere in Bosnia.

Between the two, stop for cevap made the Travnik way, thicker and served differently to Sarajevo's version, and try Travnik cheese, matured in sheepskin sacks rather than wax rind. Fortress, mosque and the old centre fit into three to four hours on foot.