Skakavac Waterfall: Hiking To The Highest Waterfall In (Sarajevo) Bosnia

Two Friends: Want to go hiking to Skakavac waterfall tomorrow?

Me: Yup, sounds good.

Had I heard of Skakavac Waterfall?

Nope.

But there’s a life rule that applies in this scenario. Life Rule #32.

Turns out Skakavac Waterfall is less than 15km north of Sarajevo, making this an easy half/full day trip. We set off the next morning with a plan to catch the bus from the city (Sutjeska) to Nahorevo then hiking the rest of the way from there.

That plan went to the shit when the timetable provided by Google for bus 69 didn’t match up with the timetable on the bus stop.

The distance from the bus stop to Nahorevo is ~6km. We decided to walk rather than wait an hour for the next bus (pesky Sunday timetables).

The bus arrived in Nahorevo two minutes before us, not so bad!

There’s a small supermarket by the bus stop in Nahorevo if required, but we continued straight Nahorevo village. The town is incredibly quiet with the only racket coming from behind the fences from sheep, dogs, and geese. And I saw a few cats 🙂

Past the town, the sun was full on beaming as we faced a steady uphill on the dirt road. We were sweating up a storm but had to keep moving with rain scheduled later in the day.

We kept a solid pace, somewhat relieved to reach Kafana Promaha that we were told was a cool spot for a break. This is where most people start the hike to Skakavac Waterfall, arriving by car and walking from here.

We didn’t want to get stuck in the rain, so kept moving. A couple hundred metres past the cafe there’s a board, mapping the park and the various paths.

There are three paths leading to Skakavac Waterfall.

One labeled the tourist trail, the other two ‘mountain trails’. We weren’t sure what to expect at all with the mountain trails, so we played it safe and took the tourist trail there.

This section (3km or so) of the walk was a piece of cake compared to the section between Nahorevo and the cafe.

Eventually, We got to an intersection of sorts, which if I was on my own would have left me confused.

Pro Tip: Vodopad = waterfall in Bosnian.

Thanks to my friends knowing vodopad translated to waterfall we began a very unexpected descent for the next 800 metres. It was steep. With the rain in the back of my mind, this wasn’t going to be fun to come back up either way.

15 minutes later and there we were. Smack bang in front of the 98-metre high waterfall, the highest waterfall in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

The waterfall isn’t OMG compared to others I’ve seen around the world, but it was still unique.

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There was lots of moss on the face of the waterfall which caught the waterfall creating a cool effect (see picture below). We were gutted on the way that we hadn’t brought our swimming gear as we melted in the sun past Nahorevo. Turns out there is definitely no way to swim, with a very shallow mouth before the waterfall continues on under the walkway.

After a few snaps, and one attempt to get close to the base of the waterfall we decided to check out the ‘mountain track’.

This walk was a way better option than the tourist trail in my opinion. The descent at the end of the tourist trail is pretty treacherous, but the slow climb back along the ‘mountain’ trail was cruisey as. And under the canopy of trees allowing a nice break from the heat.

We decided to continue without stopping at the cafe (sadly, apparently the owner is awesome), hoping we could time a bus from Nahorevo back to the city well. That didn’t quite work out so we trekked all the way back to the city.

You can bet there were some well-deserved beers consumed later in the evening after walking a total of around 30 km.

Overall, we took about 7 hours door to door. You could go quicker, but we weren’t hustling too hard. With only about 15 minutes of ‘waterfall time’, it’s not the greatest waterfall to hiking ratio but we were all stoked with the day trip from Sarajevo.

Skakavac Waterfall Practicle Information

How to get to Skakavac Waterfall

Option 1: Walk the whole way like we did on the map.

Option 2: Catch bus no.69 from Sutjeska bus station (ideally check the timetable on the bus stop the day before) to Nahorevo and hike from there.

Option 3: Drive to the cafe (or further) and hike from there.

Cost of entry?

Zilch. Nothing. Zero. It’s FREE! Yay.

Where to stay in Sarajevo?

I stayed in two locations: Tufna Home and Hostel City Rest. Both places I’d recommend. If you like space and fewer guests, Tufna is perfect for you in the inner city. Hostel City Rest has more rooms, though the dorm beds are very close together those I was surprisingly snug. I wouldn’t call either hostel a party hostel, but more beers were had at Hostel City Rest (a 7-minute walk to city center).

Is It Worth Visiting Skakavec Waterfall?

While it was nice, I would only consider doing this trip if you’ve got at least three full days in the city. It makes for a sweet day trip from Sarajevo, but there are lots of things to do in Sarajevo, including the other hike to the Bob Sled track.

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