How to get there
Unusually for Europe, there is no passenger train service to Banja Luka.
In terms of air travel, Ryan Air has the most number of flights into the capital; these operate from Brussels, Gothenburg, Karlsruhe, Memmingen, Stockholm, and Vienna once or twice a week. Wizz Air offers service from Basel and Dormund twice a week, and Air Serbia flies from Belgrade twice a week. There are also nonstop flights to Antalya, Turkey on Free Bird and to Hurghada, Egypt on Air Cairo. All of these options require some coordination and a willingness to fit your travel plans into the irregularities of the scheduled service. This is why many visitors to Banja Luka choose to fly into Sarajevo and Zagreb, which are much larger airports and are served by more airlines each day. This means that many visitors arrive in Banja Luka by bus or car, Sarajevo is a five hour bus ride; Zagreb is a supposed to be a three-hour trip, but border crossing delays can make the trip an hour or two longer.
What to do once there
The street Kralja Petra I Karaðorðevića cuts through the center of Banja Luka and many of the city’s most important sites are on it or just off it. From the Ferhadija Mosque at the southwestern end, one can walk northeast, passing by Petar Koćić Park, Christ the Savior Orthodox Cathedral, municipal buildings, pedestrian zone with outdoor cafes, the National Theater, and end up at the Catholic St. Bonaventure Cathedral. The Museum of the Republika Srpska traces this history of the region from the neolithic to the present, and offers both an ethnographic and a political view of the 19th and 20th centuries in particular. The adjacent national library is so small it is sad, but the Museum of Contemporary Art in the former train station is lively and provocative.
(Image by the author, April 2023.)
Accommodations
Banja Luka's first international hotel, a Courtyard Marriott, opened in 2019, and is certainly the nicest place to stay in town. Locals use its restaurant as a place to impress or to celebrate. Those looking for something less predictable (and more authentic) may enjoy the Hotel Bosna, which has a casino, garish wallpaper, and the vague sense that the Cold War didn't end. Staying at the Hotel Zepter Palas, puts one right at the heart of the city and a short walk to all of the city's major sites.
(Image courtesy of the Hotel Zepter Palas and TripAdvisor.)
