July started where June ended (duh), in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I can not say enough good about it. So I decided to break the travel & expenses into two different posts. I’ll go into the details about expenses here and maybe people interested in ex-Yugoslavia aren’t as interested in how many Airbnb credits we used, or vice versa.
Yes, there are still 3 more days left in July but the hotel is paid for and accounted here. And food is cheap in Bosnia, so we’ll probably pay $20 more in food and that’s it.
Overall Expenses
- Hotels = $278.41
- Land Transit = $683.42
- Food = $392.71
- Misc. = $150.37
Total = $1504.91
Transit was huge again, and it’s never flights that seem to add up. It’s the land transit that kills me.
Oneway car rentals within Croatia were the same price as roundtrip, so we picked up a car in Dubrovnik and dropped it off in Zagreb. $20 a day for 2 weeks. It came out to $300.01, not including gas which was $149.44. Also tolls were $49.77 and parking was $8.67.
$507.89 is more than I’d like to spend but my hypothesis was that we could stay wherever the best deal was. After doing it, I’ve decided renting a car just doesn’t save money on housing! So really it gave us to the opportunity to see more in Montenegro, and Bosnia, but at a steep price.
Here’s what we drove:
The question is, how much time and money would we have spent to do the same route in buses? It’s kind of why lesser developed countries end up having high transit costs. There’s no infrastructure to make it easy.
I’m just not sure it was worth it, and it was slow driving when not on Croatia and Slovenia’s toll roads. Plus renting a car is stressful.
My bribe/near arrest story
Which reminds me, we will eventually share in our videos the story of how I quasi refused to pay a bribe in Bosnia. I got pulled over in the middle of the nowhere for speeding, seriously only going 64 kmh (40 mph). There was no sign either. And the cop was doing the “I help you” routine when he noticed I was filming with the gopro on the dash.
He got me out of the car, mad because I was filming. “Why you video!” he asked over and over. Then he tried to tell me that I had to drive all the way back to Trebinje to pay the fine and he was going to hold the car’s registration papers and our ids.
I couldn’t possibly see that going well, like hours later coming back to the country to find these guys? No way. Although it was probably an act to make me worried.
I refused to let this dope detain all our valuables while I go figure out how to pay a fine for going 40 mph in the country. His partner even got out his handcuffs and asked if I wanted to go to jail. For refusing to give up the ids I guess. Although, since they noticed the video they were clearly 10 times more nervous than me. He was literally sweating and nervously asking me about the video still over and over.
Eventually he flat out asked for 20 Euros (this time the iPhone was filming in my front shirt pocket). I paid it and got on the road.
That’s it. Not sure this belongs in the expenses version… but I hate renting cars. It’s like college kids and drinking, I always end a trip and going “I’m never renting a car ever again!”.
Hotels
- $278.41
- 8,000 SPG points
- 4,000 Four Points Ljubljana
- 4,000 for Sheraton Zagreb
- 72,000 Club Carlson points*
- 45,000 for Radisson Blu Budapest (got a weird suite again, but no deer) for 3 nights
- 27,000 for Park Inn Sofia for 6 nights (made pre-devaluation)
- 55,000 IHG points
- Crowne Plaza Belgrade on PointBreaks for 11 nights
- $119 Orbits points
- to extend Crowne Plaza Belgrade 1 night
*As I said in June’s expenses, I calculate the earning of Club Carlson points at $0.00225/point. That really adds $162 to the total, but I wanted to keep it simple. Carrie counts the $162 towards our yearly goal and in the regular stats because earlier we technically paid to earn the points.
Due to wanting to go to places a little off the path, we didn’t have many hotel options. In fact, in some towns there wasn’t even a single hotel listed on Orbitz to use my credits with.
Airbnb was awesome this time. As I said, I don’t prefer Airbnb, and actually I had multiple people this month try to upsell me on a bigger place. “Sorry that amazing deal is no longer available, but I have this other apartment that’s a rip off, shall I book you in it?” Three airbnbs in a row! What the heck? If it’s booked take it down, right?
I finally caught another PointBreaks though, at the Crowne Plaza Belgrade in Serbia. This is where my lockdown happened (part 1 at least), and I can’t really say I spent my days site seeing. But the hotel was fantastic for getting work done and just a great hotel with amazing attention to detail.
Also, it’s funny how we usually spend as much money on food as we do hotels. Crazy right?
Earnings?
Not really. The hotel promotions didn’t interest me, so as you can see by the low hotel expenses, this was a month for burning not earning.
Conclusion
Our totals were under the average for $20,000 a year, but not enough for the goal to make up for high expenses early in the year.
Still, it’s a month that in total is nearly the same price as our rent used to be in downtown Charlottesville, VA. For the same price as our rent alone, we traveled around 7 countries and stayed in some very nice hotels.
I really can’t complain. Ignoring the car rental, our expenses were especially low and that’s almost entirely due to miles and points.
![Nick of FM on #40kFarAway [TIF Podcast]](https://travelisfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/travel-is-free-podcast-nick-40K-120x86.jpg)
Come on man why do you have to throw these words and blackmail my country Bosnia. Its on you to learn the laws of the country and know what the speed limits are in certain places. Its not cool just calling people names without knowing what you had done. My guess is that you were in a village zone which is 40kmh. By law in Bosnia they have to take your documents until you pay the fine, so they were correct. They had the authority to seize your vehicle but since it was a rental they did not want to spend more time with rentals. Its also a law to get detained for 24 hours until you get your affairs in order and pay the fine. I would say that you got extremely lucky that you did not get arrested and your camera confiscated.
If the cops did nothing wrong, why were they so worried about the GoPro? And they did demand 20Euros before letting him go.
Uhm, knowing that under the law of the land, cops have full authority to take possession of your ID and even chuck you in jail for 24hrs until you pay a speeding ticket didn’t improve my perception of Bosnia one bit. In fact, I’d rather be under the (wrong) impression that Drew had just come across a crooked cop or something because than, I could just chalk it up to a one off thing. I mean, holy crap! Isn’t that overkill for such a low infraction?
Sure, I’m aware that different countries have different laws but that Drew and Carrie “got extremely lucky that you did not get arrested and your camera confiscated.” Because of a speeding ticket?
complete ignorance. We have those laws because of our history. Please read our history and that of our neighbors. Without knowing the facts and our history you cannot say what is right and wrong. I hope you wise up and read up and not just spew generalizations.
Before saying I’m completely ignorant know that I emailed officials of Bulgaria asking them what was and wasn’t legal.
Are you saying its legal to offer someone pay the cop to “solve your problems” and take care of it for you at a discount? I mean, I’m no dummy, it was clearly a bribe scheme. The officer knew he was caught asking for a bribe too, it’s evident based on me being there and the audio. Not sure why confiscating a camera would be appropriate either.
I wasn’t in a village, there weren’t even houses within miles (I don’t even have to trust my memory I have plenty of video), but it’s not even relevant to whether or not I was being bribed.
Not sure what that has to do with blackmail either. How is that blackmailing the country? I’m just reporting what actually happened.
So your assertions about who was in the right isn’t based on my opinion. Based on what I’ve seen tho, I did have to go back to pay the fine but they can’t take the thing that allows me to drive legally in the country and then send me off driving… that makes no sense.
Serious question though. Before emailing the authorities I couldn’t find a single page that clearly lays out the laws and what was and wasn’t legal about the situation. I searched for hours online, but gave up and emailed.
So where would you recommend finding those? Also, given how difficult the info is, it’s difficult to expect tourists to know the laws ahead of time. Although, I am familiar with the village speed limit being different because it’s the same in other neighboring countries.
Drew,
Filming an official is a crime in Serbia and also in Albania and Macedonia(the freedom in USA is definitely not the same in Europe). They were being nice that they let you go. There are laws but they are written in Bosnian/Serbian. English is not an official language in Bosnia. I know bribes do happen but if they wanted to be an ass they could have just arrested you and confiscated your camera. They just wanted to let you go and asked for a bribe.
Also I can tell that you have never been to the Balkans. Never assume that if there are no houses it is not a residential area. There might have been a pasture where animals were crossing that you did not see. Signs will not be there all the time. There are a few GPS apps that you can download on your phone which will tell you the speed limits.
I got peeved that you said “this dope” without knowing the law. They can withhold your id and car registration, its the law and it has been done. Residents do get their cars towed away for small infractions like that, especially those that deny to pay the bribe. It is the law like it or not…
So I hear you saying these things are the law, and that I should have known the law. But I’m just curious where you see this, since it’s the publics responsibility and all.
Please link to me the Bosnian sites that show the laws you’re talking about and I can translate them with google. I’m particularly curious where you see that it is illegal to film an officer? Again, please link to the page with this law and I’ll translate, that’s not a big deal.
Drew,
The law is not available online, I just asked a lawyer friend of mine that works for the DA in Belgrade. He told me that copies can be obtained from the main library in each capital city. There is of course a fee for that. Not to mention that they will all be in Serbian/Bosnian. The same situation is for Greece/Albania/Montenegro/Romania/Bulgaria, etc.
I live in Boston and even here laws are not published online.
Frankly I think your approach is wrong, you could have easily avoided that if you just asked in a regular tourist center in any city. They would have told you all of those things. The laws apply to both residents and tourists.
Nemanja, I just read this whole debate about speeding and Bosnian laws and I feel your approach is unrealistic and your ignorant for living in Boston. I can’t stand that city.
“Blackmail”? In what way did he “blackmail” your country? He took a video of a crooked cop, so that he wouldn’t be treated unfairly, and told us the story.
I think Nomadic paid either 300 or 350 for his car and kept it a year. Perhaps buy something and sell it when you are done using it. Certainly more effort and I doubt I’d do it for a few weeks.
It definitely is sexy sounding but I’m paranoid of getting stuff with flat tires and a burned clutch after mile 20 and sinking more money into it. I’ve definitely thought about it, especially a long trip.
You’re thinking of Yomadic, not Nomadic… and, yes, “Nancy” was a great deal for him until she was towed away… RIP Nancy…
How was the Park Inn Sofia? I booked three weeks there pre-deval in October. Mostly I want to settle in to get work done but also meet locals, hang out in coffeeshops, learn some Bulgarian, etc.
Good
Hotel quality? Good, especially for a park inn! Big suite with two desks was a huge plus for us and getting work done. Location? Meh, but if your not a pansy, you can walk to the metro in 10 minutes via cutting through this wooded neighborhood.
And the metro takes you right to the center, where you’d want to be. And it’s kinda lucky given how few options the metro has.
Unfortunately all the places I’d want to eat are also 10 minutes walk away. Nothing right outside the door. And there aren’t exactly a ton of options anyways. But there are very local small joints that are cheap in the middle of the woods. Kinda weird at first, not from here, but fine.
It’s the suburbs meets a business park, meets the woods.
Drew, did you rent car with manual or automatic transmission in Croatia for $20.day?
From what car rental company?
Thank you
I have been thinking about going to Bosnia as well – seems a beautiful country. However that police corruption makes me reconsider. I heard similar stories from two of my friends, now this is a third one. I am not sure how statistically significant this is but 3 out of 3 is too much for me.
The laws for tourists are extremely friendly, I’ve personally read many of their laws online after the event.
You have to understand that in many parts of the world people see bribes as a way cops should operate. They are not dangerous they just honestly see this as a way of getting by and a way to save you trouble and money. If you’re speeding and you pay 20 Euros instead of 65, they have saved you time, trouble and money.
I am from a different culture that sees this as unethical. However, I’ve come to learn its harmless. I’ve dealt with more bribes than I can count. Most people don’t have any troubles, and even when you do… worse case scenario is paying 20 Euros.
There police live in a culture where it’s normal for police to take bribes. Other than that, they are normal people who have families and friends. Nothing to fear.