Neum

Bosnia and Herzegovina has about twenty kilometres of Adriatic coast and one town on it, Neum, built up the slope of a bay in terraces of hotels and apartments looking out across the water to the Peljesac peninsula. The beaches are shingle and concrete platform rather than sand, the water is clear and sheltered, and the town functions as the country's seaside resort, filling in July and August with visitors from Sarajevo, Mostar and beyond. Prices are lower than on the Croatian coast either side, which is much of the draw. The coast road between Split and Dubrovnik passes through, and the Peljesac bridge opened in 2022 now carries traffic around it.

History

The Neum corridor goes back to the Treaty of Karlowitz of 1699, when the Republic of Ragusa ceded two strips of land to the Ottoman Empire, Neum and Klek in the north and Sutorina in the south, as buffers against its rival Venice, and the Treaty of Passarowitz confirmed the borders in 1718. After Venice fell in 1797 and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Austria, which now held both Ragusa and Venetian Dalmatia, tried in vain to buy the enclave and instead stationed a warship to block the port, until the Treaty of Berlin gave Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary in 1878, after 179 years of Ottoman rule at Neum (Wikipedia, Neum).

The main sights

• The bay - the sheltered water and the terraced town above it.
• The Peljesac view - the peninsula across the channel.
• Shingle beaches - the shore and the concrete bathing platforms.
• The hotel terraces - the resort building up the slope.

When to go

June to September for the sea, with July and August the peak and the town at capacity. May and October are quiet with cooler water. Most of the town closes outside the season.

What to expect

The town is a purpose-built resort strip with little character beyond it. Beaches are shingle and platform, not sand. It is very crowded in high summer and largely shut the rest of the year. The coast is short and there is nowhere else to go along it.

Nearby

Hutovo Blato lies northeast; the Croatian coast runs either side.

Key facts