Banja Luka is the largest city in the northern half of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the capital of the Republika Srpska entity, set on the Vrbas River where the mountains of central Bosnia open onto the Pannonian plain. It is a spacious, leafy place with wide boulevards, plane trees and a riverfront that is busy with walkers, anglers and café-goers, and it has long had the reputation of being one of the greenest cities in the Balkans.
The city's story is a heavy one. A Roman fort stood where the Kastel fortress now looms over the river, and the city became an important Ottoman provincial centre. In 1969 a powerful earthquake destroyed much of the old town, and it was rebuilt in a hurry in modernist style. The Ferhadija mosque, a sixteenth-century masterpiece of Ottoman architecture, was blown up in 1993 during the Bosnian war, and it was painstakingly rebuilt, with original stones recovered from the rubble, and reopened in 2016. The experience of seeing a rebuilt mosque in a city that is now mostly Serbian Orthodox is a quiet lesson in the complexity of the country.
The Vrbas itself is the best reason to ride here. South of the city, the river runs through a deep, narrow canyon with limestone walls, and the road beside it climbs and winds through tunnels and past rafting stations toward Jajce, where an old walled town stands over a waterfall. The gorge ride the day is built around, through Ravanjska vrata, has steep rock and good curves, and it is best on a weekday morning when traffic is light. Surfaces are generally acceptable but patchy, with some rough patches and the occasional local driver overtaking on blind bends, so keep alert.
For practicalities, Banja Luka has over two hundred thousand people, so every service is available. Petrol stations are on all the main roads, and the city centre has plenty of cafés. Do not miss the local ćevapi, which are small grilled sausages served in a flat bread with onions and kajmak, a creamy dairy spread, and the local variant, the banjalučki ćevap, is a little different in shape.
Cross-border formalities are simple but check your documents and green card insurance before travelling.