Visiting National Park Kozara
National Park Kozara is located on Kozara mountain in the northeastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina between the Pannonian plain in the north and the Dinaric Alps in the south. The national park is bordered by the rivers Sava, Una and Vrbas. Kozara has been a national park since 1967; the centre of the park is a memorial site for the Kozara battle which took place in WWII.
How to get to National Park Kozara
Kozara National Park is located a bit off track which means there are limited options concerning how to reach the park. The “entrance” and centre of the park are located in Mrakovica. The only public road to Mrakovica (R-477) connects to the M4 in Kozarac (road from Prijedor to Banja Luka) and from the opposite direction, the road starts shortly after Gradiška’s direction towards Kozara.
By Car: the best option to get to National Park Kozara is to drive by car. From Banja Luka, there is 53 km (1 hour driving time), from Prijedor about 21 km (25 min driving time), from Gradiška 45 km which also takes about 1 hour. Once you arrive at Mrakovica there is a large parking area in front of Hotel Monument.
By Bus: getting to Kozara by public bus is unfortunately not possible. The closest place where buses drive to is Kozarac which is 12 km from Mrakovica which means you would have to take a taxi to get to the park. Kozarac can be reached by bus from Prijedor and Banja Luka.
Day trip: An organized trip to sights in Bosnia like e.g the national park Una is quite easy, but somehow finding an organized day trip to Kozara is a bit hard: it seems that most travel agents have not yet discovered this option. Currently, the best option seems to be to drive to NP Kozara on your own and then book a guide once you arrive at the park.
Activities at National Park Kozara
The main reason for visiting this amazing place is of course to experience the beautiful nature which most people do on foot by following the marked hiking paths in the park, but there are also other options in the park.
Mountain biking: together with Pro cycling from Prijedor, marked bike trails of a length between 4 and 60 km are available inside the national park.
Trim Trail: close to the memorial monument there is a trim trail where kids can test their skills on different wooden hurdles.
Climbing: at Zeciji Kamen there are 21 climbs of a length between 10 and 60 metres.
Skiing: during the winter season there is a 600-meter slope for adults (with lift) and a 150-meter slope for children.
Sleeping and eating at National Park Kozara
Inside the parking area, you have 4 options for an overnight stay:
- Hotel Monument, which is located where you park the car
- Motel „Bijele vode“, located 200 from the memorial monument
- Bungalows for 6 persons, located in the nature near the memorial monument
- Mountain lodges, “Ljubijski rudar” – 30 beds and “Kotlovača” – 18 beds.
Both Hotel Monument and Motel “Bijele vode” have a nice restaurant offering local speciality as well as international dishes.
The address of National Park Kozara
- Mrakovica, Dera 79101
- R477
- Bosna i Hercegovina
- 013082, 16.912894
