Hello all, my husband and I had a wonderful trip to BiH, Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro in September. Some of this was with an organized tour, but we did BiH on our own. You should go! It's amazing!
For part of that time we used a driver/guide pair recommended in Rick's Croatia guidebook, Ermin and Alma Elezovic, and I wanted to pass on to others using Rick's resources that our experience with them was pretty mixed. First, on fees: Ermin quoted 620 euros for a transfer from Dubrovnik to Mostar with 2 stops, a walking tour of Mostar the next day, and a transfer from Mostar to Sarajevo with one stop. After we were underway, Alma said we would owe an additional 70 euros for the walking tour, and when I produced the written quote with her tour included, Ermin said instead we would owe an additional 50 because one of our prearranged stops would last more than an hour. We agreed to pay the extra 50, not knowing what else to do. There seemed to be misunderstandings/changes like this around several other aspects of the 3 days as well -- getting quiet time alone in Medjugorje, eating lunch during a full-day transfer, confirming a reservation at Tito's bunker, changing drivers (we didn't get to tip our first driver because we thought we had him for the whole time)....
For the walking tour itself, we'd asked to start early before tour groups thronged the old city. We did start early, and Alma immediately took us to a cafe with a (great!) view of Mostar's Old Bridge, kindly bought us drinks and a local treat, and then spent the first half of the 2-hour tour time there, giving us a lecture on Balkan history. We could see crowds coming in and asked twice to move along, but she said this was her format. If we had known that in advance, we would have booked a more traditional walking tour.
Some of the friction we felt here may have been cultural differences, and I have to believe for Rick to recommend somebody that others have had great experiences (and please speak up if you have!) I do also want to add my positive recommendation for their son Jaz (who Rick also mentions), whom we met at his coffee shop and who did a magnificent job connecting with us and telling us about Bosnian coffee. Visiting Cafe de Alma is an unmissable Mostar moment!