Off-season offers for rural guesthouses in East Herzegovina: autumn, winter, spring

Most guests come to East Herzegovina in summer. A rural house that stays open in the colder months can count on a few reasons to visit that come back every year: the grape harvest and wine, hunting, winter food and town events.

In short

• Official statistics (the bulletin of the Republika Srpska Institute of Statistics, Republički zavod za statistiku RS) give only yearly totals per municipality, with no monthly breakdown. In 2025 Trebinje recorded 105,591 arrivals and 194,036 overnight stays, about 1.8 nights per arrival (more in the article on visitor numbers). Only your own guest book shows how the seasons differ.
• The timing of the wine grape harvest changes from year to year, depending on the variety and the weather. Before you offer the harvest to guests, agree the dates with the winemaker.
• Woodcock and other snipe may be hunted from 1 August to the end of February, and wild boar sows and piglets from 1 July to 15 January. That makes hunting the offer for autumn and winter.
• The event list of the Trebinje Tourist Organization (Turistička organizacija Grada Trebinja) also includes events outside summer: the "Trebinje vertikal" run (March), Dučić Day (April) and the Dučić Poetry Evenings (October).

What guests look for outside summer

Harvest and wine. Trebinje grows the local varieties vranac and žilavka as well as international ones such as chardonnay, merlot and pinot noir. According to the Agriculture and Rural Development Strategy of the City of Trebinje 2023-2027, vineyards covered 485 hectares in 2021 (data of the Republika Srpska Institute of Statistics). Harvest dates shift with the variety and the weather, so promise the guest a period rather than a day, and ask the winemaker first. Check with the winemaker in advance whether they sell grapes to private individuals, and do not promise guests that they can buy grapes without that agreement. If a guest wants to take part in the harvest, agree this with the winemaker in advance.

Hunting. The Tourist Organization says the "Leotar" hunting association issues permits, provides guides and organizes group visits by foreign hunters to commercial hunting grounds. Trebinje is known for quail, wood pigeon, woodcock and rock partridge. Guests from Europe, especially from Italy, come for woodcock. Your house offers a bed and meals. The guest arranges the hunt itself with the hunting association.

Winter food. The Tourist Organization's page on Herzegovinian cuisine lists pršut (dry-cured ham, traditionally prepared for winter), dried beef, lamb cooked under a sač (an iron baking lid), kajmak, cicvara with honey and pies. That is a ready menu for a winter weekend.

Town events and excursions. The Tourist Organization offers a half-day tour of Trebinje (Crkvina, the Arslanagić bridge) and a full-day trip with lunch in a local restaurant, a tasting in a wine cellar and, if the guest wants, a visit to a monastery (Tvrdoš, Duži or Petropavlov).

What to do

1. From your guest book, count arrivals and nights per month for the last two years. This shows which months are empty.
2. Pick one or two offers you can really deliver: a harvest visit with a winemaker on dates the winemaker confirms, rooms for hunters in autumn, a winter weekend with a set menu.
3. Agree terms and prices in advance with your partner (winery, hunting association, tourist organization, guide) and write them down.
4. Put together a package with a clear period and cancellation terms. See the articles on packages, pricing and bookings.
5. Update the opening hours and description on your Google profile, because in winter guests check whether the house is open.
6. In winter, check heating, hot water and road access before you accept a booking.
7. Your obligations stay the same all year: guest registration, the guest book and the tourist tax (see the separate articles on these).

Deadlines and amounts

The Order on the hunting season for game protected by a closed season (Naredba o vremenu lova lovostajem zaštićene divljači, Službeni glasnik RS 105/24) sets these periods for selected species. The order covers more species than listed here.

• woodcock (šumska šljuka, Scolopax rusticola), common snipe (barska šljuka, Gallinago gallinago) and jack snipe (šljuka kozica, Lymnocryptes minimus): 1 August to the end of February. The order says "until 29 February", a date that exists only in a leap year. In a year when February has 28 days, confirm the last hunting day with the hunting association.
• quail, wood pigeon, rock dove and turtle dove: 1 August to 31 December
• rock partridge: 15 September to 5 January
• hare: 1 October to 5 December
• roe deer doe and fawn: 1 October to 31 January; roe buck: 1 May to 30 September
• wild boar (listed in the order as unprotected game): boars (vepar) and young wild boar of either sex (nazime) all year, sows and piglets 1 July to 15 January

The order was published in Službeni glasnik RS 105/24 of 6 December 2024. Before you sell a hunt, check with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management (Ministarstvo poljoprivrede, šumarstva i vodoprivrede) that it has not been amended. Which species, and how many animals, may be shot in a given hunting ground depends on the hunting plan of the organization that manages that ground.

Where to go

• Trebinje Tourist Organization: gotrebinje.com, phone +387 59 273 410, gotrebinje@gotrebinje.com.
• "Leotar" hunting association (hunting in Trebinje): +387 65 517 097, +387 65 987 383 or +387 65 521 019, see the hunting page.
• Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of Republika Srpska: current hunting seasons.

The event list on the Tourist Organization website is partly out of date (it still includes entries from 2019), so treat the months as a rough guide. For the Dučić Poetry Evenings the list gives 4 to 6 October, which for this year has already passed. Confirm next year's dates by phone before you put them in an offer.

Laws and sources

• Order on the hunting season for game protected by a closed season (Službeni glasnik RS 105/24; under Article 9(3) of the Law on Hunting, Službeni glasnik RS 63/24)
• Tourism 2026, statistical bulletin, Republika Srpska Institute of Statistics (2025 data)
• Hunting, Trebinje Tourist Organization
• Herzegovinian cuisine
• Excursions
• Cultural events
• Agriculture and Rural Development Strategy of the City of Trebinje 2023-2027