In the article fundamental directions of mountain tourism development in central part of Croatia and western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina are considered. Favorable natural conditions and transport accessibility contribute to the development of tourism. From other side, the consequences of the war 1991–1995s are still being felt. Contradictions between the goals of mass recreation and the objectives of environmental protection slightly aggravated due to the organization of specially protected natural areas where the rules of visiting are brought to perfection. There are great opportunities for the development of tourist infrastructure. To ensure that the recreational load on natural objects is not excessive it is necessary to regulate tourist flows and advertise new types of tourism.

Recreational development of natural resources is part of the overall problem of their rational economic use and protection. Economic activities have different impacts on natural recreational resources. In this region under economic circumstances, it is more profitable to organize a vacation than to undertake the exploitation of natural resources in industry and agriculture. Another advantage is the lack of raw materials bases and closure of small industrial enterprises, this made it possible to organize open-air museums. From other side, agrotourism has been widely developed, it is a sign of the agricultural development of the territories.

The features of different tourism types (water, walking and large-scale, mountaineering, sports and walking, speleological) are reviewed. Tourists should to spent the rest at winter and at summer in definite areas. A lot of natural and anthropogenic factors were taken into account under assessing recreational potential. Mapping produce in ArcMap 10, also for processing of Earth remote sensing data ERDAS Imagine program are used. Nature protection areas and principal rules regulating visits them was described.