NEUM Neum is 60 km from Dubrovnik, 70 km from Mostar and Međugorje and 30 km from Ploče and Metković, both of which have railway stations. The Bosnia and Herzegovina coastal strip of Neum cuts off the southernmost Croatian territory from the rest of Croatia. This is a result of the Treaty of Karlowitz of 1699. With its admission to the European Union, Croatia had to apply EU regulations at its border crossings, including the passage through the Neum section. The construction of the Pelješac Bridge, which would bypass Neum entirely, has significance for Croatia's integrity and also for its future Schengen Area membership and the EU as a whole. It would significantly improve traffic flow and the traffic connection of Dubrovnik to the rest of mainland Croatia, avoiding crossing the external borders of the EU at Neum, negotiating long, costly queues and strict customs checks twice within the space of 20 km. Encouraged by the recent developments in Croatia - Slovenia maritime border dispute (June 2017), the ruling Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and other Bosnian political parties have decided to obstruct the €420 million worth project previously approved by the EU. The EU Commission has already allocated €357 million of Cohesion Policy funds to build the bridge. It should be completed by 2022. Neum is planned to be a freight port. There are plans to build a real seaport, rail and a motorway and thus the Croatian bridge must have a high clearance according to the view of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today the main freight port for Bosnia and Herzegovina is Ploče (in Croatia) further north, which has a railway to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Neum corridor dates back to the Treaty of Karlovci of 1699, whereby the Republic of Ragusa was separated from the Dalmatian possessions of its rival Venice by two buffer zones ceded by Venice to the Ottoman empire: north of its territory is Neum and the bay of Klek, and south of its territory is Sutorina with the port of Herceg-Novi on the Bay of Kotor, now part of Montenegro since 1947. The Karlovci borders were reaffirmed in 1718 by the Treaty of Požarevac, but then the Ottomans, tired of negotiating in vain with Venice for a widening of their maritime access, simply usurped the territory of Gornji Klek and most of the Klek peninsula from the Republic of Ragusa, which it had bought from King Stjepan of Bosnia at the end of the 14th century. After the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797 and the Vienna Congress in 1815, the Austrian Empire, which had annexed both the Dalmatian possessions of Venice and the territory of Dubrovnik, tried to buy back the Neum and Sutorina enclaves from the Ottomans, but in vain. Instead, it stationed a warship to block access to the port of Neum until the Treaty of Berlin, which gave Vienna the whole of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1878. Neum had been under Ottoman control for 179 years. In 1918, as a consequence of Vienna's defeat, Neum joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes which would start being called "Yugoslavia" in 1929. Under Karađorđević, the Yugoslav Government ignored the borders inherited from history twice: in 1929, when the Neum Region was included in the Littoral Banovina, and in 1939 when, following the Cvetković–Maček Agreement, it was included in the Banovina of Croatia. Tito's federal Yugoslavia was founded on the principle, declared at the 1943 AVNOJ in Jajce and comparatively well-respected by the Đilas commission in 1945, of establishing the federated Republics in their borders of 1878 which is why the Neum enclave is now part of independent Bosnia-Herzegovina, including most of the Klek peninsula (Ponta Kleka, Rep Kleka), the two islets Veliki and Mali Školj and the rock of Lopata in the Bay of Klek.

Neum celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Good Health as its municipal day. As part of the celebrations, Neum hosts the Music Festival Etnofest Neum. The town also hosts the Neum Animated Film Festival. The linđo is traditionally danced in the Neum region. Neum is home to local branches of the cultural organizations Matica hrvatska and HKD Napredak. Popular activities include swimming and sun bathing, beach-going, boating, and various other water-sports. Neum has a water polo club VK Jadran Neum, which is a member of the Croatian Water Polo Federation.

Prior to 2016, Bosnia and Herzegovina could have had another exit to the Adriatic Sea had the matter gone to the International Court of Justice. The Sutorina dispute was a border dispute between Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding the sovereignty over the territory of Sutorina. The territory had it returned to BiH would have gone under control of Republic of Srpska entity. In the end government of Bosnia signed the agreement by Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Crnadak and/or witnessed by the Croat Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Dragan Čović agreeing that Sutorina was part of Montenegro.