Belgrade fills two days. Serbia fills the rest of the week.
What the Iron Gate boat costs, whether Novi Sad works as a day trip, which crawl through Skadarlija is worth the money and where the rakija is actually distilled. Reviews of every tour you can book in Serbia.
Four bookings a first week in Serbia is usually built around.
The old town on foot, the plain to the north, the gorge to the east and the mountains west. What each costs and how long it takes.
01The first morning3-Hour Small Group Walking TourKalemegdan, Knez Mihailova and the confluence, in three hours on foot. The cheapest way to make sense of the city before you commit to anything.
02The day northNorthern Serbia: Sremski Karlovci and Novi Sad Full-Day Tour from BelgradePetrovaradin fortress over the Danube, then the cellars at Sremski Karlovci. Vojvodina is flat, Austro-Hungarian and drinks differently.
03The day eastGolubac Fortress & Iron Gate Danube GorgeGolubac fortress at the mouth of the gorge, where the Danube squeezes to under two hundred metres. The long day, and the one people talk about afterwards.
04The day westŠargan Eight Railway, Wooden Town & House on Drina river day trip from BelgradeKusturica’s timber village, the narrow-gauge loop at Mokra Gora and the small house standing on a rock in the Drina.
Belgrade first, then pick a direction out of it.
A capital where two rivers meet, a gorge the Danube has to force its way through, wine cellars on the plain to the north, and the twentieth century still standing in concrete along the boulevards. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
North to the plain, east to the gorge, west to the mountains.
Serbia is small enough that three very different days all start after breakfast in Belgrade and end in time for dinner there. What each direction costs to join, and what you actually get out of it.
Belgrade: the fortress before lunch, Skadarlija after ten.
Everything in Belgrade →
Start where the Sava runs into the Danube and the fortress sits over both, walk down Knez Mihailova into the old Ottoman grid, and come back after dark for the cobbled lane of kafanas that does not really start until the second bottle.
Kalemegdan, and the two rivers under it
The fortress has been Roman, Ottoman and Austrian and still guards the confluence; the park around it is where the city walks on a Sunday. Half of what a guide adds here is the layers you would otherwise walk straight past.
The old town in one small group
Republic Square, the bohemian quarter, the boulevards laid over the Ottoman street plan, and the blunt Yugoslav architecture in between. The tour to take on day one, not day three.
Yugoslavia, on the ground it happened
New Belgrade’s housing blocks, the House of Flowers where Tito is buried, and the buildings along the boulevard still carrying the marks of 1999. Historical rather than nostalgic, which is the right register for it.
Serbia’s most popular days out.
Every Serbian tour we have reviewed →These are the days Serbia sells the most of, and what each one gives you for the money.
1
Northern Serbia: Sremski Karlovci and Novi Sad Full-Day Tour from Belgrade
Travel from Belgrade into northern Serbia with a guide such as Ivana, Milica, Jelica, or Nikola. Visit Krušedol Monastery, taste two glasses of Bermet wine in Sremski Karlovci, see Petrovaradin Fortress, and spend free time in Novi Sad. Hotel pickup, transport, entrance fees, and drop-off are included.
From · $78
Read our review →
2
Day Trip from Belgrade: Gems of Eastern Serbia
from $127
3
Belgrade Nightlife Bar Pub Club Crawl with Drinks
from $90
4
Belgrade Big Tour: Top Attractions and Belgrade Neighborhoods
from $72
5
Golubac Fortress & Iron Gate Danube Gorge
from $117
6
Along the Danube: Golubac Fortress & Iron Gate Gorge day trip from Belgrade
from $120
7
3-Hour Small Group Walking Tour
from $35
8
Belgrade Underground Tour w/ Sparkling Wine Along the River
from $35
The west is where Serbia keeps its scenery.
Zlatibor’s pastures, the Mokra Gora valley with a narrow-gauge railway looping back over itself, Tara National Park above the green Drina, and the much-photographed little house standing on a rock in the middle of the river. Four hours from Belgrade, and worth an overnight if you have one.
Every day out west →
An hour north the hills stop and the wine starts.
Novi Sad sits under Petrovaradin fortress, whose clock wears its hands the wrong way round so the boatmen could read it from the river. Ten minutes upstream, Sremski Karlovci pours bermet, a sweet spiced red almost nobody outside Serbia has heard of, and the monasteries of Fruška Gora stand in the woods behind it.
- 1Šargan Eight Railway, Wooden Town & House on Drina river day trip from Belgradefrom $133
- 2Best of West (Drina House, Drvengrad & Sargan 8)from $108
- 3Full-Day Trip from Belgrade: Tara National Park & The Drina River Valleyfrom $138
What a day out in Serbia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Belgrade is one of the cheaper European capitals to spend a day in, and the walking tours prove it.
Walking tours, the tunnels under the fortress, a kayak on the Sava, an evening crawl through Skadarlija.
The full days out: Novi Sad and the cellars, the Iron Gate by road and boat, the caves and waterfalls east of the city.
Private guides, the long runs west to Mokra Gora and Tara, and the speedboat days through the gorge.
Three things that only happen in Serbia.
Fortresses and river cruises exist all over Europe. A railway tied in a knot to gain height, a gorge with a Roman inscription moved uphill to survive a dam, and a capital that wears the twentieth century on its facades do not.
The Šargan Eight
To climb three hundred metres of mountain in thirteen kilometres, the engineers tied the line into a figure of eight, so the train crosses over its own route through twenty-two tunnels and comes out facing the way it arrived. It was built to link Belgrade and Sarajevo, closed in the 1970s and rebuilt for passengers who now ride it purely for the trick of it.
- 1Šargan Eight Railway, Wooden Town & House on Drina river day trip from Belgrade★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 107 reviews
- 2Best of West (Drina House, Drvengrad & Sargan 8)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 104 reviews
- 3Belgrade to Zlatibor private transfer by car★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 16 reviews
The Iron Gate
Between Serbia and Romania the river is squeezed into a channel a few hundred metres wide and more than fifty deep, the deepest gorge on the continent. Golubac fortress stands at the entrance with its towers in the water. When the dam raised the river in the 1960s the Roman Tabula Traiana was cut out of the cliff and lifted higher up the rock, where the boats still stop under it.
- 1Golubac Fortress & Iron Gate Danube Gorge★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 185 reviews
- 2Along the Danube: Golubac Fortress & Iron Gate Gorge day trip from Belgrade★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 185 reviews
- 3Iron Gate NP Tour with 1-hour speedboat ride + 2 viewpoints★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 148 reviews
Yugoslav Belgrade
Across the Sava, New Belgrade is a grid of concrete blocks built on drained marsh as the capital of a country that no longer exists. The House of Flowers holds Tito’s grave and a room of relay batons carried to him each year by schoolchildren. Along the old boulevards, buildings hit in 1999 are still standing exactly as they were left.
- 1Belgrade Underground Tour w/ Sparkling Wine Along the River★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 151 reviews
- 2Belgrade War Island Kayak Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 101 reviews
- 3Red Belgrade Communist Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 78 reviews
Four Serbian bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast the same morning. These four run on timetables, water levels and group caps that take no interest in when your flight gets in.
- 01Šargan Eight Railway, Wooden Town & House on Drina river day trip from BelgradeThe narrow-gauge train runs a handful of departures a day to a printed timetable, and the day trips out west are built around catching one of them.
- 02Iron Gate NP Tour with 1-hour speedboat ride + 2 viewpointsThe speedboats through the gorge go when the Danube lets them, and the season thins right out once the weather turns.
- 03RE:PLAY Pub Crawl BelgradeCrawls run on set nights with a cap on the group, and the weekend dates go first.
- 04Belgrade War Island Kayak TourKayak trips need daylight and calm water, so the sunset departures are the first to be full.
When the boats stop and the košava comes down the Danube.
The speedboats, the kayaks and most of the river cruises run from spring to autumn, and the wind that blows down the gorge in winter is cold enough to end the argument. The city itself does not close. The tunnels under the fortress, the kafanas, the stills and the Yugoslav-era collections are all indoor work, and the whole place is cheaper in the cold months.
Belgrade eats late and drinks later.
Skadarlija’s kafanas with a band moving between tables, a tasting that finally explains the difference between plum, quince and apricot rakija, and the floating clubs moored along the Sava that do not fill until well after midnight.
By place — the city and the days out of it
By kind of day — river, fortress, kafana or road
Belgrade, the gorge, the plain, the mountains: the shape of a first week.
KalemegdanThe newest Serbian tour reviews.
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Belgrade Layover Private tour + E-Scooter Sighteeing
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Belgrade Fashion and Design Tour – Discover Local Designers
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Iron Gate: Golubac fortress, Lepenski vir, boat cruise 1.5h
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Belgrade center walking tour with Rakija, Cocktails and Burgers
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