Serbia Itineraries

Serbia sits at the heart of the Balkans, a landlocked country of seven million people with a rich and turbulent history that has placed it at the crossroads of the Byzantine, Ottoman, Habsburg, and Slavic worlds. Despite (or because of) its complicated recent past, modern Serbia is one of the most welcoming, authentic, and underrated destinations in Europe — a country where the food is exceptional, the nightlife legendary, the hospitality extraordinary, and the prices refreshingly honest. Belgrade, the capital, is one of Europe's great river cities, standing at the confluence of the Danube and Sava. It has been destroyed and rebuilt more than 40 times in its history, and the city today carries the scars and energy of all those centuries. The ancient Kalemegdan Fortress sits at the tip of the confluence, its parklike ramparts a favourite place for Belgradians to walk, meet, and watch the sunset over the rivers. Below the fortress, the 19th-century core of Stari Grad (Old Town) holds bohemian Skadarlija (Belgrade's Montmartre, with its traditional kafanas playing gypsy music and serving heavy Serbian food), the modernist avenue of Knez Mihailova, and the elegant 19th-century squares of the city centre. Across the Sava, the modernist expanse of New Belgrade (Novi Beograd) showcases bold socialist-era architecture, some of it recently recognised internationally as important 20th-century design. Belgrade's nightlife is justly famous — floating clubs (splavovi) moored along the Sava, bohemian bars in the former publishing district of Savamala, and electronic music clubs that stay open until sunrise. Novi Sad, Serbia's second city 90 minutes north, has a different character — a Habsburg-era town with a dramatic Petrovaradin Fortress overlooking the Danube, a pedestrian main street lined with cafés, and home to the EXIT music festival held each July inside the fortress walls. South of Belgrade, the landscape turns mountainous and slower. The medieval monasteries of central and southern Serbia — Studenica, Žiča, Sopoćani, and the Patriarchate of Peć — preserve some of the finest Byzantine-Serbian frescoes anywhere, many on UNESCO's list. The strange landscape of Đavolja Varoš (Devil's Town) features 202 natural stone pillars created by millennia of erosion. Serbia's wild west, around the Tara, Zlatibor, and Kopaonik mountains, offers dramatic river canyons (including the Drina and Uvac), traditional log villages (Drvengrad and Mokra Gora), and the Sargan Eight railway. Serbian cuisine is genuinely excellent — Balkan grilled meats (ćevapi, pljeskavica, karađorđeva), sarma, kajmak, superb cheeses and charcuterie, and a dazzling variety of regional specialities. Rakija (fruit brandy, particularly plum šljivovica) is the national drink and features in every toast. Serbs are famously friendly, proud, and hospitable, and English is increasingly common among young people in Belgrade and other cities.