Belgrade is the base. The days worth booking are out on the rivers.
What the speedboat through the Iron Gate gorge costs. Whether Novi Sad or the Drina valley is the better single day out. Which crawl actually gets you onto the floating clubs. Reviews of every tour you can book in Serbia.
Four days that decide a first week in Serbia.
The bookings a Belgrade base hangs off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The classicNovi Sad & Sremski Karlovci Full-Day TourPetrovaradin fortress in the morning, cellars in Sremski Karlovci after lunch. Eight hours, and more travellers take it than any other day out in the country.
02The gorge dayGolubac Fortress and Iron Gate Gorge TourTwelve hours down the Danube to Golubac and the Djerdap narrows, where the river squeezes between cliffs with Romania on the far bank.
03The western runWestern Serbia 1-Day Tour of the Key Sites from BelgradeThe house marooned on a rock in the Drina, the wooden village above it, and the narrow-gauge train that loops back over itself.
04The night oneBelgrade Nightlife Bar Pub Club Crawl with DrinksBars in Savamala and the barges moored along the river, with somebody who knows which door is worth queueing at. Belgrade does not start until eleven.
Every good Serbian day trip leaves Belgrade before eight.
Three directions, one minibus, and you are back for dinner. North to the wine hills, east down the Danube to the gorge, west to the Drina and the mountain railway.
Belgrade first, then whichever river you follow out of it.
A fortress above two rivers, a Habsburg town an hour north, the gorge where the Danube runs between cliffs, a wooden village in the west and cave country in the east. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
The Danube does its best work east of Belgrade.
Past the Roman gates at Golubac the river turns into the Djerdap gorge, cliffs on both banks and Decebalus carved into the Romanian side. Speedboats run in from the fortress jetty, and the fast stretch is the reason people come back.
Belgrade: the fortress before lunch, the river bars after dark.
Everything in Belgrade →
Walk out to the point where the two rivers meet, drop into the tunnels under the walls, then cross to the barges on the far bank. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Kalemegdan, on foot with a guide
The fortress has been rebuilt by everyone who ever held the confluence, and the walk down through Knez Mihailova ends at a terrace looking straight out over the water. Do it before the afternoon heat.
Savamala bars, then the splavovi
The crawl starts in the old warehouse district and finishes on a barge moored to the bank. Doors that look shut are usually open, which is the whole reason to go with somebody local.
Sunset from the water
The city reads completely differently from the river: the fortress on its bluff, the Zemun waterfront, and the line where the green Sava disappears into the brown Danube.
Serbia’s most popular days out.
Every Serbian tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers book than anything else in the country, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Novi Sad & Sremski Karlovci Full-Day Tour
Travel from Belgrade into Vojvodina with an English-speaking guide such as Menca, Ivana, Jelena, or Jovan. Visit Krušedol Monastery, Sremski Karlovci, Petrovaradin Fortress, and Novi Sad, with wine tasting and two hours of free time.
From · $76
Read our review →
2
Gems of Eastern Serbia Tour
from $123
3
Sremski Karlovci and Novi Sad Full-Day Tour from Belgrade
from $78
4
Day Trip from Belgrade: Gems of Eastern Serbia
from $127
5
Western Serbia 1-Day Tour of the Key Sites from Belgrade
from $129
6
From Sofia: Day Tour to Nis, Serbia with tickets and pick-up
from $93
7
Belgrade Nightlife Bar Pub Club Crawl with Drinks
from $90
8
Golubac Fortress and Iron Gate Gorge Tour
from $117
Western Serbia is a two-day trip pretending to be a day trip.
Bajina Basta, the Drina flowing green under the Tara cliffs, Mokra Gora and the wooden town Kusturica built above the railway. Most people do it in one very long day from Belgrade. It is better with a night in Zlatibor.
- 1Best of West (Drina House, Drvengrad and Sargan 8)from $106
- 2Šargan Eight Railway, Wooden Town & House on Drina river day trip from Belgradefrom $133
- 3Best of West (Drina House, Drvengrad & Sargan 8)from $108
Three things that only happen in Serbia.
Fortresses and river cruises run the length of the Danube. A railway that ties itself into a figure of eight, a cottage marooned on a rock mid-river and a cave the size of a cathedral do not.
The Sargan Eight
The old narrow-gauge line from Belgrade towards Sarajevo had to climb 300 metres in fifteen kilometres, so the engineers tied the track into a figure of eight, through twenty-two tunnels and over five bridges. The through service closed in 1974. A restored loop out of Mokra Gora runs it again as a two-and-a-half-hour ride, and there is a wooden village at the top station that a film director built for a set and then kept.
- 1Best of West (Drina House, Drvengrad and Sargan 8)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 195 reviews
- 2Best of West (Drina House, Drvengrad & Sargan 8)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 104 reviews
- 3From Sarajevo: Višegrad, Andrićgrad, Šargan Train, Drvengrad★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 95 reviews
The Drina River House
A group of teenagers from Bajina Basta got tired of swimming out to sunbathe on a rock in the middle of the Drina, so in 1968 they built a cabin on it. The river has taken it away more than once and it has gone straight back up every time. Day trips stop at the viewpoint above the bend; getting out to it is a separate arrangement with whoever has a boat that morning.
- 1Best of West (Drina House, Drvengrad and Sargan 8)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 195 reviews
- 2Šargan Eight Railway, Wooden Town & House on Drina river day trip from Belgrade★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 107 reviews
- 3Best of West (Drina House, Drvengrad & Sargan 8)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 104 reviews
Resava Cave
Eighty million years of limestone under the hills east of Despotovac, opened to visitors in the seventies and still only partly mapped. The lit route runs about 800 metres through halls of copper-red and white columns, the temperature sits near seven degrees whatever the month, and most days pair it with the Lisine waterfall and the fortified monastery at Manasija.
- 1Manasija Monastery and Resava Cave Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 106 reviews
- 2Fortified Manasija Monastery and Resava Cave Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 106 reviews
- 3Best of East (Resava Cave & Lisine Waterfall)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 94 reviews
What a day out in Serbia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. Belgrade is one of the cheapest capitals in Europe to put a guide in front of you.
Walking tours, an hour on the water in a kayak, crawls through Savamala and the short evening cruises.
The full-day standards: Novi Sad and the cellars, the Iron Gate gorge, the Drina and the Sargan Eight.
Private cars for the day, small groups with the speedboat included, and the once-a-trip splurges.
East of Belgrade the country goes underground.
Resava cave runs 800 lit metres through limestone halls, the Lisine waterfall drops off the plateau above it, and Manasija sits behind eleven towers an hour back down the road. Nis, further south, has a tower built out of skulls.
Every eastern Serbian day out →
Serbia eats late and pours before you have sat down.
A shot of quince rakija arrives ahead of the menu. Book the market walk for the morning, the cellar visit in the Fruska Gora hills for the afternoon, and something on the water for the end of it.
Four Serbian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on train timetables, river conditions and monastery hours that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Best of West (Drina House, Drvengrad and Sargan 8)The train runs to a published timetable with a handful of departures a day, and the whole trip from Belgrade is built around catching one of them.
- 02Golubac Fortress and Iron Gate Gorge TourThe speedboat into the gorge goes out in fair weather only, and the day trip leaves Belgrade once each morning.
- 03Novi Sad & Sremski Karlovci Full-Day TourSmall groups, one departure a morning, and in July the fortress hosts a festival that books out the whole city.
- 04Fortified Manasija Monastery and Resava Cave TourThe cave is seen on guided groups at set times, and the last one leaves well before dark outside high summer.
Belgrade has a wind with a name, and it comes up the Danube.
The kosava blows in off the southeast for days at a time, hardest between October and April. It keeps the speedboats tied up and empties every terrace in the city. The answer is to go under a roof: cellar bars in Savamala, the tunnels inside the fortress, a lunch that turns into a rakija tasting.
By place — the capital, the north, the two ends of the Danube
By kind of day — river, fortress, cellar or road
Belgrade, Novi Sad, the gorge, then west to the Drina: the run most people do first.
ResavaThe newest Serbian tour reviews.
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