Belgrade takes two days. Then the Danube takes over.
What the speedboat run into the Iron Gate really costs. Whether Novi Sad deserves a whole day. Which crawl the city actually turns up to. Reviews of every tour you can book in Serbia.
The gorge, the north, the old town on foot, one long dinner.
The four bookings a first week in Serbia hangs off. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The Danube dayIron Gate NP Tour with 1-hour speedboat ride + 2 viewpointsGolubac fortress, then a speedboat into the narrowest stretch of the gorge. Nobody comes back saying they wish they had skipped it.
02North for the daySremski Karlovci and Novi Sad Full-Day Tour from BelgradeNovi Sad, the Petrovaradin walls and the cellars at Sremski Karlovci, in one run up the motorway.
03The first morning3-Hour Small Group Walking TourThree hours on foot from Knez Mihailova to the fortress, with somebody who can explain what you are standing on.
04The long dinnerFood and culture tour in BelgradeMarket stalls, a bakery, then kafana plates that keep arriving. Come hungry and leave the evening open.
Every good Serbian day out leaves Belgrade before nine.
Four directions off the ring road, what it costs to get on each one, and how long you are gone for.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Day Trip from Belgrade: Gems of Eastern Serbia
East to the Iron GateGolubac fortress, then the cliffs close in over the boat.
North to Novi SadPetrovaradin walls, Fruska Gora, cellars at Sremski Karlovci.
West to the DrinaThe house on the rock, Drvengrad, and the Sargan Eight railway.
Down into the cavesResava cave, the Lisine waterfall, a monastery behind walls.
All 29 day trips out of Belgrade →
Belgrade gives up nothing to a first walk past it.
Everything in Belgrade →
A fortress over two rivers, a socialist skyline across the water, and cellars under the old town that were tunnels first. Three ways to read the city, and all three are cheap.
Old town to Kalemegdan, on foot
Knez Mihailova up to the fortress walls, with the Ottoman, Habsburg and Yugoslav layers pointed out as you pass them. The cheapest good decision in the city.
Tito, the blocks and the bombing
The concrete slabs of Novi Beograd, the wrecked General Staff building left where it fell, and the grave up on Dedinje. A century explained by the people who lived through it.
Dorcol bars and the river barges
Four or five rooms between the old town and the splavovi moored on the Sava, with somebody who knows which door is worth the queue. Starts late on purpose.
The capital, the gorge, the north and the mountain west.
Serbia is small enough to see from one base and varied enough that you will want three. Six starting points, and the best day out from each.
The river is why half this country is worth the drive.
Belgrade sits where the Sava runs into it. Two hours east it is forced through the Carpathians into a channel under two hundred metres wide and eighty deep. Kayaks, barges, speedboats, and the fortress that has watched the narrows for six hundred years.
Serbia’s most popular days out.
Every Serbian tour we have reviewed →More travellers book these than anything else on the site. Prices, timings, and what each one actually hands over.
1
Sremski Karlovci and Novi Sad Full-Day Tour from Belgrade
Leave Belgrade for a full day in northern Serbia, with hotel pickup, a small group or private format, and an English-speaking guide. Visit Krušedol Monastery, stroll through baroque Sremski Karlovci, taste two glasses of Bermet wine, see Petrovaradin Fortress, and enjoy free time in Novi Sad.
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
3-Hour Small Group Walking Tour
from $35
7
Belgrade Underground Tour w/ Sparkling Wine Along the River
from $35
8
Iron Gate NP Tour with 1-hour speedboat ride + 2 viewpoints
from $163
Serbia stays cheap until you leave the city.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A morning in Belgrade comes in under the price of a round of drinks in most capitals.
Walking tours, the e-scooter and bike runs, pub crawls and the hop in from the airport.
The full days out: the Iron Gate, Novi Sad and Fruska Gora, the Drina valley, food tours that end at a table.
Private cars, the speedboat-and-cave combinations, and the long westward runs to Tara and Mokra Gora.
Serbia eats late, cooks over fire, and pours before the menu arrives.
Grilled meat ordered by weight, a bakery run that starts before the tour does, cellars in the Fruska Gora hills, and a house brandy nobody lets you refuse. Book the market walk early and keep the evening free.
The city that moored its nightlife on the river.
The splavovi tied along the Sava run until it gets light, the Dorcol bars only fill after midnight, and on a first night a crawl is the only sensible way in.
Every night out in Belgrade →
Three things that happen in Serbia and nowhere else.
Fortresses and good grilled meat exist all over the Balkans. A river forced eighty metres deep through a mountain range, a house standing on a rock mid-current, and a spirit distilled in half the gardens in the country do not.
The Iron Gate
The Danube spends most of its life spread wide and slow. At Djerdap it is squeezed between the Carpathians into a channel under two hundred metres across and more than eighty metres deep, the deepest river gorge in Europe. Golubac guards the entrance with nine towers; further down the same bank a Roman road plaque and a nine-thousand-year-old fishing settlement at Lepenski Vir sit above the waterline the dam left behind.
- 1Golubac Fortress & Iron Gate Danube Gorge★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 185 reviews
- 2Iron Gate NP Tour with 1-hour speedboat ride + 2 viewpoints★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 148 reviews
- 3Golubac Fortress w/Iron Gate Speed Boat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 76 reviews
The Drina and the Sargan Eight
A group of teenagers put a wooden hut on a midstream rock in the Drina in 1968 because they were tired of sunbathing on it. Floods have taken it seven times and it has been rebuilt every time. Upstream, a narrow-gauge railway loops itself into a figure of eight to climb the mountain, and a village of relocated timber houses stands on the ridge above 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
- 3Full-Day Trip from Belgrade: Tara National Park & The Drina River Valley★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 87 reviews
Rakija
Every Serbian household has an opinion about rakija and most have a cousin who distils it. Sljivovica out of plums is the national default, but the distilleries pour quince, apricot and grape versions too, usually alongside cheese and kajmak to slow you down. It comes at room temperature, in a small flask, and it is not sipped politely.
- 1Golubac Fortress w/Iron Gate Speed Boat & Rakija Distillery tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 47 reviews
- 2Belgrade Traditional Serbian Brandy Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 14 reviews
- 3Belgrade center walking tour with Rakija, Cocktails and Burgers★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4 reviews
Four Serbian bookings that run on somebody else’s timetable.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast. These four answer to river conditions, a railway schedule, a cave that shuts for the winter and a head count that fills.
- 01Golubac Fortress & Iron Gate Danube GorgeThe speedboat under the cliffs runs on the Danube's mood. High water or a hard wind and it stays tied up, so take the earliest date you can get.
- 02Šargan Eight Railway, Wooden Town & House on Drina river day trip from BelgradeThe narrow-gauge railway runs a handful of departures a day and the whole trip west is built around catching one of them.
- 03Fortified Manasija Monastery and Resava Cave TourThe cave is entered in guided groups at set times and closes over the coldest months. Turn up without a slot and you wait, or you miss it.
- 04Belgrade Underground Tour w/ Sparkling Wine Along the RiverSmall groups go through the tunnels on a fixed head count, and the evening slots are the ones that go.
From November the boats come out and the days get shorter.
Between November and March the Danube speedboats are out of the water, the caves close, and a mountain road west can shut for a day at a time. What keeps running is indoors and warm: the tunnels under the old town, a distillery with the stove lit, a lunch that takes three hours, and the century that poured Novi Beograd.
By place — the capital and the road out of it
By kind of day — on foot, on the water, or at a table
Belgrade, the gorge, Novi Sad, the Drina: the run most people end up doing.
The first nightThe newest Serbian tour reviews.
Everything else we have added →
Private Guided Truffle Hunting Tour in Serbia with Lunch
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Private Half Day Serbia Tour Novi Sad and Petrovaradin Fortress
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Private Belgrade Street Art and Adventures Walking Tour
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Belgrade Bike Tour: Be a local in the hood of Belgrade!
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The White Emigration in Serbia in the Wake of the Russian Revolution
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Transportation from Belgrade or Belgrade Airport to Tara, Mokra Gora or Sagan 8
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