Serbia, one day out at a time.
Which Iron Gates boat actually gets under the cliffs. Whether Novi Sad is worth the drive or the whole day. What a rakija tasting costs before anyone pours. Every bookable day in Serbia, reviewed.
The six days that pull travellers out of Belgrade.
Serbia keeps its best hours outside the capital: a fortress wedged into the Danube gorge, a Habsburg market town an hour north, a cave under the Resava hills, a house standing on a rock mid-river. Each one is a coach seat and a full day, and each is booked separately.
Almost everything in Serbia leaves from Belgrade.
The country sells its distances as day trips, and the meeting point is nearly always a car park in the capital. That is worth knowing before you book two nights in Zlatibor and a Golubac tour on the same morning. Pickup is Belgrade; the destination is three hours away; the coach comes back.
- 01Golubac Fortress & Iron Gate Danube GorgeBelgrade to Golubac is roughly two hours each way along the Danube, before any boat time.
- 02Northern Serbia: Sremski Karlovci and Novi Sad Full-Day Tour from BelgradeNovi Sad is an hour north. The short version is a half day; with Sremski Karlovci and the cellars it fills a full one.
- 03Šargan Eight Railway, Wooden Town & House on Drina river day trip from BelgradeWestern Serbia is the long one. Drvengrad, the Sargan Eight and the Drina house run past twelve hours door to door.
- 04Fortified Manasija Monastery and Resava Cave TourThe eastern loop pairs the cave with Manasija and Lisine, and the cave itself is a steady 7C underground.
Belgrade is walked, not driven.
The old town sits on a ridge between two rivers with a fortress on the point, and the good tours simply walk you down it: Knez Mihailova, the Bohemian quarter at Skadarlija, the tunnels under Kalemegdan, then out to the concrete grid of New Belgrade if you want the other half of the century.
Serbia’s most popular days out.
Every review →More travellers book these than anything else in the country, and the reasons are usually practical: one coach, one day, everything included.
1
Northern Serbia: Sremski Karlovci and Novi Sad Full-Day Tour from Belgrade
Explore Fruška Gora, Krušedol Monastery, Bermet wine, Petrovaradin Fortress, and Novi Sad on an 8 to 9 hour tour from Belgrade.
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
What a day in Serbia costs.
Serbia is cheap by European standards and the price ladder shows it: a guided morning in Belgrade costs less than lunch in Vienna. Every tour on the site, lined up by what it actually charges.
Walking tours, pub crawls, kayak hours on the Sava and the short cruises under the fortress.
The full-day coaches: Golubac and the Iron Gates, Novi Sad with the cellars, the eastern cave loop.
Private drivers, two-day western circuits and the small-group days that do not wait for a minibus to fill.
Three things Serbia has and nowhere else does.
Fortresses and river cruises exist across the Balkans. A narrow-gauge railway tying itself in a knot up a mountain, a fake village built for a film that never came down, and a fruit brandy treated as a national institution do not.
The Sargan Eight
To climb 300 metres in five kilometres of straight line, the old Belgrade-Sarajevo narrow gauge tied itself into a figure of eight through Mokra Gora, doubling back through tunnels until it had gained the height. The line closed, then reopened as a tourist run. Uphill from the station sits Drvengrad, the timber village Emir Kusturica built as a film set and then kept.
- 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
The Iron Gates
For a hundred kilometres below Golubac the Danube is squeezed between Serbian and Romanian cliffs until it is barely 150 metres across and deeper than anywhere else on its course. Golubac guards the entrance with nine towers standing in the water. The Roman emperor Trajan cut a road into the same rock; the plaque is still there, moved up the cliff when the dam raised the river.
- 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
Rakija
Every Serbian household of any seriousness makes or knows someone who makes rakija, usually from plums, occasionally from quince or apricot, and always stronger than a guest expects. Tastings run in Sumadija farmhouses and Fruska Gora cellars, generally alongside a wine flight and a table of smoked meat, because nobody here pours spirits without food.
- 1Belgrade Underground Tour w/ Sparkling Wine Along the River★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 151 reviews
- 2Golubac Fortress w/Iron Gate Speed Boat & Rakija Distillery tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 47 reviews
- 3Private Novi Sad, Titanic wine tasting and Farmer’s House★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 30 reviews
Belgrade does not really do early nights.
All Belgrade nightlife →Belgrade Nightlife Bar Pub Club Crawl with Drinks
Read our review →
Serbian winters bite and the kosava wind makes it worse.
The wind comes off the Carpathians in winter and cuts straight down the Danube corridor, and Belgrade summers break into thunderstorms without much warning. None of that touches a cave at a constant 7C, a cellar tasting, a tavern kitchen or a tunnel under the fortress.
By the clock — how much of the day do you have?
An hour2 tours
Two hours2 tours
Three hours3 tours
Half a day3 tours
A full day15 tours
A whole day out19 tours
Two days2 tours- The full Serbia catalogue →
By the day itself — what kind of thing is it?
The loop that covers Serbia properly.
The Iron Gates
Resava & Manasija
Mokra Gora
UvacSerbia’s newest reviewed days out.
All recent →
Private Guided Truffle Hunting Tour in Serbia with Lunch
Read our review →
Private Half Day Serbia Tour Novi Sad and Petrovaradin Fortress
Read our review →
Private Belgrade Street Art and Adventures Walking Tour
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Wonders of Eastern Serbia a Full Day Tour from Belgrade
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Topola: Royal Dynasty Half Day Tour from Belgrade
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The White Emigration in Serbia in the Wake of the Russian Revolution
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