Belgrade, Serbia

Day 1

• Kalemegdan Fortress and the Victor

  It is the citadel on the spur where the Sava runs into the Danube, and the confluence is visible only from up there: two rivers of different colours touching without mixing straight away. The park is open and free at any hour, and it is where half the city goes at sunset. The museums inside the walls are paid separately: the Military Museum costs 350 dinars for adults, about 3 €, 250 for students and 500 for a family, and it opens every day except Monday 10:00-17:00, with the last tickets sold at 16:00. The Pobednik, the Victor statue, stands on the bastion and is looked at close up without a ticket.

• Church of Saint Sava

  It is one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world, and the history explains why it is so recent: begun in 1935, interrupted by the war and by the regime, and only finished in mosaic in the last few years. Entry is free. The gold-lined inner dome is the main event, but the crypt below is a separate space, decorated throughout, and many people leave without seeing it because the stair is not in view.

• Knez Mihailova and Republic Square

  It is the pedestrian avenue linking Republic Square to the fortress, lined with eclectic palaces, bookshops and historic cafés, and walked in 15 minutes. It is the city's thermometer: demonstrations pass along it, street musicians, the evening stroll, and in Serbia the square is where people go when something happens. It is not a shopping street, it is a street to watch.

Day 2

• Nikola Tesla Museum

  The museum that holds the inventor's archive and his ashes, in a gilded urn. It is seen only on a guided tour of about 45 minutes, which includes the live demonstration with the Tesla coil, and tours start on the hour. It costs 800 dinars in English, around 7 €, and 400 in Serbian, and payment is cash in dinars only: cards are not accepted and there is no ATM inside. On Monday it opens 10:00-18:00, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-20:00. Arrive 15 minutes before the hour, because places per tour are limited.

• Museum of Yugoslavia and the House of Flowers

  The complex that gathers the memory of the vanished country and Tito's tomb, among the relay batons of Youth Day and gifts received from half the world. It opens Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-18:00 and closes on Monday; the first Thursday of each month is free, as are 4 and 25 May. The price list was revised at the start of 2026, so check the current fare on the site before setting out. The sculpture park around it is open and free to everyone in any case.

• Skadarlija

  It is the cobbled street of the late 19th-century bohemians, now lined with kafane offering live music, ćevapi and rakija late into the night. It is openly touristy and the prices say so: read the list before sitting down. The atmosphere on summer evenings is still the right one, though, with the small bands moving from table to table, and the tip to the musician is expected rather than optional.

Day 1

• Zemun and the Gardoš Tower✦ hidden gem

  Until 1918 it was an Austro-Hungarian town, and opposite it across the river the Ottoman Empire began: that border explains why Zemun has low houses and straight streets, and Belgrade does not. There is the fishermen's quarter on the Danube and the 1896 Gardoš tower, from which you see the confluence. It is 30 minutes by bus from the centre, and since 1 January 2025 Belgrade's public transport has been free for everyone, tourists included, on buses, trams and trolleybuses: no ticket and no validation. It feels like another city, because for centuries it was one.

• New Belgrade and the brutalist blocks✦ hidden gem

  On the far bank of the Sava is the socialist city built from nothing from the 1950s: blocks 21, 22 and 23 and the Genex tower, one of the icons of Yugoslav brutalism, with the aerial bridge joining its two shafts. Walking through it costs nothing and no tour goes there. It is the only place where you grasp that Belgrade is not only its 19th-century centre.

• Museum of Contemporary Art✦ hidden gem

  It reopened in 2017 after 15 years closed, in the modernist pavilion of 1965 in Ušće park, and it is one of the finest museum buildings in the Balkans. The ticket costs 500 dinars, a little over 4 €, and 250 for students and pensioners, but on Wednesday entry is free, and that is the day to note. It opens 12:00-20:00 on weekdays and 10:00-18:00 at weekends, closed Tuesday: the late weekday opening is what catches out anyone passing in the morning. The 20th-century Yugoslav collection is extraordinary and foreign visitors are very few. It stands at the confluence, so it pairs with the walk to the point where the two rivers meet, on the opposite bank from Kalemegdan.

Day 2

• Bajrakli Mosque and the Dorćol quarter✦ hidden gem

  It is the only surviving Ottoman mosque of the more than 100 Belgrade had before the 19th century, hidden in a side street in Dorćol with no signs announcing it. It is in use, so you enter outside prayer times and with shoulders covered. The quarter around it is the city's liveliest for independent cafés and neighbourhood bars: it is where Belgraders go out, not where tourists go.

• Mount Avala and its tower✦ hidden gem

  It is a wooded hill 30 minutes to the south, with Meštrović's monument to the Unknown Soldier in black granite and the 205-metre television tower, brought down by the 1999 bombing and rebuilt in 2010 by public subscription. From the viewing terrace, which is paid separately, the whole of Šumadija is visible. Buses go from the Vožd terminus and the ride costs nothing, but there are few of them: check the return times before setting out, because that is the constraint, not the price.

Day 1

• Ćevapi, pljeskavica and the grill

  Serbian grilling is ordered by weight or by number: ćevapi in portions of 5 or 10, pljeskavica the size of the plate, all served in warm lepinja with raw onion and kajmak, which is a cream skimmed from milk rather than a cheese. You do not ask for a side, it arrives that way. In neighbourhood places outside the centre you eat your fill for a few euros, and the bill comes with no cover charge.

• Burek and the bakery breakfast

  Burek here is a spiral of hand-stretched pastry, and it is cut by weight: you say how many grams you want, not how many slices. It goes with drinking yoghurt, which is liquid and sour and there to cut the fat. The pekare are open around the clock and they are where the city has breakfast at seven in the morning and eats coming out of the bars at four: it is the cheapest meal in Belgrade.

• Rakija and the kafanas

  Rakija, plum (šljivovica), apricot, grape, is drunk before a meal, not after, and every family insists theirs is the best. In the historic kafanas it comes with meze, live music and conversations that never end.

Day 2

• Skadarlija

  It is the cobbled street of the late 19th-century bohemians, now lined with kafane offering live music, ćevapi and rakija late into the night. It is openly touristy and the prices say so: read the list before sitting down. The atmosphere on summer evenings is still the right one, though, with the small bands moving from table to table, and the tip to the musician is expected rather than optional.

• Splavovi, the floating clubs

  They are the raft-bars moored on the Sava and the Danube, and they are the city's nightlife institution: from turbofolk to techno, changing management and name every season. They are also where the most creative bills happen, with whole bottles charged instead of glasses: ask for the price list, pay by round and do not open a tab. In winter many close or move ashore.