Yes, Serbia is easy to backpack on your own: buses connect almost every town, hostels are plentiful in the main cities, and younger Serbians usually speak good English.
Dorm beds in
Belgrade and
Novi Sad run about 1,300 to 2,500 RSD (US$13 to 25), and a private room in smaller towns like
Soko Banja or
Bajina Bašta costs 2,500 to 4,500 RSD (US$25 to 45). Signs mix Cyrillic and Latin script, so learning the Cyrillic alphabet in an evening helps with bus timetables. Carry dinars in cash for buses, bakeries and village guesthouses.
Ten days is the right length for a first trip to Serbia, enough for the capital, the north and one mountain region without rushing.
With 5 days, stick to
Belgrade and
Novi Sad (40 minutes apart by fast train) plus a day in
Fruška Gora and
Sremski Karlovci. Ten days adds western Serbia: 3 nights on
Zlatibor, 2 in
Tara and a day at
Studenica Monastery. Two weeks lets you add the Danube gorges of
Đerdap,
Rtanj mountain and
Niš in the south, which sits about 3 hours from Belgrade by bus.
You can get around Serbia without a car, since intercity buses reach nearly every town and a fast train links the north.
Belgrade to
Novi Sad takes about 40 minutes by high-speed train for roughly 700 to 1,200 RSD (US$7 to 12). Buses from Belgrade reach
Niš in about 3 hours and
Zlatibor in 3.5 to 4 hours, usually for 1,800 to 2,400 RSD (US$18 to 24). Monasteries such as
Studenica and trailheads in
Tara have sparse local buses, so budget 2,000 to 5,000 RSD (US$20 to 50) for an occasional taxi there and back.
The must-visits in Serbia are Belgrade, Novi Sad’s Petrovaradin Fortress, Studenica Monastery, Tara National Park and the Danube gorge at Đerdap.
Give
Belgrade 2 to 3 days for its fortress above the Sava and Danube confluence and the
Nikola Tesla Museum.
Novi Sad is 40 minutes north by train, with
Sremski Karlovci a 20-minute bus beyond. In the west, combine
Tara,
Zlatibor and the Šargan Eight railway at
Mokra Gora over 4 to 5 days.
Đerdap and
Golubac Fortress sit 3 to 4 hours east of Belgrade, and the
Skull Tower in
Niš is a 3-hour bus ride south.
If you are short on time in Serbia, skip the larger industrial towns and keep the capital’s shopping streets to a quick walk-through.
Kragujevac,
Kikinda and
Leskovac are pleasant but add little that
Novi Sad or
Niš don’t do better, so leave them for a second trip. In Belgrade,
Knez Mihailova Street and
Republic Square need 30 to 60 minutes, not half a day.
Kopaonik is mainly a ski resort, so outside the December to March season,
Tara gives you better hiking for less money and is easier to reach by bus.
Yes, our itinerary-planner does exactly that. Set your trip length in days, give your interests and travel style, optionally give start- and end location and/or some mandatory stops you would like to include and the itinerary planner creates your personalized routes for Serbia in seconds. Try it out!
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