Serbia
Our next stop is a country you do not hear a lot about now days but was in the news especially in the 1990s around the war around the still contested region of Kosovo. NATO bombed the country for 78 days during that time. Like in many places in the world things change and the Balkan Region that had conflict and communism while part of Yugoslavia and its breakup is now very peaceful and beautiful. We found the people there very friendly and welcoming like all the Eastern European countries we had just visited. While the Balkans region nations that were once part of Yugoslavia still have their challenges, as a tourist they are a great place to visit. On our trip we visited Southern Serbia, the Capital and largest city of Belgrade and sailed through the Iron Gate.
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How to get to Serbia and Transportation
Getting to Serbia from the United States or elsewhere in North America will require a change of planes in Europe or fly Air Serbia from one of the major US hubs like Chicago O’Hare or New York JFK. There are quite a few major and smaller European and Middle Eastern airlines that fly to the main airport in the country which is Nikola Tesla International Airport in Belgrade. There are two smaller international airports with limited service. There are not many domestic flights available. Serbia has a rail service that connects the major cities of Serbia and bus services that connect Serbian cities and cities internationally. The rail service does serve Montenegro and across the border in Hungary but due to construction other destinations are limited.
We visited Serbia by River Cruise that was very nice but of course we were only able to stay in the country for around 2 days. In Belgrade, they have light rail/trams, buses and trolley buses, but currently do not have a subway system but one is planned. A wonderful part of their city transportation system is that it is free to everyone! You could rent/hire a car but it’s not something I recommend personally as I prefer tours through local guides.
Belgrade Transportation Options
Country Information
Serbia is a Balkans region country that has been a part of many different countries over the years. It has one of the oldest pre-historic cities in Europe (and the world), was ruled by the Romans, Ottomans, the Hapsburgs, the Nazis during World War II, Yugoslavia and then later the Republic of Serbia. The first shots of World War I were fired by the Austro-Hungarian Empire by river monitors (gunboats) against Belgrade after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. In the 1990s Serbia and the other nations formerly part of Yugoslavia was at war for the decade and ultimately NATO bombed Serbia in 1999. Today Serbia is a peaceful middle-income nation. They are not yet part of the European Union so if you are coming from a Schengen Country like Bulgaria, you will get an exit stamp from the EU and an entry/exit stamp from Serbia. As a US citizen, no visa is needed if you stay for less than 90 days.
The language of Serbia is Serbian that is both a Cyrillic and a Latin alphabet language making it the only language that has this fact in Europe. We found that pretty much everyone we talked with knew some English so that was not an issue. Many of the crew aboard the ship we were on where Serbian as well. The currency of Serbia is the Serbian Dinar (RSD) and as of this writing in December of 2025 1 Dinar is equal to .01 USD. As of December of 2025, the US State Department lists Serbia as a level 2 out of 4 country that makes in equal to most of Europe in safety. We found the country to be safe like most of Europe is but do research the current safety situation and use normal precautions as you would in any country.
The Iron Gates
As we sailed along the Danube we entered the Iron Gate Gorge region of river. Its an area of tall Cliffs on either side. The Northern Bank of the Danube is Romania and is the Iron Gates National Park. The Southern Bank is Serbia and has the UNESCO Global Geopark Dernab National park. We went up to the top deck of the ship and got a narrated tour of the sights of the gorge. The Iron Gates is a very narrow portion of the Danube so navigation can be difficult and the ship had to wait for traffic to pass a couple times. We started with a large white ancient Roman memorial to the road they built off the side of the gorge. It hooked into the rocks and provided Romans a road in the area. A bit further on we reached a huge rocks carving of Decebalus on the Romanian side that’s 180 ft tall and 82 ft wide. He was an important Romanian King, and the carving was completed in 2004. We past by a Romanian monastery where a monk came out to wave at us all as we passed by. It was a bit chilly and light rain was falling so the crew served us alcoholic hot chocolate. It was a beautiful adventure through the winding Cliffs and would be a nice place to explore further by land. After we finished sailing the Iron Gates it was time to head into Serbia for the first time.
Kapetan Misin Breg
On our first stop in Serbia we docked at a small town and headed off on an adventure in the large gorge on the Danube in that area. The leaves were turning shades of yellow and orange across the river Valley. We headed North on the road along the gorge until we headed to a high lookout and complex. We stopped at a place dedicated to Captain Misa who was a wealthy 19th century man who was once a leader in Serbian Parliament and a trailblazer in the region. It is also home to an art exhibition called “Man, Wood, Water” that has a lot of intricate and beautiful wood and stone sculptures. The artist is Mr. Živorad Stefanović and was there when we visited. We went into a small restaurant where Mr. Stefanović and his wife served up traditional Serbian snacks and drinks. The snacks included goat cheese, Quiche, and an interesting type of flatbread/pancake made from the Nettle plant. I had never tried Nettle before, but it was pretty good. It reminded me of a bit of spinach with a bit different taste. We also were given Serbian Honey Brandy that was very good. We bought a bottle to take home with us. The owners didn’t speak English, so our guide translated for us some of their stories. Afterwards we headed to the overlook and took beautiful pictures of the Iron Gates and then continued to our next stop.
Lepinski Vir
We next headed to an outstanding and truly must-see place for anyone who loves history and culture. We visited Lepinski Vir which is an ancient Mesolithic to Neolithic city that was inhabited from 9500 BC to 5500 BC! It is the oldest planned community, meaning it had streets and placed homes and buildings. This culture was around thousands of years before the Egyptian Civilization. They were hunter gathers until they transitioned to farming and built unique trapezoid shaped homes all in the same general style. The foundations of the homes and stone carvings are all intact and preserved thankfully due to an operation to lift the site to higher ground as a hydroelectric dam was built that flooded the Valley and would have put it underwater. There are many other sites like this that were lost to the water. This site was founded in 1960. There are no written histories from the people who lived there so all we know is from the homes, burials and the stone artwork. The site was built across from a mountain heavy with metals that attracts lightning which might mean it was a holy site to them.
Today the site is completely covered. The parking lot is a little ways away from the (15-minute walk) archeological site and you pass by historic (but more modern) Serbian buildings. Once you take the nice walk through Dernab National Park you enter the glass enclosed building where you can watch a short film about the archeological work and the people of the site. There is a nice small museum where you can see the recovered artifacts, some of the skeletons of the people including one who was a tall man buried in a different way from others who might have been a great leader. As for the homes, you can walk completely around the site from the outside (can’t disturb the homes themselves). You can truly see the passage of time with the homes closer to the entrance being much higher and younger than the original/older homes far lower than the others. I had never heard of this one-of-a-kind place until I visited. The site needs more publicity as it’s incredibly important and astounding to see!
Golubac Fortress
Golubac Fortress is further up the Danube River from Lepinski Vir and is a small city with an imposing Medieval Fortress. Its a Fortress that was built in the 14th century on the site of a Roman settlement. The Fortress is built on a rocky hill where the walls start at the Danube level and climb up the rocks. It has 10 towers and a small turret/tower that goes out on the Danube to repel ships. The fortress was heavily fought over and changed hands many times between the Ottomans, Serbian, Hungarians, Bulgarians and later the Hapsburgs. It repelled 120 attacks against it. The Battle of Golubac was one of the larger battles there where the Hungarians, Polish and Italians set to take the fortress from the Turks. This included ships, artillery, Knights and foot soldiers. The Hungarian army failed but eventually the Turks were kicked out of the area.
Today the fortress is a Serbian historic site where you can tour many different rooms, the turret/tower on the Danube where you can see multiple medieval cannons. There is a museum in a nicely refurbished section that also has a small conference area. We took a guided tour with our guide for part of our time there as we walked through multiple gates and over a moat and then explored part of the towers as it was getting late and the conditions that day were not overly good with mist, high winds and slick pathways in the old fortress. One gentleman (I only heard about this after that) slipped and broke his hip. Don’t let any of this deter you from visiting as its an amazing place to go, but do be careful if its windy or rainy (this goes for pretty much any ancient, uncovered site).
After we toured the fortress and visited the nice small giftshop we boarded our ship and headed on to the capital of Serbia, Belgrade for two different tours of the city.
Day Trips from Belgrade to Golubac
Belgrade
We arrived in the largest city and capital of Serbia the next morning and we spent the entire day touring the city. It’s a city that has a lot to see and do and one day isn’t enough time to do it all. There are multiple museums, a fortress, and beautiful churches throughout the city. In Belgrade public transportation that includes trams/light rail, buses and trolley buses are free to everyone. We began our day with a city tour of the highlights of the city.
Belgrade Fortress
Our first stop in Belgrade was the historically significant and large Belgrade Fortress that overlooks the city and the Sava River. Like many Fortresses and Castles in the Balkans it has centuries-old history and was a part of many different conflicts over the years. Its been around since the 3rd century BC when the Celts built a small fortress where everyone lived inside the walls. The Romans later took over the area, and it became the frontier like frontier forts in the Old West in the US. Famous Raiders like Attila the Hun fought there and legend has it that Attila is buried under Belgrade Fortress. Byzantine Emperor Justinian I rebuilt the fortress and later it passed to the Ottomans, Serbians, Austria-Hungarians, Yugoslavs and ultimately the modern-day Serbian Nation. It was shelled during World War I and was bombed in World War II.
Today it is free to visit, and you can see the walls and many museums inside such as the military museum and the Natural Science Museum. It’s home to Kalemegdan Park where we saw tennis courts that where legends like Novak Djokovic played. The fortress is broken up as an upper and lower town and has multiple gates and walls. There are multiple fountains, and statues throughout the fortress and park. There are also interesting structures like The Turbe that is a mausoleum for Ottoman (Turkish) leaders of Belgrade that is still Turkish soil so you need a passport to go in if its open. The “Victor” monument overlooks the Sava River in the upper fortress that has green space. It commemorates Serbia’s victory over the Austro-Hungarians and the Ottomans during the Balkan Wars and World War I and is a bit controversial with his nude body. We walked around and saw much of the fortress, and I took some time to see the military museum’s outdoor displays but didn’t have time to visit inside the museum. They also have small cafes and nice gifts hops that sell traditional Serbian gifts which I visited a nice one that is inside the fortress walls. There are also vendors in the park that sell very unique gifts like Serbian military hats and surplus and shirts with different world leaders on them like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. It’s a great must-see location in Belgrade!
Rajićeva Shopping Center
After the tour of the fortress, we left Kalemegdan Park and headed across the street to the Stari Grad pedestrian zone part for the old town and headed for a quick break in the Rajićeva Shopping Center. Its a very nice multi-story center full of normal stores you would see in the states, and it was beautifully decorated for Christmas. They have a European style grocery store there as well. We headed to a familiar place not because we were desperate for American food, but because we know that usually European restaurants have a slow pace and we had limited time. In general in Europe, they stop to enjoy the meal and relax so it takes a while. The servers are usually paid a normal hourly wage in many European countries, so they are not as worried about tips and turning the table around as quickly. We headed to McDonald’s and its interesting how its different in each country. We got a couple McFlurrys that had different flavors like Dubai Chocolate and a local candy called Plazma. It was good and a nice little snack before we continued to our next stop.
Belgrade Walking Tours
Church of Saint Sava
We headed over to the massive Saint Sava Church that is the largest Serbian Orthodox Church and one of the largest Eastern Orthodox Churches. Saint Sava is the patron Saint of Serbia and his relics were burned by the Ottomans on the Vracar Plateu where the Church stands today. This Church is actually pretty modern as it was completed in 2004 after many years of conflict and occupations interrupting the construction that started in 1935. The Church was modeled in style that resembles the Hagia Sophia with a large central dome and other smaller domes. Inside the church is even more beautiful than the outside with Gilded mosaics of Christ and different scenes from the Bible and Serbian history. We saw many coming to pray and touching what I believe were relics as they prayed. It is a beautiful place to see and like Belgrade Fortress its free to enter. Just be respectful as it is a Church, so no hats or shorts/skirts.
Driving around Belgrade
We saw more of the city than just the areas we stopped at as we took a panoramic tour in between stops. We passed by the Zoo and a wall full of mosaics of different animals from around the world. We passed by government buildings and more. An interesting and sad reminder of the countries not so distant in the future past of conflict are two buildings that were destroyed during the NATO bombing of Belgrade. They have left them damaged and abandoned as a type of memorial to the conflict. They are going to be left that way for future generations. Belgrade is a nice scenic city that’s well worth taking a tour of!
Belgrade City Tours
The Yugoslav Monitor Sava
A monitor is a small gun boat that is meant for river service that is small but still has weapons like cannons. This ship that still floats in Belgrade was built in 1904 by the Austro-Hungarians and was the ship that fired the first shots of World War I as it bombarded Belgrade as the SMS Bodrog. It was captured by the Serbians after it was grounded on a sand bank at the end of World War I and became a member of their Navy. It was renamed the Sava in honor of the river and the patron Saint. It became part of the Yugoslavian Navy and was scuttled during World War II but was raised again and served until 1962. Today its a museum ship where you can see what it was like on a ship that passed through many different owner nations and began the fighting in “The Great War”. It was closed when we were there, but we still had the chance to look at it from outside. It has an open bridge with no armor or roof for the officers. It has a couple of very different turrets for its cannons and a machine gun. I would have loved to go onboard but it was still nice to see that important piece of history docked next door to my cruise ship!
After we headed back to the ship for a quick break we headed for an evening tour to the Nikola Tesla Museum. Nikola Tesla was born in a small village near Serbia in present day Croatia but called Serbia home. He was a brilliant scientist who invented AC Current we still use today and many different inventions around electricity. He was not someone who was looking to strike it rich but was more interested in helping humanity grow. He worked on interesting projects that are generally not yet used like wireless electricity.
The Nikola Tesla Museum
The museum is small in a residential home built in the 1920s that was later donated to become the museum. The first floor has four rooms that hold artifacts like Tesla’s clothing and many of his inventions. Viking reserved the entire museum for our group for an hour or so. We watched an informative movie about his live and then a docent gave us a tour in this very interactive museum. She showed us how his inventions worked, including two that used us to conduct electricity. One was a huge electromagnetic Tesla coil that transmitted electricity in the room. We all held fluorescent light bulbs in our hands and watched them light up when the device turned on meaning an electric current was passing through our skin on the way to the ground. A second experience was the “tingler” where a large amount of electricity safely passes through your hand when you get your hand close to it. It gives you a slight jolt or tingle that doesn’t really hurt. If you have a pacemaker you cannot participate in the experiments, but you can watch from a safe distance. We also saw Tesla’s remote-control boat that was ahead of his time, and most people didn’t believe it was real (a fraud as it was controlled by a monkey in the boat). It was a truly innovative device that was real. Tesla himself has his final resting place in the museum with his ashes being inside a spherical urn. The museum took around an hour to visit, and it is one of the most popular attractions in Belgrade. We finished up our day walking to the University and seeing a statue honoring Telsa.
Conclusion
Serbia is a country that is a bit off the beaten path for many travelers and is a place that isn’t on many people’s radar to travel to. It is a nation like most others who has had struggles over the years. World War II and it’s aftermath greatly affected the country as well as the brutality during the 1990s wars. Today it’s a country recovering from those times but is also a beautiful place to visit. The UNESCO Global Geopark Dernab National park that encompasses part of the Iron Gates of the Danube River is absolutely gorgeous. Serbia has one of the oldest planned communities in the world in Lepinski Vir. It has medieval castles and people like Nikola Tesla who represents the future and what we can do with inventions. We felt completely safe and welcomed in Serbia. We met wonderful Serbians like Andjela, Ivan and Goran who are all incredibly friendly and kind people. Give Serbia a chance and you will not be disappointed with this amazing country!
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