We hardly did any research on Serbia before going. We arrived by bus from Skopje, North Macedonia to Niš, a smaller city in the south of Serbia. The bus stopped in a few places on the way and we kept on thinking “where the F are we going..”. Southern Serbia felt very rundown and grey, kind of what we thought all Balkan countries would look like. But in the end we ended up having a great time in Serbia and spent almost a month there. On this page you can read all our Serbia travel tips to make your trip great. For more tips and ideas, head to the bottom of this page, where you can find all our blog posts from Serbia.
Serbia is very diverse, the south is more industrial and rundown, which you can easily see. Belgrade on the other hand was very beautiful and felt modern. And the north is completely different, with its own colourful architecture and not very rundown.
It was probably only in Belgrade we saw any tourists in Serbia, it doesn’t seem to have that many international tourists. It was very interesting to end our Balkan trip in Serbia, we read and heard a lot about Serbia in the other balkan countries due to historic events. So it was interesting to get there ourselves.
In general we didn’t find people as approachable and friendly as some of the other countries we visited in the area, but we did meet many very friendly people and we enjoyed our time a lot, most of it spent in Belgrade.
Serbia Travel Map
We mainly stayed at AirBnbs in Serbia – there was loads to choose from everywhere we went. In general there is a lot of good value accommodation. As a couple it was easy to find apartments for a good price. We tried to stay for about €20-25 per night and we didn’t have to try hard or lower our standards to find good accommodation within our budget.
Serbian food was quite similar to Bosnian cuisine, meat heavy, bbq, big portions. There is also a little Russian influence which can be noticed in the food, with pickled vegetables etc. In general we enjoyed the food, but thought it was a little bit tastier in Bosnia.
Belgrade was a bit different as it is a very international city with a lot of different kind of food. Mainly European, but also a few good asian places.
Serbia has a lot to offer, with the great capital Belgrade, different kind of architecture, historic sights and beautiful nature. We came to Serbia in December so we stayed in the cities, but next time we will definitely explore more of the nature. The country is quite different in different parts, the south was much more industrial and run down while the northern part has many super pretty cities with beautiful architecture.
We went by bus everywhere in Serbia. It’s super easy and the bus stations were usually in the city. We usually checked bus times at the bus stop where we got off or asked our AirBnB hosts, which were always very keen to help out. So we never had any issues. However, we had one incident when not even the people working for the bus company knew if there would be a bus or not.. but that was probably cause it was 1 January so they weren’t sure if the bus would run or not.
We usually bought the tickets the same day of travelling, only once was our bus full, but we only had to wait an extra 30 minutes. If we knew there was only a few busses a day we tried to buy the ticket when we arrived at the bus station. In Serbia they allowed you to do that, in contrast to Bosnia, where they never wanted to sell you a ticket in advance.
Cost of Travel in Serbia
We try to live on a budget of €1000 per month per person, €2000 in total for the two of us each month, which leaves us with €66 per day.
We are not super cheap when we travel as we still want to experience the places we go to. We tend to choose accommodation where we can cook, at least breakfast. But we do not usually eat all our meals at home.
Below you can see how much we spent in each category. The total cost for 24 days for the two of us was €1577, which ends up being €65.7 per day for the both of us, which is just on budget. Serbia is a cheap country, but the capital Belgrade, was a bit more expensive than other capitals in Balkans, especially for eating out.
- Accommodation: €572 36.3%
- Food: €568 36.1%
- Activities: €34 2.2%
- Travel: €90 5.7%
- Coffee: €46 3%
- Alcohol: €63 4%
- Miscellaneous: €204 13%
Categories Explained
Accommodation: we opt for places with a kitchen, where we have a private bathroom. We prefer staying in apartments and we usually do not go for the cheapest option, but still keeping it under midrange.
Food: in this category all restaurant visits and supermarket purchases are included. We try to keep this cost low but we really do enjoy trying local food. Included in this category is also drinks with dinner and lunch, we usually drink water or a soda to lunch and a beer or a glass of wine with dinner – however all alcohol drunk outside of meals is not included in this category. Restaurants are kept to budget and midrange places, we tend to go to a nicer restaurant about once a month to celebrate.
Activities: all actives are included in this category, such as museums, entrance fees to attractions etc. However, this tend to be low as we prioritise other parts of our travels.
Travel: this category includes all transport between places as well as within cities. Here we try to opt for the cheapest options. We only use taxi/uber when we need to and walk a lot within cities. The biggest part of this category is the busses we take between destinations.
Coffee: we love to try to find the best coffee places everywhere we go. Therefore we decided to have a coffee category which includes all coffee we drink except for the coffee we have for breakfast. We usually have one or two coffee stops per day.
Alcohol: all alcohol that is not consumed with a meal is added to this category. We are not big drinkers, but we do enjoy a beer or a glass of wine from time to time.
Miscellaneous: in this category we add things like toiletries, cigarettes, medicines, ATM charges, Sim cards + data etc.
All our blog posts from Serbia
Where to eat in Belgrade
We spent just over two weeks in Belgrade and absolutely loved this city! One of the reasons were all the good food you can find scattered around the city. Belgrade is a very diverse city, and so is the food. You find everything here, from traditional Serbian food, to...
What to do in Niš
Our first stop in Serbia was Niš. A city in the southern part of the country. I’m not going to lie to you, this was not our favourite stop on the way. It’s a very industrial run down city, and we went through some very grim towns and places on the bus on...