Everything You Need to Know Before Traveling to Serbia

In this blog post, we’re going to talk about the beautiful Southern Balkan nation of Serbia. Today, I’m going to tell you everything you need to know before you go to make sure that you have the historical context, the practical background, and the inspiration to explore this unique Balkan country. Come along!

Country Overview

I like to start these posts with a nice country overview to give you the cultural and historical context to better understand the place that you’re going. Serbia is a complicated country with a long and complex history. Serbia is located in Southeastern Europe, at the heart of the Balkan Peninsula. They are surrounded by many different Balkan peoples, including the Bulgarians, the Hungarians, the North Macedonians, the Albanians, and more. This means that through the years, Serbia has been shaped by these peoples and by their own strong Slavic national identity.

Historical Context

Historically speaking, I like to think of different eras that define modern Serbia today. The first would be that Serbia was incorporated into the Eastern Roman Empire. All over Serbia, you can find really cool old Roman ruins, and I think this is something a lot of people don’t know. Important for the context of religion, as the Eastern Roman Empire was Eastern Orthodox Christian, which is a national identity marker for the Serbians today.

The First Serbian Kingdoms

The second important era would be the era of the first Serbian kingdoms. This came after the fall of the Roman Empire. This is the first time when Slavic Serbs really created their own little nation-state and really started to foster the national identity of what Serbia is, creating the symbols, the language, and the way of life of what it means to be Serbian. While this era fostered Serbian national identity, it was also filled with lots of wars, especially with the Hungarians to the north and the Ottomans to the south. This era came to an end after the Ottomans won out, occupying Serbia for nearly 400 years.

Ottoman Occupation

There’s a strong sense of dislike amongst Serbians regarding the 400 years of Ottoman occupation, as the Ottomans were quite cruel to the Serbians during this time period. Any minority revolutions or revolts during the Ottoman period were met with force, often subjugation, and death for a lot of Serbian revolutionaries. The Serbians really embody this fight against larger nations and larger empires as a part of their national identity as well, and this is probably where this surfaced for the first time.

Modern Serbian Identity

The modern Serbian identity comes after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. This was marked by a short-lived kingdom and then by the Socialist nation of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was a powerhouse in the southern Balkans and was the center of activity, military, and economic life for the average Serb for nearly 50 or 60 years. The fall of Yugoslavia in the early 90s and the subsequent wars between the Croats and the Bosnians are definitely what many people think of when they think of modern-day Serbia. However, since the dark times in the 90s have come to a close, Serbia today is a budding European nation with a lot to offer, a lot of cultural heritage, and a great place to explore.

Practical Information

So now that you know a little bit more about Serbia, let’s get into the practical information to make sure that you have a fantastic trip to one of my favorite countries in the Balkans.

Visa and Currency

Serbia allows US citizens to stay for 90 days without a visa. Serbia is also not in the European Union Schengen Zone, which means that the time that you spend in Western Europe or in other Schengen countries doesn’t affect your time in Serbia as long as you stamp in and out. You get 90 days. The Serbians use a currency called the dinar, and it has a very favorable exchange rate with the US dollar and the Euro if you’re changing from those currencies. Life in Serbia can be quite cheap, which is pretty nice for the average traveler.

If you’re flying into any major airport, especially into Belgrade or to Niš, it’s probably not the best thing to exchange your money at an exchange shop or to use an ATM at the airport, as the rates are pretty bad. If you can exchange a little money before you come, just enough to take a taxi, that would be a better way to do it. And then, of course, withdraw from any ATMs that you can use in the city. Serbia is backed by big national banks, so withdrawing money at an ATM shouldn’t be an issue once you’re in the country. It’s also a very credit card-friendly country, so if you want to pay by card on your trip and not necessarily exchange money, that’s also another thing you can do. If you’re going to spend less than five euros on any transaction, it is best to have money exchanged, however.

Internet and SIM Card

I found the internet speeds in Serbia quite good. It seems like they have pretty good fiber optic cables all around the major cities, and the Wi-Fi and 4G coverage in the country is actually quite good. The only thing I did find strange was that the SIM card only allowed me 15 days; there was no such thing as a month pass. So I had to make sure to go into the store and physically pay in cash every 15 days, which can be quite annoying. The apps that go with their various online phone services also didn’t work well, and you could only renew it at the shop that you bought it from. So overall, it was a bit annoying if you’re doing a pay-as-you-go plan. SIM cards, however, are quite cheap, and you can get pretty good internet coverage without breaking the bank.

Transportation

Serbia is located at a really good part of the Balkan Peninsula if you do like to travel, and the city of Belgrade is excellently located as it’s smack dab right in the middle of the country. The central bus station in Belgrade is really easy to use; it’s very close to the city center, and you can take buses pretty much anywhere. You can reach basically any point in Serbia within a four to five-hour bus ride, which is highly convenient. Also, from Belgrade, because it’s close to a lot of other major capital cities within the region, you can hop on a bus pretty much going in any direction to any major capital city without an issue at all. The buses are cheap, clean, and run pretty much on time. Serbia also has a national airline called Air Serbia, so flying to Serbia can be reasonably priced if you can get those tickets, and all of those fly through Belgrade if you happen to stop there on a stopover.

Serbia is also notoriously flat, so the distances between the cities are actually pretty reasonable as you’re not winding through mountains at any point in time. Getting around in the major cities is also quite easy. Every city has a pretty well-established bus route network, and taxis are pretty affordable. The one major scam that I have heard in Serbia is regarding taxis, so just make sure to know how much things should cost before you get in a taxi, make sure that they use the meter, and make sure that someone knows where you are. I have heard bad stories about people getting in taxis from the airport, especially in Belgrade, and being charged two to three times and then being intimidated into paying that. To make sure that that doesn’t happen to you, make sure that you don’t get into unlicensed taxis. Don’t ever go with a taxi driver that’s trying to take you directly out of the airport. Just make sure that when you get in a taxi, you’re standing in the taxi zone that is for verified taxis only by the city of Belgrade. Same goes for any other city in Serbia.

Safety

I really found my time in Serbia to be incredibly safe. I spent two months in Belgrade and traveled to many different cities around the country and found this sort of positive vibe in every city that I went to. There were very few homeless people, and there were very few people who were trying to do anything weird. In general, there’s really no scams besides the one taxi scam that I just listed, and the only thing that you should be aware of are pickpockets, as in any major city, and pay attention to gypsies. This isn’t supposed to sound negative towards gypsies at all, but there are a few scams that gypsies do run that you should be aware of before you go. Sometimes when you’re sitting at cafes in Belgrade specifically, small Gypsy children will come to you and beg for money. The best thing to do is not to give them money. The rule of thumb when traveling is to never give any children money. If you want to donate to help children in the country, try and find an orphanage or some sort of society that helps children. That’s a much better place to give your money. The gypsies run a scam where the children are basically used as child slaves, and they’re not allowed to go to school, and they’re forced to beg in the streets. So anytime you give them money, you’re supporting that activity, which as a traveler, you should definitely avoid.

Language

Serbs are really open people, very friendly, and easy to talk to. Many younger Serbs do speak English really well, and traveling in Serbia without speaking Serbian is actually not so bad. The Serbian language is Slavic in nature and comes from the same branch of languages as Czech, Polish, Russian, Bulgarian, and whatever you have it. One thing that’s hard for many travelers in Serbia is that Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet, meaning the Eastern sort of language set that, for example, Russian is written in, but with their own little Serbian style of writing it. This means that sometimes when you get a menu in Serbia, it can be hard to read. I don’t think there’s an expectation that you’re going to be able to read Cyrillic by the time that you get to Serbia, but with maybe about an hour of practice, you can easily teach yourself to read Cyrillic, not an issue.

Some helpful phrases on your trip to Serbia include, of course, hello, which is “zdravo.” I really like that one, very fun to say. And something nice to say is, of course, thank you, which is “hvala.” And I think with those two little phrases, at least you can say you tried, and I think the Serbians would be pretty excited that you took the time to do that. If you happen to be drinking with some Serbs and you want to, you know, put a cheers up there, you can say “živeli,” which of course means to life, to friends, to happiness, to health, probably one of those, not exactly sure which, “živeli.”

Serbian Food

Now we’re going to talk about Serbian food, but first I want to pitch my new channel “Taste from the Road,” where I cook some of my favorite foods from around the world on my travels. I just finished cooking an amazing dish called Karađorđeva šnicla, and if you want to see how that’s prepared or try it on your time in Serbia, make sure to click the link so you can check that out.

Serbian food is really good, and the reason for that is its combination of east and west. Serbia historically was part of Eastern Empires, the Ottoman Empire, Western Empires, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, for example. So you get a little bit of the mix between the two. You’ll find really cool Ottoman-influenced dishes such as stuffed peppers and burek, which is a stuffed filo pastry with cheese or desserts like baklava, and from the West with dishes like schnitzel, goulash, and of course dishes with pork, which are inherently not Ottoman because obviously Islamic people from the Ottoman Empire were not eating pork.

Some of my favorite dishes in Serbia that I tried during my stay in the country include Karađorđeva šnicla, which I made the video of, and it actually has a really cool backstory. A really cool dish called pljeskavica, which is a large sort of mixed meat patty that is spiced quite differently than a burger and is served on a nice circular bread, sometimes with a nice pepper and cheese spread called urnebes. Very, very tasty. Something sweet that I really appreciated in Serbia was a dish called krempita, which is kind of like a Napoleon, so a layer of something crunchy, cream, something crunchy, cream, served up with a nice strong Serbian coffee. I don’t know if you can find anything better; I can’t.

Of course, I can’t skip talking about Serbian beer or pivo, which is genuinely quite good, and of course, the beautiful hard alcohol that they make there called rakija. It’s normally made from grapes, but you can get all different kinds of berries, fruits, and even honey. It’s one of the most traditional drinks you can get in the country, and you’ll see many old men easily over 50 waking up and celebrating each day with a nice shot of rakija.

Top 5 Places to Visit in Serbia

Now we’re going to talk about my top five places or things to visit while you’re in Serbia.

1. Belgrade

You have to go to Belgrade. I think Belgrade is the center of Serbian national identity. It’s the center of modern Serbia today, and it’s an interesting place to get to know Serbian culture. The city center is beautiful; they have really nice old architecture from the 18th and 17th centuries. They have a beautiful castle that looks over the Danube River, and they have lots of little neighborhoods where you can have really traditional Serbian food, or you can go have kind of nice coffee in a kind of upscale hipster vibe. The city really has a little bit for everybody. It’s truly known for its party scene, its really good restaurants, and its overall friendly vibe.

2. Novi Sad

The second thing I would visit in Serbia is the city of Novi Sad. Novi Sad is about 45 minutes to an hour away from Belgrade to the north, and it’s easily accessed by bus. The city was built during the Austro-Hungarian times. They have a beautiful city center with really nice sort of central European architecture. They have a very epic castle that overlooks a river, and it’s really just a kind of place to experience the beauty and architecture, the beauty and nature that Serbia has to offer.

3. Niš

The third thing to visit in Serbia is to go south, where you can get a little bit more of the Ottoman heritage and a little bit more of the Balkan vibe than you would find in the north, as of course, they were not part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city that I went to was called Niš. Very pretty, very well known for their food, and they notoriously have the best burek in the country, that dish I had talked about earlier. The city has a very interesting Balkan vibe and a sort of dark history, as it’s close to a concentration camp as well as hosts something called the wall of skulls, which is a wall made out of Serbian revolutionary skulls that the Ottoman Empire created. It’s a great place to discover the ancient past of Serbia and to get to know a little bit of the darker side of Serbian history.

4. Subotica

For something a bit different, you can go all the way to the north of Serbia to a city called Subotica, which sits just below the Hungarian border. There you’ll find a beautiful old town with one of the largest synagogues in Eastern Europe.

5. Architectural Heritage

The last thing I would do in Serbia, and this isn’t specific to any one place, is to get to know a little bit of the past through the architecture, and I think Belgrade is a great place to start. You can see some of the ancient ruins, especially like the old medieval castles, you can see the sort of Germanic style buildings that were built in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, depending on which empire it was in. You can see the Ottoman influence through some of the old mosques that are still present in the city, and you can see the remnants of the Socialist period, the Titoist period of Yugoslavia, in this sort of 70s style brutalistic architecture that you can see dotted through many of the major cities. I think countries that are in Eastern Europe have so much varied history with so much background from different places, and so it’s fun to kind of pick up all these little historical tidbits from all over the place in a sort of modern, you know, 2022 city.

Conclusion

That’s going to be it for Serbia. It’s a country with such an interesting backstory, in such a particular part of Europe, and it has so much to explore and so much to offer. I hope you guys enjoyed the post. Make sure to like and subscribe and hit the notification bell; it always helps me out. Thank you guys for reading!

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