Belgrade is a popular destination especially famous for its entertainment and delicious cheap food so it is a perfect choice for a weekend getaway or 2-3 days visit when you are in Europe. Therefore preparing a Belgrade Guide was my duty as your gezielciniz! So right now you are in detailed version of what to do in Belgrade.
For general info and summary versions of all parts you should check Belgrade Guide, and also here is a comprehensive guide on where to eat in Belgrade (and what to eat!) and of course Belgrade Night life as well.
Alright, so good news, “what to do in Belgrade” aka “what are the must do sightseeing activities in Serbian capital Belgrade” is actually very manageable. You can do `must do` sightseeing in 2 days, here is how.
what to do in Belgrade ? Go to Kalemegdan of course!
First thing to know is Belgrade is divided by a river (kind of typical for a European city). So depending on which side you are, activities and things to see will change. Therefore I cover it for each side separately. But most places are just a walking distance to each other so don’t imagine a huge distance between river sides.
On `New Town` part of the river you can find many touristic attraction places, starting with Kalemegdan. Actually this is number one in all what to do in Belgrade guides! Name of Kalemegdan has its Turkish origins meaning `castle square`. This is a big area so I suggest planning 2-3 hours of visit so you can thoroughly enjoy parks and city view inside, visit military museum and have a nice coffee break while viewing the city from above. In fact you can also stumble upon temporary exhibits inside Kalemegdan additional to military museum, I saw `torture tools` exhibition while there. Though that doesn’t sound delightful, it was interesting and knowing more about history was not bad at all.
While exploring Kalemegdan you will notice some really old gates/doors. Main entrance what remained from Ottomans who ruled over Belgrade at the time and named in Turkish Istanbul Gate. Of course it doesn’t look like much now but in old times it was a really important place. In park areas you will see old men playing chess and crowd watching and many lovers who enjoy city view and of course many tourist groups.
When you are in the mood for a break, check out Kalemegdan Teras as it is a conveniently located inside Kalemegdan cafe/bar. It will be a good choice with its good view. It also has restaurant part but prices are slightly higher then what you can find in city and frankly there are so many good places to try and eat in Belgrade so I suggest just a drink/coffee stop here to enjoy view.
Kalemegdan Teras cafe view
Main street is Knez Mihajlova, where you will find many cafes and shops side by side with always people walking around. But my favorite place in this side of the river was Skadarlija Street. This is also called Bohemian quarters and in stone cobbled street you will find very nice cafes and restaurants side by side with eye catching names and décor. Especially if you are visiting on summer time you will probably see street musicians and many flowers to make the street even more beautiful to the level that you want to Instagram every corner! Restaurants and cafes here are all good choices, in fact I covered many of them in where to eat in Belgrade and these are local places where at night you can also enjoy as Balkan taverns.
Another sightseeing point in this side is St Sava Church which has a mighty look outside so if you have seen/visited enough churches it may be enough to see just from outside!
And last but not least of this side’s popular attraction would be visiting `Nikola Tesla Museum`. As a Worldwide renowned genius above his time Nikola Tesla, actually never lived in Serbia but he had Serbian origins and this is a proud fact for Serbians. So after his death, thanks to a generous donation this house turned into museum for his work. Building is pretty small so they can’t exhibit everything they have on Nikola Tesla but you can be part of some of the experiments using prototypes of Nikola Tesla’s works in museums free tours. They provide these English tours free of charge and they explain how the things you saw around works very good and even do some experiments together. Don’t forget to check out `memory book` where visitors can sign and make notes, there are some pretty funny comments inside!
Alright, so these were the most popular things to do in the new town side of the river. What about the other side?
Well the other side of the river is called `Old Town` area (surprise surprise!) and like the name it will really give you old times feeling with cobble streets and old style buildings.
I suggest to go to Zemun part which is kind of center for this area. Nearby river you will find many good restaurants and clubs too. So if you have evening-night plans it will likely be around this area too.
It is well worth going to Garos Tower for a mere 200 krus entry you can see this part of the city from above and it is a pretty sight. Then stroll down to the river side and have a break in one of the nice places across. In the main square area you may also stumble upon open air market.
Garos Tower
That was all `must see` places I wanted to list and these are actually the ones covered in free city map copy (which you can get once you arrive in Belgrade).
If you have more then 2-3 days you can also check out `National museum`, `Sveti Marco Church`, `Princess Ljubice Palace` and `Car museum`.
And actually even better go visit a beautiful city nearby called `Novigrad`!
So I hope now you have an answer on what to do in Belgrade ! Let me know in the comments if we can add some more suggestions to this list or if you have questions!
Also if you are interested more on Belgrade:
View from Garos Tower
