The 5 BEST Things to Do in Belgrade, Serbia (2024 Edition)

From beautiful street art to sunset at the fortress, here are the absolute best things to do in Belgrade, Serbia.

There are a handful of cities that I have visited on my travels that have left a mark upon me, that have piqued my interest beyond just initial intrigue and have inspired me to dig deeper and to discover more than what is on the surface.

But there is one city that has done this more than the others – Belgrade, Serbia.

I had never explicitly intended on visiting Belgrade. It came onto my radar during an intoxicated late-night conversation in a Budapest ruin bar with a French traveller.

“Belgrade?” he said after I mentioned it as a possible destination when discussing onward travel plans.

“Go! You have to go!” And if his tone didn’t betray his passion, his eyes did. Before this, I had thought Belgrade to be just a party destination, a place where broke backpackers went to drink on the cheap.

“But it is so much more!” The Frenchman told me. And that was that. The next day I was on a southbound train, travelling straight into the beating heart of the Balkans.

Disembarking from the train while exiting the main station, it became instantly clear that I was free of the comfortable, efficient safety net of the EU.

Here men vehemently tried to carry my backpack for a price, to lure me into their unlicensed taxis – offers I ignored as I made my way on foot to my hostel.

Scams are common among cabbies in Belgrade as it is a poor city, many people look for ways to make an extra buck and tourists are prime targets.

“It’s because you’re rich,” a local who worked at the hostel told me in explanation.

I laughed, “I’m definitely not!”

“Even if you’re not,” he said. “We still think you are.”

At first sight, Belgrade is crumbling. As I walked through the gritty, grey streets that very first evening it became clear to me why many tourists don’t often visit Serbia’s capital.

It’s not a pretty city, not on the surface anyway, and the contrast between nearby Central European capitals is night and day.

But still, there was something in the decrepit landscape that seemed to tell me I was in the right place because, despite its ugliness, the city felt undeniably alive.

My instinct was right; from the moment I set foot in Belgrade I could feel myself falling in love. And I kept returning – a total of four times in two months, each for a week or more.

I learned quickly that you could see the…