Southeast Europe · Europe

Serbia

Discover Serbia - a Balkan country with a perfectly phonetic alphabet, the birthplace of Nikola Tesla, and home to the Guca trumpet festival.

Where Is Serbia?

Serbia is a country in Southeast Europe. Its capital is Belgrade.

Where Serbia isSoutheast Europe · Capital Belgrade

Plan a trip · 6 guides Compare Serbia

Capital Belgrade
Population 6.55M
Area 88,499 km²

Serbia sits at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, where the Sava flows into the Danube and two alphabets coexist on the same street signs. It is a country where a 19th-century linguist created a perfectly phonetic writing system, where Nikola Tesla's ashes rest in a golden sphere, and where a tiny town of 2,000 people hosts half a million visitors for a trumpet festival every August.

The culture runs deep here. Belgrade, one of Europe's oldest cities, has been fought over in 115 wars and razed to the ground 44 times. The food is hearty and unapologetic - grilled meats with kajmak, slow-cooked cabbage rolls, and fruit brandy that doubles as both welcome drink and household remedy. Serbia punches well above its weight in sports, music, and invention, and rewards those who look beyond the usual tourist routes.

At a glance

Language

Serbian

Currency

Serbian Dinar (RSD)

Calling Code

+381

Drives On

Right

Internet

.rs

Timezone

CET (UTC+1)

Script

Cyrillic & Latin

Government

Parliamentary Republic

Independence

1882 / 2006

Travel guides

Plan a trip to Serbia

All 6 Serbia guides

Snow-covered spruce forest and a groomed run on Kopaonik under a clear blue sky, with the resort buildings and distant snowy ridges on the horizon

Serbia · Raška · 5 days

5 Days in Kopaonik

Serbia's biggest ski resort, planned sector by sector: red runs, a few blacks, kafana lunches, night skiing and a day off the snow.

Bases: Konaci, Vikend Naselje, Brzeće

Updated Oct 2026Read the plan →

A dark grove of pines on a hill rising out of golden autumn meadows on Zlatibor, with low clouds over the ridges behind.

Serbia · 5 days

5 Days in Zlatibor

Pine-covered hills, a gondola nine kilometers long, and the cheese, kajmak and pršut Serbs drive for hours to buy. Five days in the west.

Updated Oct 2026Read the plan →

The paved square of the central park in Vrnjačka Banja seen from above, framed by thick green treetops with the Goč range on the horizon.

Serbia · 5 days

5 Days in Vrnjačka Banja

Serbia's favorite spa: warm springs you drink from, a river promenade of twenty-odd bridges, a forested mountain and the great monasteries.

Updated Oct 2026Read the plan →

The Nišava river flowing through Niš on an autumn day, with the fortress walls and quay on the left, a floating river café on the right and the city behind.

Serbia · 5 days

5 Days in Niš

The city where Constantine was born, a tower built of skulls and a burek tradition older than any other in Serbia. Five days in the south.

Updated Oct 2026Read the plan →

The striped marble Church of Christ Pantocrator at Visoki Dečani on its green lawn, with the white monastery lodgings, tall pines and a wooded hillside behind.

Serbia · 5 days

5 Days in Kosovo and Metohija

The cradle of medieval Serbia, its greatest monasteries still under guard. Five days in the province, and the history behind it.

Updated Oct 2026Read the plan →

SkiingSerbia

Kopaonik vs Stara Planina

Serbia's big, busy ski town or its small, quiet, cheaper mountain. Kopaonik wins on size, Stara planina on price.

Updated Oct 2026See the verdict →

By population

Largest cities in Serbia

Belgrade

Capital city at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, one of Europe's oldest cities

1,394,000

Novi Sad

Cultural capital and home of the Petrovaradin Fortress

368,000

Nis

One of Europe's oldest cities, birthplace of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great

260,000

Kragujevac

First capital of modern Serbia, center of the automotive industry

179,000

Subotica

Art Nouveau architectural gem near the Hungarian border, Palic Lake

141,000

Zrenjanin

Largest city in the Banat region, known for beer production since 1745

123,000

People

Famous people from Serbia

Nikola Tesla
Science
Pioneered alternating current (AC) electricity, radio technology, and the Tesla coil
Novak Djokovic
Sport
Most Grand Slam titles in men's tennis history (24 titles)
Mihajlo Pupin
Science
Key contributions to long-distance telephone communication and X-ray imaging
Emir Kusturica
Film
Two-time Palme d'Or winner at Cannes Film Festival
Marina Abramovic
Art
Pioneer of performance art, known globally as the grandmother of performance art
Ivo Andric
Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature (1961) for The Bridge on the Drina
Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic
Language
Reformed the Serbian alphabet into a perfectly phonetic writing system
Milutin Milankovic
Science
Developed the theory of ice ages based on Earth's orbital cycles

Food

Traditional cuisine of Serbia

Cevapi: Grilled minced meat sausages served in lepinja flatbread with raw onions and kajmak
Kajmak: Creamy dairy spread made from slowly boiled milk, somewhere between clotted cream and cream cheese
Sarma: Cabbage rolls stuffed with minced meat and rice, slow-cooked for hours - a winter staple
Pljeskavica: Massive spiced meat patty, essentially Serbia's answer to the hamburger
Ajvar: Roasted red pepper and eggplant spread, homemade by every household each autumn
Burek: Flaky pastry filled with cheese, meat, or spinach - the ultimate street food
Rakija: Fruit brandy (usually plum sljivovica), a national institution served at every occasion
Gibanica: Layered cheese pie with filo pastry, eggs, and white cheese - a Serbian breakfast classic

Nature

Nature and landmarks in Serbia

Iron Gates GorgeGorge: One of Europe's most dramatic river gorges on the Danube, featuring the largest rock sculpture in Europe
Drina River CanyonCanyon: Third deepest river canyon in the world, home to the famous tiny house on the Drina rock
Tara National ParkNational Park: Dense forests and dramatic viewpoints overlooking the Drina canyon in western Serbia
KopaonikMountain: Largest mountain range in Serbia (2017m) and the country's main ski resort
Fruska GoraMountain: Low mountain range near Novi Sad dotted with 16 medieval Serbian Orthodox monasteries
Danube RiverRiver: Europe's second longest river, flowing 588 km through Serbia
Uvac CanyonCanyon: Spectacular meandering canyon famous for its griffon vulture colony and boat tours
Djerdap National ParkNational Park: Encompasses the Iron Gates gorge area with Roman ruins and medieval fortresses

Sport

Sports in Serbia

Tennis: Novak Djokovic holds the record for most Grand Slam titles in men's tennis
Water Polo: Multiple Olympic gold medals and World Championship titles
Basketball: FIBA World Championship gold (2002) and multiple EuroBasket medals
Volleyball: Consistently ranked in the world top 10 for both men's and women's teams
Shooting: Olympic gold medals including Jasna Sekaric and Damir Mikec

Facts

Did you know?

Serbia is one of the world's largest raspberry exporters, producing roughly a third of the global supply
Belgrade has been fought over in 115 wars and razed 44 times, making it one of the most fought-over cities in history
Serbia officially uses both Cyrillic and Latin scripts - most Serbians can read and write in both
The Vinca culture near Belgrade (5,500 BC) is one of the most advanced prehistoric civilizations in Europe
Each Serbian family celebrates a patron saint's day called Slava - a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage
The clock tower on Petrovaradin Fortress has reversed hands - the long hand shows hours so fishermen on the Danube can read the time from a distance
Serbia has no coastline, yet its river beaches along the Danube and Sava are hugely popular in summer
The Serbian word for a friend (prijatelj) comes from the same root as the word for pleasant (prijatan)