Hey, guys! I am glad to share with you my Serbia weekend guide which is easy to follow.
You can use it fully or take only the part that you like.
Ingredients of my sustainable travel:
General overview
3 days and 5 nights – that is how long my travel took. I started on Friday evening and return back on Tuesday morning. So, no dramatic stop in work activities (note for the same workafrolics as I am).
My route started in Montenegro, Podgorica where I live now. Then I moved to Serbia, Belgrade to appear in Novi Sad to visit the Fruska Gora National Park and stay for a few days in the mountain village called Vdrnik. Then I made the same way back.
7 out of 10 – that would be my rating for this trip experience in general: no significant “wow-effect”, but at the same time very cool hiking and SPA-relax experience (see details below).
Transport
From Podgorica to Belgrade and back: night train (10,5 hours). A Double Cabin ticket costs €35 per person in 1 direction. AC/heater and bedsheets are included. Tickets can be purchased only offline (a passport was not required). The schedule you can check on the Montenegro official railway website.
Recommendation:
When you’ll purchase tickets ask not the first and not the last cabin, as people very often smoke in the train vestibule (despite it being forbidden).
From Belgrade to Novi Sad there is a fast train (200 km/h) that departs every 1 hour from the same railway station, where you’ll arrive from Podgorica (called “Beograd centar”). In Spring 2023 there were contraction works on this railway station in Belgrade, so make sure you added extra time for navigation on the station (it can be a quest). The cost is €5 per person in 1 direction. Check the schedule on the Serbia official railway website. The time on the train is 30 minutes.
Recommendation:
Buy tickets to the fast train (“COKO” Inter City) instead of the regular (“Regio Voz”) train to reduce the time of your travel from 1 hour to 30 minutes.
From Novi Sad to Fruska Gora National Park you can get by public transport: city buses. Several routes are available, but I used N74 and N76. Keep in mind that different bus routes can bring you to different starting points of your hike, as there are several entrances to the Fruska Gora National Park.
Recommendation:
Check the timetable and the routes on the maps on bus stops in the city.
All further moves across the Fruska Gora National Park are hiking. I would say it’s quite easy: you just need to choose the route and follow signs (lots of them on the path) plus re-check with an offline map (I used Organic Map) or online map (if you have the connection, as I didn’t buy local SIM-card). More about the hiking experience will be later in this article.
I recommend you have a base camp in Vrdnik – a very cozy village and lots of routes are nearby. You can arrive in the city via one route and return via another: in 3 days I managed to have no repetitive routes.
Activities
The main activity on this trip would be definitely hiking. Choose from more than 20 routes: most of them are marked as “easy” or “intermediate” level with time on the route from 2,5 to 5 hours. Attractions that will wait for you on the route can be waterfalls, lakes, numerous monasteries, and even caves. One of the most popular routes is “Ruben’s Circle” – I walked part of it.
Interesting:
Ledinacko Lake (near the village Stari Ledinci) was formed during the NATO bombing in 1999. Direct access to the lake is not allowed, but you can reach the viewpoint to make some photos.
You can also plan a picnic with the view! As for me – picnics are the best part of any hiking trip ever! Just don’t forget to take your litter with you back to the city.
If you like extreme and mountain biking – there is a special place for you as well: Bike Park Bukovac.
If your choice is a more peaceful walk – then you can try birdwatching. And the best time to catch the seasonal migration is spring and autumn. Check details on the dedicated websites, such as Birdingplaces.eu.
I recommend you stay or at least include in your travel list the village called Vrdnik. This is heaven for SPA lovers – just choose one of the hotels in this area. Lots of indoor and outdoor pools are filled with thermo-mineral water, with a temperature of about 30 degrees. This is the ideal place for rehabilitation after a long hiking day.
For me, such a combination: of hiking during the day plus SPA in the evening is the ideal combo to recharge my batteries.
Food
I am flexitarian, but 95% of my diet is vegan food, and for sure, I wanted to try something new and interesting. So for me, it was important to add some more planning to the trip. Sharing with you my food gems on this trip.
Belgrade: I recommend you to visit Vegangelov Caffe (try a burger, ramen, or whatever you choose – everything that I tried here was just super tasty!) or Paradise Food – delicious vegan desserts that will break your heart and simple plant base food (this place is kind of cafe/canteen).
Novi Sad: I visited only one place, which is Ananda Caffe – the place declared to be the first vegan restaurant in Serbia. It was an early Saturday morning, so not all positions were available. But the place is cozy and interesting. I also had the plan to try street food in the place “Rekalibracija Veganski”, but in fact didn’t visit. Other vegan restaurants you can check on the Happy Cow website. I can’t name Serbia and Novi-Sad as extremely vegan-friendly, but you’ll definitely find several cool places here.
I also visited the eco-shop (it’s a chain, actually) called something like “Zdrava Kramnica” and bought kombucha (that tasted similar to Fanta-Sprite) and absolutely amazing cherry pie! So if you will have one of these shops on your way – try your luck!
Vrdnik: For my short vacation I choose the SPA hotel Premier Aqua) with breakfast included. It was a buffet with plenty of vegan options: beans, vegan desserts, lots of vegetables, and even a vegan burger (which was a smashed potato cutlet with other vegetables) – very tasty! The only one (and important for me) minus that they served tea only in bags or in “compostable” capsules (like those that some people use in coffee machines) – I shared it also in my Instagram account stories (check highlights). Another nuance is that on weekend days there are more people and more food options for the breakfast (as well as more vegan options), but on Monday, for example, they didn’t serve beans – which for me was a disappointment.
In the city, there is a supermarket (“UniverExport“) where you can buy fresh fruits/nuts for your hiking and for the evening.
A local specialitet that I recommend trying is burek – a kind of pie with cheese or potato, or cabbage. And also poppy seed roll – this dessert is also very delicious.
Recycling
Recycling infrastructure is quite well developed both in Novi Sad and in Belgrade: bins for a main waste types such as glass, plastic, metal, and paper you can find on the streets in the city center. I shared what these bins look like + their locations in my Instagram Stories (check highlights) and also plan to publish a detailed recycling guide for Serbia soon on the website (stay tuned).
I hope you found this blog post useful and interesting – appreciate your feedback in the comments section below or…
..or welcome to my Instagram, where I share more details about my travel, as well as photos and useful tips, and more!
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