Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.
ĐJERDAP NATIONAL PARK
The Djerdap National Park is the closest national park from Belgrade, so if you want to visit it, you can simply plan a day trip from Belgrade. The drive will take you about 2 hours by car and 2.5- 3 hours by bus. You can download the app Rome2Rio to check the bus timetable in Serbia. Renting a car in Serbia is very cheap, will save you lots of time and gives you more flexibility. For visiting the Djerdap National Park taking the bus is still a good option, but if you want to see the other national parks renting a car is indispensable, because Serbia doesn’t have a very dense transport network in the countryside. Renting a car for only $50 a week is definitely the easiest option to see the national parks.
The Djerdap National Park is located on the Danube river, on the eastern border to Romania. It stretches from the Golubac Fortress to a dam near Novi Sip, Serbia. With 636 sq km it’s the biggest national park in Serbia. In July 2020 this national park was designated as a UNESCO global geopark, the first protected area from Serbia.
DJERDAP GORGE
The natural beauty of the Djerdap Gorge (also called “Iron Gate”) with the Golubac Fortress located on the south side, is simply breathtaking. The gorge, which is about 100km long, is actually made up of four gorges: Gornja Klisura, Veliki, Gospodin Vir and Mali Kazan. In Gospodin Vir, one of the greatest river depths in the world has been measured with 82 meters. Those four gorges are separated from each other by three ravines. The terrain has over 1000 caves, springs and lakes.
When you arrive at the Djerdap Gorge you can make a stop in Golubac, a small town located on the gorge. It’s a great spot to go for a walk and grab a cup of coffee or have lunch. When you look at the other side of the Djerdap Gorge you actually see Romania, because the border is going right through the gorge and the Danube river. The next stop on your trip should be the Golubac Fortress.
GOLUBAC FORTRESS
The Golubac Fortress is located on the south side of the Djerdap Gorge and marks the entrance of the Djerdap National Park. In the olden days, it used to be a medieval town, about 4 km downstream from the town Golubac. It is not known when the fortress was built, but according to estimations, it has been built in the 13th century. The fortress has a tumultuous history. Many battles took place here during the Middle Ages and it changed hands repeatedly between Turks, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Serbians and Austrians, until 1867 when it was owned by Serbia again.
It has nine towers and an exhibition area for visitors. When you visit the fortress, you have different options for what you want see. The whole fortress has been separated into four different zones with different prices for entrance. The green zone includes the towers 5, 8 and 9, suitable for all ages. When you book the blue zone you can also see tower 4, which has a medium difficulty level. The red zone includes towers 6 and 7, has a high difficulty level and the black zone includes tower 1 with an extremely difficult level. You can only visit the blue, red and black zone with an official guide and the black zone can only be visited by one person at a time – with a professional guide. For this zone, you need to wear sneakers or hiking shoes and suitable clothes.
We decided to visit the green zone, because it already offers amazing views. If you want to see the other zones, you should book in advance or arrive early to save your spot.
TRAJAN’S BOARD
Back in the days, the Roman emperors Tiberius, Domitian, Claudius and Trajan built a road along the bank of the river Danube, as well as a bridge behind the iron gate. The road was used for supplying the border along which the Romans built fortifications and military units. When the constructions were finished, the Roman Emperor Trajan placed the “Trajan’s Board” on the north side of the river Danube. Someday there was a flood and several Roman fortifications around the river were flooded. The submerged towns were moved and the board was raised 21m above its previous location. Next to the Lepenski Vir and the Golubac Fortress, it’s proof of the historical and geographical importance of this place.
LEPENSKI VIR
Lepenski Vir is an ancient settlement in the Djerdap National Park, located at the river banks in Boljetin village, near Donji Milanovac. There is some disagreement about the early start of the culture of Lepenski Vir, but the latest data suggest 9500-7200 BC to be the start. The archeological site shows evidence for a culture with religious practices, social interactions, architecture and art. Archaeologists discovered numerous sculptures at the site, some portraying humans, some showing astronomical events. Architect Hristivoje Pavlovic even labeled Lepenski Vir as “the first city in Europe” because of the fact that it was a planned and permanent settlement.
If you want to see the whole National Park you should plan to stay for a night and explore for two days, but if your time is limited I would recommend you to make a day trip and visit the Golubac Fortress on the Djerdep Gorge and go for a walk in Golubac, before heading back to Belgrade. I personally think if you have seen these two places in the national park, you have seen the most beautiful spots!
TARA NATIONAL PARK
Tara National Park is one of the most beautiful places in Serbia! It’s about 220 sq km big and has plenty of stunning hikes and viewpoints from where you can enjoy a magnificent view of its dreamy landscapes. It’s located on the western border of Serbia, close to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
If you decide to drive to Tara National Park from Belgrade, it should take you about four hours. To visit this national park I highly recommend you to rent a car, so you can get to different places once you arrived (there isn’t much public transport, so it will make your travels a lot easier if you have a car). If you are driving from Belgrade you will drive about an hour on the highway and then you are driving constantly uphill to the mountains of the national park. Be prepared to drive very curvy and bumpy roads for the most time!
We decided to stay in a little mountain hut at the Zaovine lake, a big lake in the middle of the national park. There are plenty of cute mountain huts with scenic views around the lake! We booked our hut on Airbnb, but you can also book on different platforms such as booking.com.
There are lots of things to do in this national park from hiking, kayaking, adventure tours and cruises to bear watching. At the moment there are 30 hiking trails, so there are lots of options to explore the national park.
The best thing you can really do is to go on a hike and visit one of the 5 amazing viewpoints: Crnješkovo, Osluša, Bilješka Stena, Sjenic and Banjska Stena. The Banjska Stena viewpoint is the most popular one, from where you can look at the Perucac lake and the Drine river canyon. When you visit the Banjska Stena you can decide to either hike through the forest, walk the road or simply drive up, there is a parking place only 100 m away from the scenic viewpoint. The hike takes about two hours from the town Mitrovac, where you can also get more tourist information and where you will find souvenir shops, apartments and restaurants.
A few more tips before you drive to Tara National Park: Fill up the petrol and do your grocery shopping on the way (because you won’t find any petrol stations or supermarkets in the national park). The best place to do this is Bajina Basta, a small town in the national park. If you stop here make sure to walk down to the river to see the Drina River House. This wooden house was originally built in 1968 by a group of swimmers who wanted to be closer to the water for swimming and fishing and needed a shelter. Until 2019, the river house was destroyed seven times, because of the high water level of the river, but they rebuilt it every single time. There is a really nice restaurant right next to the Drina river and the river house with amazing food and a scenic view of the landscape – a great place to do a little stop!
UVAC SPECIAL NATURE RESERVE
The Uvac Nature Reserve is located about two hours from the Tara National Park, in southwestern Serbia between Mt. Zlatar in the Southwest and Mt. Javor in the Northeast. The reserve is about 75 sq km big and known for the meandering Uvac river in the Uvac canyon. This is probably one of the most unknown places in Serbia that will blow your mind when you visit it.
Next to the shining blue-green Uvac river and the amazing canyon you will also be able to see the griffon vulture that is nesting at the Uvac canyon. The Griffon vulture has an impressive size with a wingspan of 3m, which makes him a powerful vulture. You will see many of them nesting on the canyon walls and flying high over the Uvac river. More amazingly, the flight of the griffon vulture has been studied by scientists that used the knowledge on the construction of aircraft. The Uvac Special Nature Reserve also has the largest population of rare bird species in the Balkans, so you should keep your eyes open when you visit it!
The best thing you can do to explore the Uvac canyon, is to book a canyon tour. There are lakes both on the north side of the canyon, as well as on the south side of the canyon. You can start a tour from both sides, it’s basically the same tour, the same viewpoint, just starting at different locations. The roads in Uvac are all very curvy, a little bumpy and some areas are only accessible through gravel roads, so you should choose the location that is closest to your accommodation to start the canyon tour. The lake on the north side and the lake on the south side are both called Sjenico Rezero, so make sure you are booking the right one!
We decided to book our tour from the south side because our little mountain hut was closer to this location and we loved it! The people we met at the south Sjenico Rezero lake were super friendly and welcoming.
When you do the tour on the south lake you are actually following in the footsteps of Kim Kardashian, she did the canyon tour from this place too. Once you arrive at the south lake of the Uvac canyon you will meet the group at a restaurant in a tiny village (don’t worry, there is no chance of getting lost here). There are different options on how you can do the tour: The first option would be to just do the boat tour on the river where you get to know more about the history of this place and the second one includes a self-guided hike to a scenic viewpoint. I personally think the hike is the best part of the tour! You will first have to hike up the canyon and then walk on top with scenic views on the Uvac river.
The nature around the Uvac canyon is really beautiful and like many other places in Serbia, it’s not even busy. You will meet some people hiking there who did other tours (or who are on the same tour as you), but overall it’s not busy. When you see the beauty of this place it’s crazy to think that most people have never even heard about it. So when you post a stunning photo of the Uvac canyon, I can promise you that a lot of people will ask you where this place is. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but for me, the Uvac canyon is the most beautiful national park in Serbia. It just offers amazing views like no other and it’s not crowded at all. It is such a relaxing place to enjoy the nature around you and of course to take some stunning photographs!
If you have a drone, this is a fantastic place to fly it! We spent an hour taking photos with the camera and with the drone to capture this amazing canyon. One last tip: If you are flying your drone don’t fly to close to the griffon vulture. We don’t know what would happen, because we never flew very close to them, but if you remember their wingspan of 3 meters you want to keep a safe distance! They are not dangerous for us in anyways, but I don’t know what happens if they meet a drone. (My drone has been attacked by a swarm of pigeons before, so I think it’s always better to keep your distance from any birds in the sky!
Now I would like to know which national park is your favorite. Have you visited any of them before? Which one would you visit first when traveling to Serbia? If you have any questions or experiences please share them in the comments down below!
