Serbia

This website lists a lot of museums in Belgrade--perhaps all of them: https://www.tob.rs/en/what-to-see/museums-and-arts. You'll need to check individual websites for opening hours. There is a good bit of variation in closing days.

Amazon has the Bradt guide to Serbia and the Rough guide to Belgrade.

Key sights include:

• National Museum of Serbia, Trg Republike 1a: History and art. www.narodnimuzej.rs/?lang=en .
• Muzej Primenjene Umetnosti (Museum of Applied Arts), Celebonovic Palace, Vuka Karadzica 18: Jewelry, manuscripts, icons and objects of wood, ivory, glass, ceramics, etc. www.mpu.rs
  
• Belgrade City Museum, Resavska 40b: Focuses on Serbian painters, but has some foreign works as well. www.mbg.org.rs
• Etnografski Muzej (Ethnographic Museum), Studentski Trg 13: Three floors. www.etnografskimuzej.rs/
  
• Banjica Concentration Camp Museum, Pavla Jurisica Turma S33: www.mgb.org.rs
• Sekulic Icon Collection, 5 Uzun Mirkova St: Displays 165 15C-19C icons and 19C-20C Serbian art.
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Usce 10 Blok 15, Novi Beograd: 20C-21C Yugoslav art. www.msub.org.rs/about-museum/?lang=en
• Muzej Jugoslavije (Museum of Yugoslavia), Mihaila Mike Jankovica 6: History museum set in park with flowers and sculptures. Outside the center. https://www.muzej-jugoslavije.org/en/
• Kuca Cveca (House of Flowers): Tito’s burial place and personal artifacts and other items from Yugoslav era. No toilets. As of 2023, covered by Muzej Jugoslavije ticket. https://www.muzej-jugoslavije.org/en/
  
• Muzej Nikole Tesle (Nikola Tesla Museum), Krunska 51: Life and works of Tesla. Excellent guided tour includes demos. I didn't go to this museum, but it is recommended by guidebooks.
• Jewish Historical Museum, Kralja Petra 71a: History of Jews in the area 2C/3C till WWII. www.jimbeograd.org
• Zepter Museum: one of region’s best private collections of contemporary art, in 1920s building.
• Bajrakli Mosque, Gospodar Jevremova St: Late 16C, only remaining Ottoman mosque in city.
• Crkva Svetog Marka (St. Mark’s Orthodox Church), Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 17, Tasmajdan Park: Stunning early 20C Serbo-Byzantine church. One of Serbia’s most important religious sites.
  
• St. Sava Temple, Krusedolska 2a: Modeled after the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul and built to scale. Largest Orthodox church in Balkans and one of largest in world.
• Beograd Fortress: 18C Austro-Ottoman clock tower and multiple churches inside.
• There are also palaces (including visitable Royal Palace); they weren't of interest to me so I skipped them.
• Interesting streets include Strahinjica Bana, Knez Mihailova and Terazije Blvd.
• Interesting neighborhoods include Skardalija, Dorcol and Zemun (this one outside the center).

Many companies offer tours. If you take a "free" tour, you must tip generously, because the guide will have paid the company a fee for everyone who takes the tour, so (s)he starts out several dollars per person in the hole.

www.serbia-touroperator.com/daily-tours/
www.belgradefreetour.com
www.facebook.com/experiencebelgradewalkingtours/
www.belgradewalkingtours.com
www.belgradefreetour.com

Continuing...

I don't rent cars in Europe, so I focus on places accessible by public transportation, and I'm clueless about parking issues. The small town of Pancevo northeast of Belgrade seems like it would be worth a stop for its two important churches and museum, but I haven't been there.

Farther away, but still close enough for a day trip (though there's a lot to see) is the lovely university city of Novi Sad. It's known for its Art Nouveau architecture (Beograd has some, too, but Novi Sad is prettier, I think.) I spent several days in Novi Sad, visiting a few art museums and gawking at the buildings. For me it's a must-visit if you have time. The city feels more affluent than other places I've visited in Serbia. It's accessible by train, so you could leave the car back in Belgrade if you wanted to. There are frequent trains taking less than an hour, some as little as 36 minutes. The train station isn't in the historic center, but there are buses to get you there. I don't know what parking will be like if you decide to drive; see what your guidebook says.

Pushing farther north, almost on the Hungarian border, is another concentration of Art Nouveau architecture in the city of Subotica. It's not as affluent as Novi Sad and is farther from Belgrade, so it would be my second priority as a side-trip destination. The drive would take about 2 hours, and a day trip isn't possible by public transportation.

Across the border in Hungary is Szeged, with more stunning Art Nouveau architecture and a couple of good museums displaying Zsolnay ceramics.

I should point out that my main interests are art, Art Nouveau architecture and 20th-century history, so my trip notes pretty much ignore historical sites from earlier periods. Please do get a guidebook or two, because there's a lot more for you to see than I've listed in these posts.

One other thing: Serbia hasn't forgotten it was bombed by NATO. People were very courteous and helpful to me, and I'm sure you'll have the same reception, but you may run into some posted information that is anti-NATO, anti-US, etc. That seems to be the official position. I imagine your daughter can explain.

One other thing: Serbia hasn't forgotten it was bombed by NATO. People were very courteous and helpful to me, and I'm sure you'll have the same reception, but you may run into some posted information that is anti-NATO, anti-US, etc. That seems to be the official position. I imagine your daughter can explain.

We were in Budapest last week and saw a LOT of anti-EU, overtly pro-fascist propaganda there (I expected some of this, but it was quite in-your-face and pervasive). Not spray-painted and graffitied, but on large commercial billboards and kiosks throughout the city. Not sure if it was paid advertisements or put up by the current government (which is pro-Russia) as "public service" announcements. In any case, I would expect the same sort of things in Serbia, which is closely aligned with Russia (and is one of the few places in western Europe where Russians can fly to without restrictions).

David, not doubting you, but could you direct me to some of that stuff you describe or at least tell me the topic so I can look for it. I assume you knew the message cause you translated them, but I would like to read them too. Sometimes you live in a place and you just dont notice what a visitor sees.

The only caution I would have is not to assume the government and the people of Budapest think alike. The current national government lost the last few elections in Budapest.

I cant argue with your perception of the national governments relationship with russia but you might research why (not that it excuses it). Also look at what is happening in the Czech Republic and especially Slovakia. But one has to wonder why the government has no problems with two trains a day bringing Ukrainians back and forth to Kyiv and transporting generators to help after the bombing of the electrical grid the last week. I have friends in the dark in shelters as I write this. My contribution heads east Monday morning. By the way, on my profile page is a link to help. Your $50 might buy the bullet or provide one day of heat that saves a life.

I spent a few hours over a bottle of wine with some Ukrainian friends today, and I know two other Ukrainian families and a Ukrainian flight attendant that come here from Ukraine from time to time to escape the war; and they all love Budapest and would love to make this a permanent home. It was our topic of discussion today. One reason that stood out was the caring, compassion and love the locals have shown the refugees and the financial assistance they received from the poorest country in the EU. The other reasons were lifestyle and the city is drop dead beautiful.

To the best of my knowledge there has never been a pro russia rally here. Serbia? I think the situation in support of russia is more overt.

Finally I am going back this winter and i am more than happy to bring a traveling companion, or two or three, along.

I second getting the Bradt guide for Serbia. I have limited experience in Serbia. We spent a few days in Belgrade and one night in Novi Pazar, in the south. I wish we had had more time. I really liked Serbia. Try to send Tito’s blue train, if you can, outside of Belgrade.

Well, this one seemed to be all over nearly every street in Budapest - on many streets, it's on kiosks every 20 meters or so. Pretty hard to miss or ignore:

anti-EU billboard

We saw other variations on this one, too, often including Zelensky, Macron, or Keir Starmer, along with Ursula von der Leyen (pictured here as the "puppet master", she's president of the EU Commision), occasionally with George Soros or his son (favorite boogeyman of the ultra-right for decades). Rough translation of the text referred to taxation and funding for Ukraine's resistance against the Russian aggression. Messaging looked pretty clear to me. There were others (notably pictures of worried-looking workers, I assume concerned about immigrants taking their jobs). Pretty standard orange-hat stuff.

Budapest is a lovely city, with much going for it, and a fun place for tourists. The fascist propaganda just left a bad taste in my mouth. But I'm just a visitor, it's their country. I did not discuss politics with anyone there, so I have no valid basis to judge the extent to which these billboards represented popular sentiments or diverged from them, but it seemed both incongruous (very much in contrast to what many of us like to believe are widely accepted norms) and surprisingly pervasive. Nobody seemed to even notice it (which also seemed surprising - I guess everyone there is habituated to it). This stuff was literally everywhere.

As for why Hungary feels this way...well, history is certainly complicated. My spouse, who has little knowledge of European history, didn't understand many things, I tried to explain to her Hungary's journey through empire to it's complicated WWII experience, the cold war and beyond. I tried to share what I knew about the 1956 uprising, but how the US ultimately failed to act and stood by when Russian tanks rolled. "We kind of screwed them," I said. Her response was, "Well, we kind of screw everyone, dont we?" I had to chuckle (all she knows is what I've told her, so it was hard to argue with that comeback). That said, with a front-row seat and such a rich history of getting screwed, I would expect Hungarians to easily see what Russia is and how they roll, and to not cozy up to them. But I have been disappointed in that. That's ultimately my problem, not theirs.

I don't want to hijack this thread, so will step back. My point was (and is) that I would expect the same sort of stuff to be just as visible in pro-Russia Serbia (and plenty of orange-hat places here at home in the US, so it's not like we are in any position to point fingers). Just something that visitors may initially be surprised to see so visible and so pervasive. Part of experiencing other places, you take the positive stuff along with other stuff.

David, thank you. I hadn’t noticed them, which was curious, so I did some reading, they went up this week, and I haven’t been out much. I can see why it bothers you if you believe strongly in the necessity of the EU. It will be interesting to see how long they stay up. But I thought you were implying they were overtly pro-fascist and overtly pro-russian which is different than anti-EU or the UK would be a fascist pro-russian state. I just caution that hyperbole tends to work against the common cause. I suspect that in the next 9 months the rift with the EU will come to a head and we will see what happens.

You tend to see political billboards a lot in Europe. I think they are like protests here. They are part of the lifestyle, and no one pays a whole lot of attention to them. A demonstration in the rift between the feds and the city is when a group wanted to protest a new law that restricted civil liberties. The national government said there was no permit. The city gave gave the group one because the Feds would not. The city told the feds they had no jurisdiction. Tens of thousands showed up. Very peaceful and went home at the time on the permit.

But I think you have remarkably balanced understanding of things here. Read up on the local energy problem an the cost of energy here. It shed a little more light … but still not an excuse.

Serbia: I spent 4 days in Belgrade about 7 years ago. There are very few places that I have ever been where I just didn’t like the vibe. Belgrade was one of those places. Beyond the vibe, even with a guide, I had trouble finding much that excited or moved me as a tourist. Of course, my interests might be a little off-wack so that could also be my issue. I do stop in Belgrade at least twice a year …. changing planes and I can say that the airport is nice. Easy to navigate, not too large and the staff is very helpful. But I would be conservative in how you express yourself there. Better word; polite.

Still having said all of that, I have friends who own property in Novi Sad, so the direct answer to your question is Novi Sad and they tell me it beautiful (ive seen photos, is very nice) and I want to see the Gate of Trajan to see the place from where the stories came.

Never ever judge a place by anyone else's opinion. What didn't work for me might work perfect for you. And never ever turn down an opportunity to explore a new place.

I think your best answer comes from acraven, with the list of things to see in Belgrade.

I enjoyed very much a day trip to Novi Sad. I also enjoyed seeing scenery toward Manasija Monastery and Ravanica Monastery. I probably didn’t give Belgrade a fair shot, but I can’t say I enjoyed it. Most likely your daughter will have great ideas to fill your time in the city, though, with things that have interested her. I was there in late September, so I don’t know how that would compare to weather in December.

Belgrade has developed a good reputation for being a center of European modern music. I know people that travel from Budapest to Belgrade for the music. So, if that sort of thing interests you find some live music clubs or concerts. The National Theater also has a good reputation.