Five days off in a row: schools close Wednesday 11 to Friday 13 November, starting with Armistice Day, and the weekend stretches it to Sunday. November is often gray and wet, so most of these plans are under a roof: hands-on science, ice skating, a jump park, fish tanks and a children's stage. Here's what we checked, from the Nikola Tesla Museum to the Belgrade Zoo.
The museum follows Nikola Tesla as an inventor and as a person, through authentic working models of his machines, his personal belongings and a film about his life by Dr. Branimir Jovanović.
Every visit is a guided tour, so a guide walks each group through the rooms and presents the machines. It suits school-age kids curious about electricity and inventions more than toddlers.
The museum fills the 1928 building of Serbia's first public power station, in Dorćol. On the ground floor, a science playroom lets kids feel centrifugal force, test their balance and puzzle over optical illusions, and a toy gallery shows over 150 toys from 1920 to 1970 at kid height.
The Aleksandar Despić gallery holds 400-plus objects, from steamships and old printing to the first Serbian-made computers and Tesla's induction motor.
Palata nauke is a hands-on science center with over 30 exhibits in four zones: Human, Earth, Technology and Universe. Kids can try VR and AR, see robots at work, and look at a spacesuit.
Europe's largest interactive globe, 3 meters across, shows over 500 projections of Earth and other planets from NASA data. A 36-seat dome planetarium screens 360° films, and the fifth floor has a STEAM area for preschoolers.
NTC Learning Month is a program at BIG Fashion mall built on the NTC learning system, which pushes kids to think, link ideas and solve problems instead of memorizing. It's used in more than 20 European countries.
Kids work through agility courses, NTC board games and brain teasers, then can come back to cheer on school teams at a quiz final. A closing lecture explains the method to anyone curious.
The Natural History Museum shows its collections here, in a small 19th-century Ottoman-style guardhouse on Mali Kalemegdan that once guarded the main approach to the fortress from Stambol Gate. Exhibitions rotate, around 60 since it opened in 1994, each on a different chapter of natural history.
Curators run talks and kids' workshops alongside each exhibition, the Green Salon side room holds mini shows, and a shop sells nature souvenirs.
A rock musical about good against evil, with a princess, a hero, an empress, a witch, a villain and a court jester. Live actors perform in front of a projected storybook screen while rock songs carry the plot. The story asks what is true, whether love beats fear, and whether evil can be beaten. Good wins, but only after a fight, so it suits kids who can handle a villain and loud music.
A hands-on aquarium and reptile house run by the Aquaria Life association. Tanks hold fish from the Sava and Danube, the Adriatic and tropical coral reefs, plus 50 koi carp in a 6-meter tank. The reptile corner has snakes, leopard geckos, iguanas, tarantulas and scorpions, and staff can arrange time with some of the animals. Outside, a garden keeps red-eared turtles, koi and bonsai trees.
A hands-on illusion museum on three levels, where most exhibits are meant to be touched and photographed. Kids walk the spinning Vortex Tunnel, shrink and grow in the Ames room, pose in an upside-down room and play poker with five of their own clones.
Inside the exhibition, a puzzle playroom has wooden Dilemma games for kids to work through between rooms.
The Railway Museum fills the ground floor of the 1931 Serbian Railways headquarters, with a steam locomotive parked at the entrance. Inside are scale models of steam engines, including Stephenson's Rocket, plus signal lamps and flags, conductors' ticket punches, engraved railway pocket watches, a telegraph desk and three track handcars from 1928 and 1943.
It suits train-obsessed kids as a short stop rather than a half-day outing.
Pionir Ice Hall opened in 1978 and is the city's largest indoor ice rink, built to international standards for hockey and figure skating competitions. Between matches and shows, the rink runs public skating sessions through the cold months.
The SC Tasmajdan skating school teaches beginners to balance, stop and turn safely in 45-minute group lessons, a good base for figure skating or hockey later.
Belgrade Zoo fills about 7 hectares inside Kalemegdan Fortress park and keeps around 200 species. Kids look for the white lions and white tigers, watch the penguins in their 2019 enclosure, and find Muja, an American alligator that has lived here since 1937.
A petting zoo has alpacas, rabbits and pygmy goats, and two cafés and ice cream stands sit inside the grounds.
A 204-meter TV tower on Avala mountain, rebuilt after NATO bombing destroyed the original in 1999. Two fast lifts climb to a circular viewing deck at 122 meters, with four binoculars and views stretching from Šumadija to Vršac.
At the foot, in pine forest, kids get a playground, the Elf Village (six treehouses linked by hanging bridges), a 7.5-meter climbing wall with instructors, and two sports courts.
An indoor trampoline park inside the Galerija shopping center, set up as a run of sports challenges. Kids tackle a Ninja Warrior obstacle course, dunk on trampoline basketball hoops, face off on a balance beam, try the long jump trampoline and play in a dodgeball arena.
Jumpers must be over 130cm tall, so it suits school-age kids and teens more than toddlers. Parents can wait in the Cosmo Caffe.
A city-run arts center for children, founded in 1952 as the Dom pionira and at Takovska 8 since 1968. Inside are studios for painting, comics, printmaking and animation, rooms for ballet, singing and acting, a children's choir, and a stage for kids' and teen shows.
Most programs are workshops kids sign up for, and one theater workshop runs in English. The center also organizes the Radost Evrope children's festival.
Five days off in a row: schools close Wednesday 11 to Friday 13 November, starting with Armistice Day, and the weekend stretches it to Sunday. November is often gray and wet, so most of these plans are under a roof: hands-on science, ice skating, a jump park, fish tanks and a children's stage. Here's what we checked, from the Nikola Tesla Museum to the Belgrade Zoo.
The museum follows Nikola Tesla as an inventor and as a person, through authentic working models of his machines, his personal belongings and a film about his life by Dr. Branimir Jovanović.
Every visit is a guided tour, so a guide walks each group through the rooms and presents the machines. It suits school-age kids curious about electricity and inventions more than toddlers.
The museum fills the 1928 building of Serbia's first public power station, in Dorćol. On the ground floor, a science playroom lets kids feel centrifugal force, test their balance and puzzle over optical illusions, and a toy gallery shows over 150 toys from 1920 to 1970 at kid height.
The Aleksandar Despić gallery holds 400-plus objects, from steamships and old printing to the first Serbian-made computers and Tesla's induction motor.
Palata nauke is a hands-on science center with over 30 exhibits in four zones: Human, Earth, Technology and Universe. Kids can try VR and AR, see robots at work, and look at a spacesuit.
Europe's largest interactive globe, 3 meters across, shows over 500 projections of Earth and other planets from NASA data. A 36-seat dome planetarium screens 360° films, and the fifth floor has a STEAM area for preschoolers.
NTC Learning Month is a program at BIG Fashion mall built on the NTC learning system, which pushes kids to think, link ideas and solve problems instead of memorizing. It's used in more than 20 European countries.
Kids work through agility courses, NTC board games and brain teasers, then can come back to cheer on school teams at a quiz final. A closing lecture explains the method to anyone curious.
The Natural History Museum shows its collections here, in a small 19th-century Ottoman-style guardhouse on Mali Kalemegdan that once guarded the main approach to the fortress from Stambol Gate. Exhibitions rotate, around 60 since it opened in 1994, each on a different chapter of natural history.
Curators run talks and kids' workshops alongside each exhibition, the Green Salon side room holds mini shows, and a shop sells nature souvenirs.
A rock musical about good against evil, with a princess, a hero, an empress, a witch, a villain and a court jester. Live actors perform in front of a projected storybook screen while rock songs carry the plot. The story asks what is true, whether love beats fear, and whether evil can be beaten. Good wins, but only after a fight, so it suits kids who can handle a villain and loud music.
A hands-on aquarium and reptile house run by the Aquaria Life association. Tanks hold fish from the Sava and Danube, the Adriatic and tropical coral reefs, plus 50 koi carp in a 6-meter tank. The reptile corner has snakes, leopard geckos, iguanas, tarantulas and scorpions, and staff can arrange time with some of the animals. Outside, a garden keeps red-eared turtles, koi and bonsai trees.
A hands-on illusion museum on three levels, where most exhibits are meant to be touched and photographed. Kids walk the spinning Vortex Tunnel, shrink and grow in the Ames room, pose in an upside-down room and play poker with five of their own clones.
Inside the exhibition, a puzzle playroom has wooden Dilemma games for kids to work through between rooms.
The Railway Museum fills the ground floor of the 1931 Serbian Railways headquarters, with a steam locomotive parked at the entrance. Inside are scale models of steam engines, including Stephenson's Rocket, plus signal lamps and flags, conductors' ticket punches, engraved railway pocket watches, a telegraph desk and three track handcars from 1928 and 1943.
It suits train-obsessed kids as a short stop rather than a half-day outing.
Pionir Ice Hall opened in 1978 and is the city's largest indoor ice rink, built to international standards for hockey and figure skating competitions. Between matches and shows, the rink runs public skating sessions through the cold months.
The SC Tasmajdan skating school teaches beginners to balance, stop and turn safely in 45-minute group lessons, a good base for figure skating or hockey later.
Belgrade Zoo fills about 7 hectares inside Kalemegdan Fortress park and keeps around 200 species. Kids look for the white lions and white tigers, watch the penguins in their 2019 enclosure, and find Muja, an American alligator that has lived here since 1937.
A petting zoo has alpacas, rabbits and pygmy goats, and two cafés and ice cream stands sit inside the grounds.
A 204-meter TV tower on Avala mountain, rebuilt after NATO bombing destroyed the original in 1999. Two fast lifts climb to a circular viewing deck at 122 meters, with four binoculars and views stretching from Šumadija to Vršac.
At the foot, in pine forest, kids get a playground, the Elf Village (six treehouses linked by hanging bridges), a 7.5-meter climbing wall with instructors, and two sports courts.
An indoor trampoline park inside the Galerija shopping center, set up as a run of sports challenges. Kids tackle a Ninja Warrior obstacle course, dunk on trampoline basketball hoops, face off on a balance beam, try the long jump trampoline and play in a dodgeball arena.
Jumpers must be over 130cm tall, so it suits school-age kids and teens more than toddlers. Parents can wait in the Cosmo Caffe.
A city-run arts center for children, founded in 1952 as the Dom pionira and at Takovska 8 since 1968. Inside are studios for painting, comics, printmaking and animation, rooms for ballet, singing and acting, a children's choir, and a stage for kids' and teen shows.
Most programs are workshops kids sign up for, and one theater workshop runs in English. The center also organizes the Radost Evrope children's festival.
