Family is in town and everyone wants to see the city, kids included. These are the sights that work for both: fortress walls above the meeting of two rivers, museums with planes and tanks, a river cruise, and day trips up the Danube when you have a spare day. Here's what we checked, from Kalemegdan's ramparts to the cake cafés of Sremski Karlovci.
Belgrade Fortress sits on a ridge where the Sava meets the Danube, with Kalemegdan Park wrapped around its walls. Kids can walk the ramparts and old gates, find the Victor monument and the fortress cannon, and go down into the Roman Well, a military bunker or the Nebojša Tower.
The park side has two open playgrounds, a Dino park and the Belgrade Zoo, plus basketball and tennis courts.
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.
An outdoor park of life-size dinosaur models in Mali Kalemegdan, next to the Belgrade Fortress. Kids walk the paths between the models, then let off steam at the on-site playground.
An open-air cafe serves drinks for parents, and a souvenir shop sells toys and keepsakes. The park also hosts birthday parties, with food, drinks, decoration and music organized by the team.
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 of Yugoslavia is three buildings, the May 25 Museum, the Old Museum and the House of Flowers, joined by a sculpture park in leafy Dedinje. The May 25 Museum opened in 1962 as a birthday gift to Josip Broz Tito, who is buried in the House of Flowers.
Exhibitions trace life in Yugoslavia through the museum's collection, and the permanent exhibition has a creative corner for kids.
The Military Museum sits on a bastion of the Belgrade Fortress at Kalemegdan. Inside, more than 3,000 objects fill 52 rooms: weapons, uniforms, flags and medals tracing Serbian military history from the medieval states to the wars of the 1990s.
Outside, cannons, tanks and armored vehicles from Germany, Italy, Russia, the USA and more stand around the building, including the only surviving Polish TK-3 tankette.
Belgrade's largest and oldest museum, founded in 1844, fills three floors and 5,000 square meters with a permanent collection running from the Paleolithic to 20th-century art.
Kids can look for prehistoric sculptures from Vinča and Lepenski Vir, some over 8,000 years old, then hunt down paintings by Renoir, Monet and Van Gogh. Its treasures include the Miroslav Gospels, an illustrated manuscript from 1186.
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.
Gardoš Tower is a 36-meter brick and stone lookout built in 1896, standing inside the ruins of the medieval Zemun Fortress on Gardoš hill. Inside, vertical staircases climb past an art gallery to a balcony viewpoint over the red roofs of Zemun and the Danube.
Kids can explore the crumbling fortress corner towers around the base, and locals still call it the Tower of John Hunyadi.
Zemunski kej is a riverside promenade that runs for kilometers along the Danube. Along the way are cafés on moored barges, restaurants, an amusement park and the former Hotel Jugoslavija, once the city's largest hotel. Kej Oslobođenja park sits on the quay itself.
In summer, a seasonal pontoon bridge links Zemun to Great War Island, and the Leto na Keju festival holds events by the river.
A guided sightseeing cruise on the Sava and the Danube, boarding at Beton Hala below the old town. The boat passes Kalemegdan Fortress and Nebojša Tower, heads out to the confluence with views of Great War Island and Zemun, then runs upriver past Belgrade Waterfront and under the Branko, Gazela and Ada bridges.
Guides on the daytime cruise speak English. The club also runs sunset and dinner cruises.
Ada Ciganlija is a former river island on the Sava, now a 6km-long peninsula beside Lake Sava. Its man-made beaches run about 6km, hold the Blue Flag, and have lifeguards through the bathing season.
Away from the water there are playgrounds, including a natural-wood Eco Park, a hands-on Science Park with physics and astronomy exhibits, mini golf, paddle boats, and a tourist train that loops the lake.
Ušće Park spreads over 52 hectares of lawns, paths and trees on the point where the Sava meets the Danube, the largest park area in the city. Kids can bike the paths, watch the skaters at the skatepark, and look across the water to Kalemegdan fortress and Great War Island.
In winter, birdwatchers come for the rare waterbirds off the banks.
Jevremovac is a botanical garden run by the Institute of Botany, with more than 1,300 plant species outdoors. Its centerpiece is a Victorian glass greenhouse from 1892, with rainforest plants under the dome and desert succulents in the north wing.
Outside, paths lead past a Japanese garden with stepping stones over water, a water lily pool, a bamboo maze, a children's corner and oaks more than 140 years old.
The Aeronautical Museum keeps the aviation heritage of Serbia and Yugoslavia in a glass-domed building at Nikola Tesla Airport, opened in 1989 and now a protected cultural monument.
Its collections hold over 200 aircraft. Planes stand on two levels under the dome, with more in an open-air display outside, among them a Spitfire, a Hurricane, a Messerschmitt Me 109 and a P-47 Thunderbolt.
Novi Sad sits on the Danube, with Petrovaradin Fortress on the bank opposite the old town. The fortress area holds museums, galleries, cafes and around a hundred art studios.
Across the river, the old center runs from Liberty Square, with the City Hall and the Church of the Name of Mary, along Zmaj Jovina Street to the Bishop's Palace. Štrand, the city beach, is open for swimming in summer.
Petrovaradin Fortress was built above the Danube between 1692 and 1780, on three levels. Kids can climb the 214 stone steps to the Upper Fortress, find the Clock Tower whose big hand shows the hour, and look across the river to Novi Sad. Underneath run more than 16 km of military tunnels. The Arsenal now holds the City Museum of Novi Sad, and a bastion holds the Planetarium.
Sremski Karlovci is a historic town on the Danube in Vojvodina. Its main square holds the Four Lions Fountain from 1799, ringed by the Patriarchal Court, the Clerical High School and the oldest Serbian high school.
Kids can take the sip from the fountain that legend says brings you back, visit the Beekeeping Museum, or use the playgrounds in Dvorska Garden and along the river.
Family is in town and everyone wants to see the city, kids included. These are the sights that work for both: fortress walls above the meeting of two rivers, museums with planes and tanks, a river cruise, and day trips up the Danube when you have a spare day. Here's what we checked, from Kalemegdan's ramparts to the cake cafés of Sremski Karlovci.
Belgrade Fortress sits on a ridge where the Sava meets the Danube, with Kalemegdan Park wrapped around its walls. Kids can walk the ramparts and old gates, find the Victor monument and the fortress cannon, and go down into the Roman Well, a military bunker or the Nebojša Tower.
The park side has two open playgrounds, a Dino park and the Belgrade Zoo, plus basketball and tennis courts.
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.
An outdoor park of life-size dinosaur models in Mali Kalemegdan, next to the Belgrade Fortress. Kids walk the paths between the models, then let off steam at the on-site playground.
An open-air cafe serves drinks for parents, and a souvenir shop sells toys and keepsakes. The park also hosts birthday parties, with food, drinks, decoration and music organized by the team.
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 of Yugoslavia is three buildings, the May 25 Museum, the Old Museum and the House of Flowers, joined by a sculpture park in leafy Dedinje. The May 25 Museum opened in 1962 as a birthday gift to Josip Broz Tito, who is buried in the House of Flowers.
Exhibitions trace life in Yugoslavia through the museum's collection, and the permanent exhibition has a creative corner for kids.
The Military Museum sits on a bastion of the Belgrade Fortress at Kalemegdan. Inside, more than 3,000 objects fill 52 rooms: weapons, uniforms, flags and medals tracing Serbian military history from the medieval states to the wars of the 1990s.
Outside, cannons, tanks and armored vehicles from Germany, Italy, Russia, the USA and more stand around the building, including the only surviving Polish TK-3 tankette.
Belgrade's largest and oldest museum, founded in 1844, fills three floors and 5,000 square meters with a permanent collection running from the Paleolithic to 20th-century art.
Kids can look for prehistoric sculptures from Vinča and Lepenski Vir, some over 8,000 years old, then hunt down paintings by Renoir, Monet and Van Gogh. Its treasures include the Miroslav Gospels, an illustrated manuscript from 1186.
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.
Gardoš Tower is a 36-meter brick and stone lookout built in 1896, standing inside the ruins of the medieval Zemun Fortress on Gardoš hill. Inside, vertical staircases climb past an art gallery to a balcony viewpoint over the red roofs of Zemun and the Danube.
Kids can explore the crumbling fortress corner towers around the base, and locals still call it the Tower of John Hunyadi.
Zemunski kej is a riverside promenade that runs for kilometers along the Danube. Along the way are cafés on moored barges, restaurants, an amusement park and the former Hotel Jugoslavija, once the city's largest hotel. Kej Oslobođenja park sits on the quay itself.
In summer, a seasonal pontoon bridge links Zemun to Great War Island, and the Leto na Keju festival holds events by the river.
A guided sightseeing cruise on the Sava and the Danube, boarding at Beton Hala below the old town. The boat passes Kalemegdan Fortress and Nebojša Tower, heads out to the confluence with views of Great War Island and Zemun, then runs upriver past Belgrade Waterfront and under the Branko, Gazela and Ada bridges.
Guides on the daytime cruise speak English. The club also runs sunset and dinner cruises.
Ada Ciganlija is a former river island on the Sava, now a 6km-long peninsula beside Lake Sava. Its man-made beaches run about 6km, hold the Blue Flag, and have lifeguards through the bathing season.
Away from the water there are playgrounds, including a natural-wood Eco Park, a hands-on Science Park with physics and astronomy exhibits, mini golf, paddle boats, and a tourist train that loops the lake.
Ušće Park spreads over 52 hectares of lawns, paths and trees on the point where the Sava meets the Danube, the largest park area in the city. Kids can bike the paths, watch the skaters at the skatepark, and look across the water to Kalemegdan fortress and Great War Island.
In winter, birdwatchers come for the rare waterbirds off the banks.
Jevremovac is a botanical garden run by the Institute of Botany, with more than 1,300 plant species outdoors. Its centerpiece is a Victorian glass greenhouse from 1892, with rainforest plants under the dome and desert succulents in the north wing.
Outside, paths lead past a Japanese garden with stepping stones over water, a water lily pool, a bamboo maze, a children's corner and oaks more than 140 years old.
The Aeronautical Museum keeps the aviation heritage of Serbia and Yugoslavia in a glass-domed building at Nikola Tesla Airport, opened in 1989 and now a protected cultural monument.
Its collections hold over 200 aircraft. Planes stand on two levels under the dome, with more in an open-air display outside, among them a Spitfire, a Hurricane, a Messerschmitt Me 109 and a P-47 Thunderbolt.
Novi Sad sits on the Danube, with Petrovaradin Fortress on the bank opposite the old town. The fortress area holds museums, galleries, cafes and around a hundred art studios.
Across the river, the old center runs from Liberty Square, with the City Hall and the Church of the Name of Mary, along Zmaj Jovina Street to the Bishop's Palace. Štrand, the city beach, is open for swimming in summer.
Petrovaradin Fortress was built above the Danube between 1692 and 1780, on three levels. Kids can climb the 214 stone steps to the Upper Fortress, find the Clock Tower whose big hand shows the hour, and look across the river to Novi Sad. Underneath run more than 16 km of military tunnels. The Arsenal now holds the City Museum of Novi Sad, and a bastion holds the Planetarium.
Sremski Karlovci is a historic town on the Danube in Vojvodina. Its main square holds the Four Lions Fountain from 1799, ringed by the Patriarchal Court, the Clerical High School and the oldest Serbian high school.
Kids can take the sip from the fountain that legend says brings you back, visit the Beekeeping Museum, or use the playgrounds in Dvorska Garden and along the river.
