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Serbia eSIM
6 data plans · from £5.00 · instant QR code by email
Choose your plan
Travelling as a group? Buy everyone an eSIM in one checkout and the discount is applied automatically — no code needed. See group pricing
6 data plans · from £5.00 · instant QR code by email
Travelling as a group? Buy everyone an eSIM in one checkout and the discount is applied automatically — no code needed. See group pricing
30 days
Maps, messaging and everyday travel
£9.10
£1.74/GB
Buy →
Connects automatically to the strongest signal across VIP.
Setup
It takes about a minute. Tap the install link we email you, leave the line switched off, then switch it on when you land — and you're online.
On iPhone (iOS)
On Android
Serbia: 7 plans, from 3 to 20 GB. Validity runs from 1 day to 30 days. None of these run on 5G — the Serbia networks we resell are LTE only. We would rather say so here than let you find out on arrival.
5 plans can be topped up without installing a second eSIM. Plans run on VIP.
Counted from our live catalogue, not a marketing figure — the plan list above this section is the same data.
No regional bundle includes Serbia cover — a single-country plan is the only option here, and it is usually the cheaper one anyway.
A Serbia travel eSIM is a digital SIM that downloads straight to your phone — no plastic card, no queuing at an airport counter. You buy online, tap the install link we email you (the QR code is in there too), and your phone adds a second line alongside your normal SIM. It stays dormant until your trip begins, then connects automatically to VIP on LTE. Your normal number carries on working for calls and texts while the eSIM handles the data.
Maps, messaging and taxi apps use very little data — roughly 300–500 MB a day. If you add photos, social media and the occasional video, expect to use closer to 1 GB a day. For a one-week trip, a 5 GB plan is usually plenty; for two weeks, tethering, or heavy use, opt for 10 GB or more, or choose a top-up plan you can reload as you go. Serbia plans start at £5.00 across 6 sizes, with the per-GB price clearly shown so you can easily spot the best value.
Yes. A Serbia travel eSIM is a local data plan rather than international roaming — you pay the price you saw online, and there are no per-megabyte charges from your home network provider. Set the eSIM as your mobile data line, switch data roaming off on your normal SIM, and nothing unexpected turns up on your next bill. Full refund at any time before installation, so buying ahead costs you nothing.
Ćevapi
Small grilled fingers of minced meat, served in a lepinja flatbread with raw onion and kajmak. Ordered by the count rather than the portion.
Leskovac in the south is the acknowledged home of the grill; every town has a ćevabdžinica.
Pljeskavica
The same meat mix pressed into one large patty and grilled. The Leskovac version is made with chilli; the punjena version is stuffed with cheese and kajmak.
Grills everywhere, and at the Leskovac grill festival at the end of summer.
Karađorđeva šnicla
A sheet of veal or pork rolled around kajmak, breaded and fried, then served with tartare sauce. Invented in a Belgrade kitchen in the 1950s and unapologetically enormous.
Traditional kafanas in Belgrade.
Kajmak
A salted, matured dairy skin somewhere between clotted cream and a young cheese. Spread on bread, melted over grilled meat, or eaten on its own.
Markets, where it is scooped from a tub and sold by weight. Zlatibor is known for it.
Ajvar
Roasted red peppers cooked down with aubergine into a thick relish, made in vast quantities during the autumn pepper season and jarred for the year.
Markets in September and October, when whole streets smell of roasting peppers.
Urnebes
A rough paste of white cheese, garlic and hot paprika from the south. Served alongside grilled meat and considerably fiercer than it looks.
Grills in Leskovac, Niš and Belgrade.
Burek
Coiled layers of thin pastry filled with meat, cheese or spinach, sold by weight and eaten for breakfast with a drinking yoghurt.
Bakeries from early morning; the good ones sell out before lunch.
Gibanica
A baked pie of crumpled filo, white cheese and eggs, served warm. A staple at every family gathering.
Bakeries and kafanas nationwide.
Sarma
Minced meat and rice rolled in soured cabbage leaves and slow-cooked with smoked pork. Winter food and a fixture of the slava, the family patron saint's day.
Kafanas from autumn onward.
Rakija
Fruit brandy, most commonly šljivovica distilled from plums, but also from quince, apricot and pear. Served at the start of a meal rather than the end, and homemade batches vary enormously in strength.
Rakija bars in Belgrade for the range; village households for the real thing.
Belgrade Fortress and KalemegdanBelgrade
Ramparts on the bluff where the Sava meets the Danube, with layers from Roman to Ottoman to Austrian, and the park that Belgraders treat as their front garden.
half a day
SkadarlijaBelgrade
A short cobbled street of nineteenth-century kafanas with live tamburica music in the evenings. Touristy and knows it, but the food and the noise are genuine.
an evening
Petrovaradin FortressNovi Sad
A vast Austrian star fortress above the Danube with kilometres of tunnels beneath it and a clock tower whose hands are deliberately reversed so boatmen could read it from the river.
half a day
Fruška Gora monasteriesVojvodina
A low wooded ridge above the Danube plain holding a cluster of Orthodox monasteries and most of Vojvodina's vineyards. Easily combined with Novi Sad.
a day
SuboticaSubotica
A Hungarian-influenced town on the northern border with a Secession-style town hall and synagogue in coloured tile and stained glass — architecture unlike anywhere else in the country.
a day
Uvac canyonnear Nova Varoš
Tight river meanders below limestone cliffs, home to a griffon vulture colony. Seen properly by boat, with a climb to the viewpoint above the bends.
a day · book ahead
Mokra GoraMokra Gora
The Šargan Eight, a narrow-gauge heritage railway that loops back over itself to gain height, and Drvengrad, a wooden village built as a film set and kept as a working one.
a day · book ahead
Tara National ParkBajina Bašta
Pine forest above the Drina gorge, with the Banjska Stena viewpoint over the river and the small house standing on a rock midstream that appears on half the country's postcards.
two days
Studenica Monasterynear Kraljevo
A twelfth-century monastery in white marble, UNESCO-listed, with frescoes among the most important in the Orthodox world and a working monastic community.
half a day
NišNiš
The southern city, with an Ottoman fortress in the centre, the Skull Tower built from the heads of defeated rebels in 1809, and the Mediana ruins of Constantine's villa on the edge of town.
a day
High-speed train to Novi Sad and Subotica
The Soko service runs north from Belgrade on the new high-speed line, reaching Novi Sad in well under an hour and continuing to Subotica. Seats are reserved and it is the one genuinely fast rail journey in the country.
low
Other trains
Srbija Voz runs the rest of the network slowly and thinly. The exception worth taking for its own sake is the line south through Montenegro toward Bar, one of the more dramatic rail journeys in Europe.
low
Intercity bus
The real backbone of Serbian transport, reaching towns the railway does not. Belgrade's intercity departures no longer all leave from the old central station, so confirm which terminal your ticket uses before setting out.
low
Belgrade city transport
Buses, trams and trolleybuses cover the city densely. The ticketing arrangement has changed more than once in recent years, so check what applies when you arrive rather than assuming.
very low
Car hire
Motorways along the Corridor 10 route are good and tolled, paid at booths by card or cash. Roads into the western mountains and the Uvac area are much slower than the map suggests.
moderate, plus tolls and fuel
Ride-hailing
CarGo, Yandex Go
Uber and Bolt do not operate in Serbia. CarGo is the domestic app and the one locals use; Yandex Go is also present. Street taxis are metered but the ranks outside the airport and the bus stations have a long-standing reputation for overcharging, so book through an app or the official desk.
Paying for things
Basics
| New Year | 1 and 2 January | Two-day holiday; most businesses closed and Belgrade very busy on the night itself. |
| Orthodox Christmas | 7 January | Public holiday. Church services on Christmas Eve draw crowds; many shops close. |
| Statehood Day | 15 and 16 February | Two-day national holiday marking the 1804 uprising and the 1835 constitution. A common long weekend for domestic breaks. |
| Orthodox Easter | Good Friday through Easter Monday, moving each year and usually later than western Easter | Four-day holiday. Intercity buses fill and cities empty toward the villages. |
| Labour Day | 1 and 2 May | Two days off, traditionally spent grilling outdoors. Mountain and river resorts are full. |
| Armistice Day | 11 November | National holiday marking the end of the First World War, marked with the Natalie's ramonda flower emblem. |
| Slava days | each family's patron saint day, most commonly St Nicholas on 19 December, St John on 20 January and St George on 6 May | Not public holidays, but households hosting a slava are occupied all day and small family businesses may close without notice. |
Recurring dates — the day these fall on moves year to year.