Central Serbia: Avala Mountain & Oplenac Royal Complex private day trip from Belgrade

This tour offers a fantastic blend of history and natural beauty, as well as a chance to taste some of Serbia’s best wines, all within easy reach of the capital. Our tour starts at your accommodation, and we are heading towards the central Serbian province of Šumadija, Serbia’s scenic heartland. We’ll enjoy the beautiful landscapes and hear stories about the Serbian struggle for independence from the Ottomans at the beginning of the 19th century and the history of the royal dynasty Karadjordjević.

Avala Mountain

After only 20 minutes, our first stop will be Mount Avala, Belgrade green mountain. Situated less than 20km south of the city center, it is one of Belgrade’s most popular green areas, a perfect spot for recreation, picnics, or just enjoying nature. Entirely covered with wood, it houses many birds and animal species. We drive through green forests until we reach the highest spot of Avala. In the 1930’s Aleksandar I, King of Yugoslavia, decided to destroy a medieval fortress of Žrnov that was situated here to build the largest monument in the kingdom – Monument to the Unknown Hero. For this job, he engaged his court artist, world-renowned sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, who created a majestic black marble structure with colossal sculptures resembling antique tombs. We’ll hear some exciting stories about how it was constructed and the monument’s symbolism.

Avala TV Tower

After that, we go down to the second largest hilltop of Avala, 440m high, where the Avala tower is situated. Built in the 1960s as a TV tower, it was the largest concrete structure and the tallest structure in the entire Balkans. During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the tower was bombed and destroyed. It was reconstructed according to the same plans and reopened for visitors. The two elevators take us up to 123m with a viewpoint from which you stay breathless: you can see the Central Serbian province of Sumadija and the entire Belgrade, including the two rivers’ confluence in the region of Vojvodina behind. After a short break, we get back into the vehicle, and we continue with our trip.

Topola & Oplenac

Half an hour on the scenic route will get us to Topola, a handsome town perched on a hill. Here, we will visit the Karadjordje’s Konak and the old church, a place where Djordje Petrovic Karadjordje, one of the most important characters in Serbian history, lived and from where he started the First Serbian Uprising, a war against the Ottoman invaders.

Oplenac Royal Complex

After that, we’ll climb to Oplenac Hill, a beautiful green area covered with wood, where a Royal endowment, the St. George church, is situated on the highest point.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the church was built as a house of prayer and a mausoleum – a resting place for all the Serbian (later Yugoslav) Royal family of Karadjordjevic members. A tall and elegant, Byzantine-style five-dome church is completely covered with white marble from Venčac, a mine in the vicinity of Topola.

But, what leaves you breathless is not the church’s appearance but its interior, a spectacle of colors and light, lavishly decorated marble floors, and colored glass mosaics with gold plates on the walls. A surface of 3,500 m2 is covered with more than 40 million pieces of tiles in more than 15,000 shades of different colors, representing the most extensive gallery of copies of Serbian medieval fresco paintings in one place. In the left and the right wing of the church, two of the most prominent members of the Royal family are buried: Karadjordje himself, as a founder of the family, and King Petar I, the first crowned ruler.

Under the church, in a crypt decorated in the same manner, there are 40 tombs of the members of the Royal dynasty Karadjordjevic.

Next, we will visit the small museum next to the church, which shows an invaluable collection of the Royal regalias and the personal belongings of the Royal family members.

After a lunch break and some free time walking among the woods and parks around the church, we’ll visit the royal vineyards and the old cellar. Here, we’ll see how vine production used to look and some of the old equipment utilized in that process.

After our eyes and souls are fed with beauty, we return to Belgrade in the early evening.

• The default departure time is 09:30. If you want a different departure time, you should contact us and let us know what time you would like to start the tour.
• Pick-up from any hotel, Airbnb, a pension up to 10 km from Republic Square, or from Belgrade port is free of charge.
• If you want to start your tour at Belgrade airport, you can do that with a 15€ supplement.

09:30 Hotel pick-up
09:30 – 10:00 Tour start & travel through Central Serbia
10:00 – 11:00 The Monument to the Unknown Hero & Avala TV Tower
12:00 – 12:30 Karađorđe’s Konak
12:30 – 13:00 St. George’s Church
13:00 – 13:30 King Petar The First’s Museum
13:45 – 15:00 Lunch break (at own expense)
15:15 – 15:45 The Royal Winery
15:45 – 17:00 Driving through Central Serbia, towards Belgrade
17:00 Hotel drop-off (approximate time, depending on the traffic conditions)

• Confirmation will be received at the time of booking.
• Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level.

We apply very simple rules. If you cancel the tour up to 24 hrs before, you’ll get a 100% refund. If you cancel the tour less than 24 hrs before the trip, you will not receive any refund.