The full day transfer tour from Belgrade to Pristina is created to offer the best possible travel experience while traveling from Serbia to Kosovo, or vice versa.
We will take you on a life time journey that will enable you to delve deep into the history puzzles and complex political situations on the margins of the different perspectives while, at the same time, enjoying the amazing Ibar Valley, learning the legends about Serbian kingdom, taking a peak into the local life of completely off the tourist trails Sandzak, admiring the UNESCO sites and walking the one of the most notorious Balkan bridges and cities – Mitrovica bridge.
This is a full day private transfer tour which is fully customisable so please do not hesitate to contact our team with any of your ideas or preferences.
Pickup Time Due to complexity of the trip it is recommended to start at 7 AM.
Pickup Locations We shall pick you up in whole area of Belgrade, or Pristina in case you are traveling the opposite direction.
Activity Note: Our team always strive to provide unique experiences by perfectly combining intriguing history and unbiased stories with astonishing nature and cultural sites. This full day transfer tour is created to take you to some of the amazing and completely off the tourist trails places while conveniently connecting Serbia and Kosovo. If you would like to start/end in reverse direction, please do not hesitate to contact our team.
We will start our drive from Belgrade with a pick up from your address in early morning hours. For those who haven’t had breakfast yet, no worries, a roughly 2hrs drive through Central Serbia suburbs will provide a handful of tasty local choices along the way.
>Our team will meet you at your address in Belgrade and will make sure to provide the best possible travel experience you had so far while slowly introducing you into complex Balkan’s history and unrivalled nature beauty.
Today we will introduce you to the story of Serbia, its rulers over the history, and start asking the questions about Kosovo with each mile we get closer to. Rest assured it will be an overwhelming day with handful of intact nature everyone wants but nobody cares for, an incredible amount of religious and cultural endowments along with the personal stories based on the self interpreted history.
After the two hours, we will reach Kraljevo and drive along the amazing Ibar Valley embraced by the mountains from both sides. For the next 2hrs expect vast space of spectacular sceneries and endless landscapes. The natural gates of Ibar Valley represent the amazing medieval fort Maglic nested 100 meters from the river and the main road. This stone crown stands on the grassy piedestal looming over the Ibar river that has guarded the canyon ever since the 13th century.
We will take a short walk and hear some legends about this fortress whose stubborn lilac trees are challenging even the best historians. Known to be a guardian of medieval Serbia, the Maglic fortress is also very often called a basin of Ibar the Valley of Kings, the Valley of Centuries, and the the Valley of Lilacs.
>The view from Maglic fort looming over the Ibar Gorge which is completely enclosed by UNESCO’s Biosphere Reservation Golija on one side and the National Park Kopaonik on the other side.
Ibar valley will guide us through the Raska region which, during the medieval times, was a centre of the the Serbian Kingdom. Depending who you ask for the name, the region is known either as Raska or Sandzak.
At the very entrance to Novi Pazar we will have a chance to visit the oldest Orthodox church in Serbia and further, the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
According to the 17th century legend, the church was founded by Titus, follower of the Apostle Paul in the 7th century. Moreover, archeological excavations showed an Illyrian presence dating from the 5th century BC. Years of alterations and repairs made the church to become a unique religious temple which, along with the old town of Ras became protected by UNESCO list of world cultural heritage as part of the medieval monuments.
>Founded in 7th century, Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul was, besides being the oldest monument of church architecture in Serbia, also an original seat of the Raska episcopate dating from IX or X century.
It is a public secret that post-Yugoslavian countries are looking for a big brother in other world’s countries. Therefore, although Serbia is strongly connected to Russia, region of Sandzak found it a safe haven under the auspices of Turkey.
As soon as we enter Raska, it will seem we have entered a school example of cultural and religious contrasts. Sandzak, along with Kosovo, will at the beginning seem as an experiment and attempt to see how it will look if we raise the religious temples high up in the sky, glorify history, force national pride and, later on, bystand with fear the potential consequences. Which, at least on a first glance, there are none.
After some nice and easy walks in the city, enjoying panoramas from the Novi Pazar fort and vibrant carsija (bazaar), we will head for a lunch. Over the lunch we will make sure to try famous Novi pazar cevapi and mantije which are considered to be the queen of the Balkan tradition of pie making. If you ever enjoyed burek, you will love mantije. Along with the cevapi and mantije, we will try a special type of salad, Sjenica peppers, side dish commonly served as a salad from the town of Sjenica. These peppers are made completely soaked in the sour cream and the tradition of preparing it goes deep into the past of Sandzak’s families.
> Completely off the beaten tourist track of Serbia, Novi Pazar used to be a capital city of the medieval Serbian state in the 12th–14th century. With its amazingly turbulent history, Novi Pazar today stands proudly as a home to over 30 protected cultural, as well as both, muslim and orthodox monuments out of which 3 are UNESCO protected.
Following the path of centuries old history, we will arrive at the Old town of Ras (Lat. Arsa) which will be our next stop. Arsa was one of the first capitals of the medieval Serbian state Raška which historically also included north-eastern parts of modern Montenegro, and some of the most eastern parts of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Back in the time, it was the most important capital in the region which, nowadays, is known as Sandzak.
The Arsa dates back from the 4th to 6th century, and had a huge strategic importance as the crossroad and heart of trading routes between medieval civilisation and neighbouring regions. We will walk the ancient civilisation paths through the undisclosed ruins of Arsa and learn the history which put this site back to the Roman and Byzantine Empires.
> On the outskirts of Arsa, we will find another Orthodox treasure, UNESCO protected Monastery Sopocani, an endowment built from 1259 to 1270 by King Stefan Uroš I of Serbia. Frescoes we will find at the Sopocani Monastery are considered as some of the finest frescoes in Byzantine and Serbian medieval art.
Once we are introduced to Novi Pazar, Raska and Sandzak, we will head towards Kosovo and the (un)famous (Kosovska) Mitrovica. Mitrovica’s present ground was, due to its geographical position between the two rivers Ibar and Sitnica, a prehistoric centre and an Illirian necropolis.
Our time travel will go from the ancient civilisations, Roman and Byzantine Empires, Serbian kings all the way to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, its prides and prejudices and the fact the this city was once named “Titova Mitrovica”. Due to the previous conflicts, in 2013 during the local elections, the city was divided into the municipalities of North and South Mitrovica making it a one city under the two roofs, two institutions, two systems and, moreover, two states.
After the coffee in Mitrovica, we will head for a last stop before we hit Pristina- Yugoslavian spomenik built by a famous Yugoslav architect, Bogan Bogdanovic, the same architect who was in charge of the spectacular Jasenovac monument.
> The massive concrete monument is dedicated to those who lost their lives during the World War II, and will be a perfect chance to, once again, make a short time travel back to the theatre of communism playing the socialist drama.
Just an hour of drive and we will reach Pristina, Kosovo’s capital and one of the cities that will overwhelm you only after you completely soak it in. We will drop you off at your hotel or previously agreed address.
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