Novi Sad & Sremski Karlovci: Petrovaradin Fortress & Wine Tasting

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/21

Duration8h–9h

GroupUp to 16

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

The Danube fortress that held back empires, and a wine that sailed on the Titanic.

You leave Belgrade early with a professional guide, drive through Vojvodina's agricultural heartland, visit a 16th-century Orthodox monastery hidden in forest, walk a baroque town where a peace treaty was signed, taste a 250-year-old dessert wine in a family cellar, climb a 17th-century fortress overlooking the Danube, and explore Serbia's second-largest city on foot with free time for lunch. Hotel pickup and drop-off included; the full day takes around 10 hours.

8h–9h

Step-by-step itinerary

Northern Serbia tour from Belgrade

Pick up from Belgrade hotel
Drive through Vojvodina plains
Arrive at Fruška Gora mountain
Visit Krušedol Orthodox monastery
Explore Sremski Karlovci town
Taste Bermet wine locally
Tour Petrovaradin Fortress
Visit Novi Sad city sights
Free time in Novi Sad
Return to Belgrade hotel

The Experience

You're leaving Belgrade at dawn with a guide who actually knows why Vojvodina matters — not just the names, but the weight of it. An hour north through the Pannonian plain, and the landscape flattens into something almost hypnotic: wheat fields that stretch until the horizon bends, the kind of soil locals say will grow a coat if you drop a button in it. Your guide talks about the 25 ethnic groups living here, six official languages, the Ottoman wars that carved this region into what it is now. It's not a speech; it's the kind of thing you notice because someone who lives here is pointing it out.

First stop is Fruška Gora, the only mountain in a region that is otherwise flat, and it's wrapped in forests and vineyards. Somewhere in those woods are 17 Orthodox monasteries — actual medieval buildings that survived Ottoman occupation because the thick trees hid them. You visit Krušedol, founded in the early 1500s, and walk through a church where frescoes from the 1700s are still on the walls. The air is quiet in a way that makes you understand why people retreated here. After that, Sremski Karlovci hits differently — a baroque town where the streets are narrow and the buildings look like they stopped aging around 1750. You walk past the Chapel of Peace, where a treaty was actually signed in 1699 that ended Ottoman expansion into Europe. The Four Lions Fountain is in the main square. The Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas is there. The Patriarchy. The Theological Seminary. All of it packed into a town small enough to cross on foot.

Then comes the wine cellar, and you taste Bermet — a sweet, dark red dessert wine that's been made here for over 250 years and somehow made it onto the Titanic. Two glasses, and the cellar owner or a family member tells you the secrets they keep, the ones every winemaking family guards. It's 15 to 18 percent alcohol hiding under sweetness, and there's a saying about it that makes people laugh. After that, you're at Petrovaradin Fortress, the one they call Gibraltar on the Danube. It's massive — 100 hectares, built by Austria in the 1600s and 1700s to stop Ottoman attacks. You walk the top of it, past the Clock Tower, and the view opens onto the Danube and Novi Sad below. The fortress is still standing because it was built to last.

Novi Sad is the second-largest city in Serbia, and it looks like Central Europe — 18th and 19th-century architecture, wide streets, the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral with its famous iconostasis, the Synagogue in Hungarian Secession style. You walk through it with your guide pointing out the Bishop's Palace, the Town Hall, the National Theater. There's free time to eat lunch on your own (the guide will tell you where), wander, or sit in one of the endless cafes. Then the drive back to Belgrade in the afternoon, the Pannonian plain rolling past again, and you're back at your hotel by evening.

What’s included

Your day includes hotel pickup and drop-off in Belgrade, professional guide throughout, entrance fee to Krušedol Monastery, two glasses of Bermet wine tasting in a traditional cellar, and transport in an air-conditioned van or minibus. Lunch in Novi Sad is on your own, and you have free time to explore the city, visit museums, or sit in a cafe before heading back.

Good to know

Easy physical levelStroller friendlyInfant seats availablePets welcomePublic transport nearby

Operated by VICTOR TOURS

Is this one for you?Right for travelers based in Belgrade who want to see Northern Serbia's history, architecture, and wine culture in one day without arranging transport or navigating between towns. The full day means you cover a monastery, two towns, a fortress, and a city — what makes it possible is that the guide and driver handle the logistics and the route.