Exit Festival is in Novi Sad. Belgrade is 90 minutes away. Here is why you should spend three days in Serbia's capital before the festival — and what to do there.
Exit Festival runs at Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, not Belgrade. But Belgrade is where most international visitors fly in, where the best accommodation value is, and where the most interesting city experience in the Balkans is waiting. The logic is straightforward: fly into Belgrade, spend 3 nights exploring the city, then take the 90-minute train to Novi Sad for the festival. This is the arc that makes the most of the entire trip.
Why Belgrade specifically
Belgrade has been called the Berlin of the Balkans for its nightlife and creative scene, but the comparison undersells it. The city's nightlife — particularly the floating river clubs (splavovi) moored along the Sava and Danube — is genuinely unlike anything in Western Europe. The food is excellent and cheap. The history is layered in a way that rewards curiosity. And the Serbs are among the most hospitable people in Europe — the city opens up in ways that tourist-heavy Western European capitals don't.
Kalemegdan Fortress
The fortress at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers is Belgrade's heart — free to enter, extraordinary views, and the best park in the city. The Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, and Habsburg layers are visible in the walls. The Military Museum inside covers Serbian and Yugoslav military history from the medieval period through the 1990s wars. The view from the upper fortification walls at sunset — two rivers, the Danube horizon, and the old city below — is the best free view in the Balkans.
Savamala
Belgrade's creative district runs along the Sava riverbank below the fortress. Derelict industrial buildings converted to galleries, bars, clubs, and restaurants. The weekend flea market at Stara Hala. The experimental music venues including Mikser House. The street art. Savamala is the reason Belgrade attracts the creative community it does — it feels genuinely alive rather than gentrified.
The splavovi (river clubs)
The floating clubs moored along the Sava and Danube between Ada Ciganlija island and the city centre are unique to Belgrade. They range from café-restaurants open during the day to all-night clubs that run until 8am. Turbo-folk, electronic music, and commercial pop are the formats. The Thursday-night splavovi scene before an Exit Festival weekend has its own character — the festival crowd mixes with Belgrade locals who would have been there anyway. Take an Uber to the Sava riverside and walk the bank until something sounds right.
Skadarlija
The bohemian cobblestone quarter in the centre of Belgrade — restaurants, kafana bars, and live Serbian folk music in the street. The kafana (traditional Serbian café-restaurant) is where the city's social life has been conducted for 200 years: long meals, house wine, musicians who play table to table, and a pace that has no interest in hurrying. Have dinner here on your first night.
The Nikola Tesla Museum
Tesla was born in what is now Croatia to a Serbian family. The Belgrade museum houses his ashes (in a golden sphere), his personal belongings, and working demonstrations of his inventions. One of the better science museums in the region and genuinely interesting for anyone who has ever used electricity.
Food and drink
Serbian food is hearty Balkan meat-and-dairy cooking — ćevapi (grilled minced meat rolls), pljeskavica (the Serbian burger), burek (phyllo pastry), kajmak (clotted cream), ajvar (roasted pepper relish). Beer averages €1.50–2 in most bars. A sit-down dinner for two with wine runs €20–30. This is the best value food-and-drink city in this atlas.
Getting to Novi Sad
Train from Belgrade Centar to Novi Sad — around 90 minutes, runs frequently, costs around €5. The Exit Festival shuttle buses also run from Belgrade during the festival. The train is more reliable and cheaper.