Western Serbia: the back story

Zlatibor, Tara and Kopaonik are Serbia’s mountain heartland, popular in every season. Between them lie wooden villages, a heritage railway and some of the finest views in the country.

Serbia’s favourite mountain

Zlatibor is a high plateau of pine forests and meadows about 230 kilometres south-west of Belgrade, and a health resort for more than a century. The Gold Gondola glides 9 kilometres from the town to Tornik, stopping at Lake Ribnica. An hour away, Tara National Park shelters the rare Serbian spruce above the Drina canyon.

Wood, wool and steam

At Mokra Gora, the narrow-gauge Šargan Eight loops up the mountain through tunnels and over bridges, and Emir Kusturica’s wooden village of Drvengrad crowns Mećavnik hill. At Sirogojno, log houses from across the region are furnished as they once were, and the village’s knitters made patterned wool sweaters famous across Yugoslavia and beyond.

The heights of Kopaonik

Some 280 kilometres south of Belgrade, Kopaonik is Serbia’s biggest ski resort, with more than 64 kilometres of slopes and night skiing in winter, and a national park of trails in summer. Its summit, Pančićev vrh, reaches 2,017 metres. In the hills to the west, the white marble churches of Studenica form a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Šargan Eight climbs 300 metres up the mountainside in a figure of eight.

Our advice: check the Šargan Eight timetable and book your seats ahead in summer.