Belgrade runs on free: city buses and trams have cost nothing since 2025, the NATO-scarred ruins and Mestrovic monuments charge no admission, and 250 dinars of burek is a full meal. Three days here cost less than one in Vienna.
One of the largest Orthodox churches on earth at 79m, free to enter including the gold-mosaic dome — 1,230 sq m of Russian mosaic finished in 2020 — and the marble crypt below. Open daily 07:00-20:00, no ticket desk.
Nikola Dobrovic's 1965 Defence Ministry twin blocks, gutted by NATO cruise missiles on 30 April 1999 and left standing ever since as an unofficial memorial. Free to walk around and photograph from the pavement, 24 hours.
Prince Milos's 1831 residence, the oldest surviving Serbian palace, sits in a 13-hectare plane-tree park 4km south of the centre. The park is free and open around the clock; the museum inside costs 300 RSD and shuts on Mondays.
The riverside warehouse quarter between Karadjordjeva and Beton Hala: Austro-Hungarian merchant facades, large-scale murals on Mostarska and Brace Krsmanovic, and free sunset views over the Sava from the bridge walkway.
Belgrade's biggest open-air green market, trading since 1926, with roughly 400 stalls of Sumadija plums, homemade ajvar and kajmak sold by the kilo. A full bag of seasonal fruit runs 200-400 RSD.
The bakery Belgraders have queued at since the 1920s, from 06:00, for burek with cheese or meat sold by weight — around 180-250 RSD a wedge, with a glass of drinking yoghurt for 90 RSD. Cash only, standing room only.
The 1847 market under the concrete canopy beside the city's main bus interchange — the cheapest produce in the centre, plus bread, sheep cheese and homemade rakija stalls. Grab-and-go pastry from 120 RSD.
A walk-up grill window in Vracar turning out the same pljeskavica since 1990. The loaded 'Loki' with kajmak and ajvar costs roughly 450-550 RSD and is genuinely a full dinner. No seats, no table service, no tip expected.
Bus 400 from Vozdovac climbs 511m Avala mountain to the rebuilt 205m TV tower, destroyed by NATO in 1999 and reopened in 2010. The lift to the viewing deck costs 400 RSD; clear days reach the Vojvodina plain and Fruska Gora.
Mestrovic's 1938 black-granite mausoleum on the summit, carried by eight caryatids representing the peoples of Yugoslavia. Free and always open, ten minutes downhill from the tower through beech forest on a marked path.
The dammed Sava island Belgraders call 'the sea': 7km of free lake shoreline, marked swimming zones, showers and open-air gyms nobody charges for. Bike hire is about 500 RSD an hour if you want to ride the full loop.
The 1896 tower on Zemun's hill, built for Hungary's thousand-year jubilee, above a lane of crooked Austrian-era houses. Climbing the spiral stairs costs 200 RSD for the finest Danube-confluence panorama in the city, open till 22:00 in summer.