Zlatibor: Serbia's Golden Plateau of Wooden Villages and Mountain Air

The Plateau That Smells of Pine and Hay

Zlatibor is Serbia's deep breath. At a thousand metres altitude, in the south-western corner of the country, this rolling plateau of pastures, pine forests and wooden villages is where Serbians come to recharge — to walk, to breathe clean air, to eat mountain cheeses and to do absolutely nothing. For Italian travellers it is a discovery: a landscape that recalls Trentino but with Eastern European prices and the hospitality of the Balkans.

From Belgrade the drive takes three and a half hours (230 km) or four hours by bus. The nearest airport is Belgrade, though the small Užice airport (opened in 2023) is beginning to receive flights.

What to See and Do

The Wooden Villages

Zlatibor's traditional architecture is made of wood: houses with steep roofs, barns, stables and granaries built from interlocking pine and fir logs without a single nail. The most authentic villages are:

- Sirogojno: an open-air village museum (Staro Selo) where nineteenth-century traditional houses have been gathered and restored. You can visit the furnished interiors, watch craft demonstrations and buy the famous Sirogojno sweaters — hand-knitted wool jumpers with geometric motifs, exported around the world.

- Gostilje: a village known for its eponymous waterfall (twenty metres) and honey production. The trail to the waterfall passes through a beech forest.

- Tripkova: the most isolated village on the plateau, with wooden houses unchanged for a century.

The Trails

Zlatibor has a network of marked trails for all levels:

- Čigota (1,422 m): the plateau's highest peak, reachable in two hours from the centre. Views across the entire massif.

- Stopića Pećina: a cave with an internal waterfall and limestone pools — one of the most beautiful speleological phenomena in Serbia.

- The Gold Gondola: the Balkans' longest cable car (nine kilometres) connects the centre of Zlatibor to the village of Tornik — the panorama during the ascent is spectacular.

What to Eat

Zlatibor's cuisine is Serbian mountain cooking at its finest. Local produce — cheeses, smoked meats, honey — is the foundation of everything:

Zlatibarski sir is a semi-hard cheese, aged in wooden cellars, with an intense and slightly smoky flavour. Zlatibor's pršuta (smoked prosciutto) is the finest in Serbia, cured with beech smoke. Kajmak (soured cream) is the universal accompaniment — eaten with bread, with ćevapi, with potatoes, with everything.

The signature dish is jagnjece pečenje (roast lamb), cooked whole on a spit over charcoal. It is ordered in mountain restaurants (a kafana is the traditional Serbian inn) and you wait — the cooking takes hours. The result is impossibly tender meat with a crispy crust and the fragrance of wood smoke.

Also worth trying: gibanica (filo pastry pie with cheese and eggs), prebranac (baked beans), kompot (stewed fruit) and plum rakija (šljivovica), which here achieves absolute excellence.

When to Go

Zlatibor is a destination for every season: summer (June–September) for trekking and cool air, winter (December–March) for skiing on Tornik. Spring (May–June) is spectacular: the pastures bloom and the air is crystal clear. Autumn is the season of colours and wild berry picking.

Accommodation is plentiful and affordable: hotels, guesthouses and apartments from 25 to 60 euros a night. Zlatibor is not an international destination — the tourists here are Serbian, and the atmosphere is genuinely local. For those seeking the authentic Serbia, far from Belgrade and its festivals, the golden plateau is the perfect starting point.