Nature feature
Tara National Park: forests, bears and the canyon of the Drina
Tara is Serbia at its wildest and most beautiful: dense forests of spruce, fir and beech, viewpoints that hang high above the emerald canyon of the Drina, and quiet roads where you are more likely to meet a deer than a car.
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A wilderness on the border
Tara National Park, created in 1981, covers a high mountain plateau in the far west of Serbia, where the Drina river carves a deep canyon along the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most of the park is covered by forest, and it is one of the last places in Serbia where brown bears, chamois and wolves still live in the wild.
The Serbian spruce
Tara is famous among botanists for the Serbian spruce, Picea omorika, a slender, elegant tree that grows naturally only in a small area around the Drina. It was identified as a new species by Josif Pančić in the 1870s, and it is now planted in gardens and parks around the world.
The viewpoints
The great sight of Tara is the view from Banjska Stena, a rocky outcrop above the canyon, where the green waters of Lake Perućac and the Drina wind far below between forested walls. Other viewpoints along the edge of the plateau, such as Kozji Rid, are just as breathtaking, and many can be reached by short forest walks.
The house on the Drina
Downstream, near the little town of Bajina Bašta, a tiny wooden house sits on a rock in the middle of the river. Built by a group of young local swimmers in the late 1960s and rebuilt several times after floods, the House on the Drina has become one of the most photographed places in Serbia.
Our advice: Tara is about four hours from Belgrade, and it combines easily with Zlatibor and Mokra Gora. The best time to visit is from late spring to autumn; bring good walking shoes, a map and some food, as there are few shops in the park, and stay at least two nights to enjoy the forests at dawn and dusk.
