NATO Bombing of Belgrade Private Tour
Description
You'll hear and understand the feelings among locals about this notorious campaign. You'll learn the other side of the story, to the one offered by the mainstream western media. You'll hear personal stories from the period of bombing and how life was in Belgrade at the time. During the tour we will take you to several sites where traces of bombing are still visible. The guide will show you original photos of the bombed sites from 1999. At the end of the tour, you can summarize impressions over a drink in a local cafe. Tour highlights: ✅ Visit bombed sites where traces are still visible ✅ Hear personal experience of the guide about the life under NATO bombs ✅ See original photos from the 1999 ✅ Learn the reasons for the campaign ✅ Hear the other side of the story
Tour Options
Itinerary
First stop after pickup is the RTS building. Here by the monument "Zašto?" (Why?) you’ll hear a disturbing story about the night when 16, mostly young people, got killed during the night shift. There is an original building still standing on the site, unrepaired, as a memorial to this disastrous event.
This is the most common site on various photos related to NATO bombing in Belgrade. The Ministry of Defense is still reminder on the night of 29th of April 1999 when many military objectives were hit. As a consequence of this action one person lost its life and many civilian buildings in the vicinity were damaged.
Former Central Committee of Communist Party of Yugoslavia is nowadays Business center Ušće. It stands today on the same skeleton of the original construction and with the same appearance of the original building of CK of Communist Party of Yugoslavia. You’ll learn why this building was NATO missile proof back in 1999 and what was the reason in the first place to be hit.
Former Chinese embassy is probably the most controversial bombing site in Belgrade from the ’99 campaign. The Embassy was allegedly bombed as a result of an intelligence mistake, but it’s suspected it had a completely different purpose. Whatever the reasons were, four Chinese citizens died on the night of 7th of May 1999.
Air Force Command Building is the final stop on the tour. This 1935 edifice represented a pearl of Yugoslavian and Serbian architecture. As a strategic objective it was hit with two missiles on 5th of April 1999. Here you'll learn from the guide about the pilots who knowingly engaged in the fight and lost their lives defending sky above Serbia and Yugoslavia against much mightier NATO air force.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
If you want to be picked up from other location which isn't listed (airbnb or an apartment) please specify. We can also pick you up from Belgrade port where cruiser boats dock.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(11)
The tour guide is completely disinterested. If we had another guide maybe I would give better review because I was really interested in Nato bombing and the history of serbia and the guide literally just wanted to end the tour as soon as he can so he can go home. When I asked him some historical questions about serbian history the guide said I don’t know for every question. Disappointed
Hi Stefan, By the information that you shared it seems that you were on someone else's tour, not ours, since we never had a person from Lithuania nor under your name. We operate it as a private tour only and it's less frequent than some others, so it's very easy for us to check if the reviewer is a genuine guest who booked the tour. Please post this review to the adequate profile. Thanks Miljan
I am interested in Yugoslavian history and would consider myself a history buff so this kind of tour is already my cup of tea. But I found that it was my guide, Vladica, who made the tour exceptional. He was professional, warm, friendly, knowledgeable and honest. He was only a kid in Belgrade when the NATO bombings happened but his memories of the events set this tour apart from other tours. After all, I can google information about the bombings but getting first hand accounts are one of a kind. I think he provided an impartial account and description of events and the main players involved. If you are even remotely interested in history or politics then I would say this tour is essential.
We learned so much about the history of the bombing and about the Serbian people on this tour. The visual presentation through pictures and being on site really helps the storytelling. We also enjoyed spending time with our tour guide who drove us around the city to show us all these historical sites. This is a tour you should not miss if you are into history!
This was a very informative tour, well worth doing. My guide Vladica was very kind, enthusiastic, knowledgable, had answers and explanations for every question, interesting local knowledge, relevant geopolitical & historical insights, and I learned a lot. The tour I went on was the Scars of NATO bombing in Belgrade. This tour is for anyone who wants to understand from a local perspective, what happened in Belgrade in 1999, where and how it happened, how the local community banded together, and see for themselves what the impact and severity was.
It was great..Andrija was so thoughtful and perfectly explained everything to us in a very objective way. Thank you for all
It was a great experience, the guide was very informative and we've learned a lot on the SerbianYugoslavian history and the NATO aggression. I'd recommend this tour!
This fascinating tour was one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had on any trip. My guide was outstanding and offered the perspective of Serbians living in the region at the time. I’d recommend this tour to history enthusiasts and those who wish to broaden their perspectives on international relations, and the consequences/effects of war.
It was very informative and interesting to hear Miljan's comments, the innocent recipients of bombing always have a different perspective from the politicians and media who initiate or facilitate these actions, and it was good to here a cogent alternative to the news we are sold back in Australia.
Tour guide Miljan was extremely friendly and typified the overall experience we had from all locals . This is a “ must do “ trip whilst visiting Belgrade and gives an honest interpretation of the locals experiences during the NATO bombings.
While it's always good to hear other world views and perspectives on geopoliticals and world events, this tour was unfortunately littered with false truths and "facts" that were simply incorrect. The tour guide was great personally, and the tour itself was interesting. We were quite well aware of the events that led up to the NATO bombing, so could easily identify when we were being fed false information, however giving false truths about events is dangerous and not what would be expected when on a tour.
Hello Alex, Running a tour company, or any other service based business, is always a walk on a thin line between customer's expectations and reality. It's not an easy job to satisfy everybody's tastes and interests. I appreciate that you think that the tour is interesting and that the guide is great, but the reminder of your comment is quite a radically twisted interpretation of the tour, to say the least. To be honest in your case I can't determine with certainty that you attended the tour since I can't find anyone booking this tour under your name. This tour is not one of the most frequent ones, so it's not hard to crosscheck all names of the ones who booked it. This leads me to a conclusion that this maliciously biased review is a result of an agenda of a person who was on the tour and planned to leave a bad review no matter what. The statement "Spreading a dangerous nationalist agenda" or " littered with false truths and facts" or " could easily identify when we were being fed false information." is obviously malicious, since this tour doesn't even cover any topic related to nationalism or ethnicity. This tour is only about unfortunate events that happened during the 78 days of NATO bombing in Belgrade and the effects of it on the city and the people. During the tour we take people to the bombed sites, we tell them about what happened there, show them photos from the time of bombing and the guide shares personal experience of life under the NATO bombs. We never comment on anything related to who is to blame for the conflict, who is responsible, who started it and why, etc. We focus only on what happened on sites. How do I know that? Because most of the NATO bombing tours are guided by me (Miljan) or by Andrija (Andrew) and we both apply the same approach to storytelling since we know that this topic is very difficult. We never present biased opinions, not on this or any other tour. If you were on the tour and what you've seen there is not aligned with the image that was created by media such as BBC or CNN at the time, I'm sorry if that hurt your feelings, but all that you've seen and heard during the tour actually happened in the way described. We know, we were present here at the time, we were not watching it on TV. If anyone has any concerns that we'll "feed them with false truths or facts" or that we'll "spread a dangerous nationalistic agenda" I call them to book this tour to see for themselves and if they share any of the impressions described in this review we will refund 100% of the tour's price. All the best Miljan
