Novi Pazar Travel Guide

We saw this place and thought: "what a strange McDonald's!!". But later, paying attention we saw lots of strange things: the inside didn't seem from the typical McDonald's, the food was quite different, and there were no posters offering the new "hamburgers". But hey!!, the M logo(the yellow and typical from the american company) seems the same (probably litigious). They have internatonal fast food.

If you don't have your own way of transport, the best way to arrive to Novi Pazar is the bus, cause there isn't train station here. Several buses arrive to and leave from the town. But if you want to go somewhere first ask in information, cause some of the buses that are in timetables doesn't exist. Ah!! Don't try to use toilet facilities here, maybe you die trying. A disgusting smell of urine can be noticed from 500m far away (exagerating).
Bus station is in the north of the town. From center follow Stevana Nemanja, and turn right (where? i don't remember the name of the street, but i'm sure you'll see some bus at the right ;-) )
Additional information: there's no direct bus to Uzice.
About the picture: coming here from north you will cross nice landscapes of low green hills. This is one of them, in one stop of the bus near Novi Pazar.

There is not tourist information in the town. So, there are no maps available. Why there is such an utter absence of information about the town? Is a mistery for me. But the town is little, and is difficult you get lost ;-)

Fun Alternatives: If you need some information, go to the tourist agency "Ecco Travel", at 28 November number 54. Tel: 23 832 or 311 575. They can help you with local travel arrangements and organized tours. They speak english.

Favorite thing: I can't remember why I got in touch with them in the first place, but I was helped enormously on my trip by the Ecco Travel Agency in Novi Pazar. They suggested and booked the hotel, organised the taxi from Kraljevo, and got me a driver to Sopocani and round about. All these were excellent, and everything went smoothly. If I hadn't had them, I'm pretty sure I would have paid more for the hotel (and chosen one I turned out not to like - with the travel agency I just said I wanted somewhere comfortable and friendly) and also more for the taxi and the driver, everything would have been more worrying and have taken more time, and I'd have ended up stressed-out, not enjoying the visit, and probably not seeing half of what I wanted to see. I wouldn't have got to Studenica for one. Not having been allowed onto the direct bus from Skopje to Novi Pazar because of that blasted Kosovo stamp in my passport, I then called Mr Esad and he sent a taxi - driven by a village friend of his - to come and pick me up at Kraljevo. The driver stopped on the way back to Novi Pazar for me to visit Studenica. Without the travel agency, I might have got to Kraljevo, but I'm sure I'd have been worried, and I would almost certainly have got a bus from there to Novi Pazar, which would have taken much, much longer and wouldn't have allowed me to see Studenica on the way. Knowing the travel agency also meant the reassurance of having someone to fall back on if anything had gone wrong (it didn't, though, as I said), and to discuss what to do with. They know all the bus timetables, and the owner even knew one of the bus drivers who was going to take me on to Sarajevo. I wanted to stop off at Priboj and then get another bus on later - the driver of the second bus turned out to have been told to look out for me.

You will find a number of different telephone numbers on the Ecco website (http://www.ecco.co.rs/engleski/turizam.html), but the one I found best was 0038120311575, which is a mobile number. Thanks to that, when in Serbia on my bus from Skopje, although I had a Macedonian SIM card that wouldn't allow normal calls, I could still keep in touch and say when I was arriving at Kraljevo by text message.

I hope to go back next year, to the Balkans Peace Park (on the Albanian border) and upper Montenegro as well as to the Raska. If I do, I'll certainly be asking for their help and advice again. They speak good English.

I think this was the most valuable practical lesson I learnt from all this trip through Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Albania - when in doubt to find a good travel agency and put things in their hands. Far better than the net, which is all too liable, if it has the information at all (many hotels, rooms, etc aren't reviewed or even mentioned), to offer information you can't trust (out of date timetables/prices, dodgy reviews, etc).

Fondest memory: I liked everything about Novi Pazar.