Sokobanja
The spa town where Prince Miloš officially sent his first patient in 1837
- When to go
- October 14° · 6 rainy days
- Per day
- ~35 · 36 · 38 €budget · mid · comfort, per person · checked 22 Sep 2026
- How many days
- 2–3days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 34 km Niš
- Right now
Sokobanja is a spa town for two or three days, and the decision is the season: the Ripaljka waterfall on Ozren has water in spring, while the snow melts, whereas the thermal water, the Amam and the Soko Grad fortress above the Moravica are the same all year. From Niš it is an hour and a quarter by bus.
Prince Miloš posted the first doctor to Sokobanja in 1833, sent the water to Vienna for analysis a year later, and on 21 June 1837 sent a sergeant here for treatment — the date from which the spa counts its history. The coolest spring, Banjica I, runs at 27.8 °C and the hottest, Preobraženje, at 48.3 to 53 °C; six springs are markedly radioactive. The main treatments are for asthma and chronic bronchitis, then rheumatism and mild high blood pressure.
The Amam in the town park was built in Ottoman times on Roman foundations. Prince Miloš restored it first, it was last restored in 2005, and it is the only bath of its kind in eastern Serbia still in use: the Sokobanja Special Hospital runs it, with thermal bathing, massage and inhalation.
Guides for Sokobanja
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Sokobanja in 2 days
→Day one stays inside the spa itself, around the Amam and the fortress above the river; day two heads onto the mountain…
Day trips from Sokobanja
→Rtanj is a pyramid-shaped mountain some fifteen kilometres north; Niš is the city you already pass through to reach the…
Where to stay in Sokobanja
→All of Sokobanja is walked on foot, so the area is chosen for one thing — how close it sits to the park and the Amam…
What to eat in Sokobanja
→Sokobanja eats at a spa town's pace — a cooked dish of the day for lunch, grilled meat in the evening, all in the…
The best time to visit Sokobanja
→Sokobanja runs on two different calendars — the Amam and the thermal water stay the same all year, while the Ripaljka…
What to see in Sokobanja
Soko Grad
A fortress from Justinian's sixth century, on cliffs about a hundred metres above the Moravica. Stefan Nemanja took it in 1172, and it was destroyed in 1413, in the Ottoman war of succession. A marked path follows the river through the Lepterija gorge, past Hajduk Veljko's cave.
free
Ripaljka
A waterfall on the Gradašnica, 11 to 14 metres high depending on the water, with cascades forty metres long in all; a natural monument since 1948. The road heads towards the hospital on Ozren, then about two kilometres of gravel to a car park, and the last stretch is on foot.
free
Ozren
The mountain above the spa; its highest peak, Leskovik, stands at 1,178 metres.
free
Sesalačka Cave
Seventeen kilometres from the spa, near the village of Sesalac, with two hundred metres of lit passages. A 2015 survey found six bat species inside; a grade-three natural monument.
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Rtanj
The pyramid-shaped mountain some fifteen kilometres north in a straight line, with its own page on this site.
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Two things you probably did not know
The Romans bathed here, and the first modern bathhouse was raised by Prince Milos in 1837. That makes Sokobanja the oldest spa in Serbia in continuous operation.
Ivo Andric stayed in Sokobanja several times and wrote here. Stevan Sremac described the spa, and the rhyme about Soko Banja and Soko Grad entered the language before it became a tourist slogan.
Ready for Sokobanja?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Sokobanja — day trips or weekends.
Serbia
→The north an hour away by train, the mountains three or four by car — Serbia divides by the time you have
Montenegro
→The Bay, the riviera or Ulcinj for the sea, Durmitor for July — choose the coast by its beaches and the north by the month
Greece
→The north by road, the Cyclades by ferry, Rhodes by air — pick the region first and the island second
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Within reach from here: Rtanj, Niš and Devil's Town
See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Sokobanja if you have been.
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