Buying a Tourist SIM in Serbia: Operators, Prices and Where to Get One

Hello, dear readers. A tourist SIM card is a popular and useful topic for any trip to Serbia — having the internet at hand matters these days, especially abroad. Let's go through the main operators, their prices and where to buy.

MTS

For 2,150 dinars (≈€18) MTS offers the Super Turist SIM for 30 days: unlimited minutes within the MTS network and, more importantly, 500 GB of data — plenty for a trip. There's a cheaper option too: for 700 dinars (≈€6) you get 150 GB with no minutes, but only for 5 days. A great deal for a short trip — just keep that time limit in mind.

You can buy it as an eSIM (as long as your phone supports it) or as a physical SIM at an MTS store — stores are easy to find on Google Maps in the city centre.

MTS · official site →

Yettel

Yettel has more plans for every taste: tourist plans for 30 days with 50 GB, unlimited-by-day plans (eSIM only) and regular 30-day plans with a data cap. You can buy online in advance or at a store on the spot. Standard plans also come with call credit.

For example, the Transit plan — 500 GB for 1,200 dinars (≈€10). If your trip is shorter than 15 days, I think it's a great buy.

Yettel · official site →

A1

The third operator is A1. Here it's basically a single plan: the Welcome SIM for 1,000 dinars. It includes 200 GB of data in Serbia for 7 days from the moment you register the number. You can extend it once — but only within those first 7 days — by topping up: +500 dinars gets you 15 days in total, +1,500 dinars gets you 30 days. After that you can't extend any more, and any unused data is wiped.

All in: about €8 (1,000 dinars) for 200 GB for a week, around €12 (1,000 + 500 dinars) for 15 days, or about €20 (1,000 + 1,500 dinars) for 30 days. You can buy it as an eSIM online or at a store.

A1 · official site →

Buy right at the airport

Based on my latest observations, the operators have started opening counters right in the baggage claim area. So you don't have to go far — you can buy a SIM the moment you land, at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport.

Coverage

Here's the important detail that means you shouldn't pick an operator on price alone. MTS may look like the most expensive with no reason to bother — but that's not the case.

MTS is Serbia's main national operator (the former state "Telekom"), with the most developed infrastructure and the most cell towers across the country. So outside the big cities — in the mountains, national parks, small villages, on regional roads — MTS is more likely to hold a signal where the others start to drop or disappear. If you're planning a road trip, or heading to Tara, Kopaonik, the monasteries and the countryside, stable internet and signal are worth more than a couple of saved euros — and here MTS genuinely wins.

But if your whole trip is in Belgrade, Novi Sad or another big city, you can ignore coverage entirely: in cities all three operators have dense, equally good networks. In that case just go by price and how many gigabytes you get.

eSIM apps

A word about apps for buying an eSIM online — there are plenty in the app stores, so I won't name a specific one. They're handy if you travel often or you're here for work. But convenience usually costs: their plans are pricier than a local SIM. It's a fair option if you really don't feel like figuring things out — though then the question is why you're reading this article. :)

Conclusion

The takeaway is simple: pick what suits you — I've just gathered it all in one place to make buying easier. If you want my personal opinion, for value I'd go with Yettel.