Stara Planina Eastern Highlands

Stara Planina — the Old Mountain — is Serbia's eastern frontier range, shared with Bulgaria and rising to Midžor at 2,169 metres, the country's highest peak outside Kosovo. This roughly 95-kilometre loop from Pirot through Babin Zub and the highland plateau offers a different Serbia from the Danube gorges: granite towers, sheep pastures, Pirot cheese smokehouses, and mountain roads where shepherds still block the lane with flocks moving to summer highland camps. For slow van travellers, Stara Planina is the Balkan highland experience without Albania-level gravel stress — paved R231 to the plateau, then gentler highland circuits.

Pirot anchors the loop — an Ottoman market town famous for its patterned kilim rugs and pungent sheep cheese (piroćanski kačkavalj), with supermarkets, fuel, and a fortress overlooking the Nišava valley. From Pirot, R231 climbs southeast into Stara Planina through villages where every house sells cheese and honey from roadside tables. The gradient intensifies above 1,000 metres — sustained 7–9% sections on hairpins where T3 drivers should climb in second gear and expect sheep, cows, and occasional hay wagons occupying the full lane width.

Babin Zub (Old Woman's Tooth) is the plateau's signature — granite pinnacles above 1,750 metres that resemble gnarled teeth against the sky. A mountain lodge, ski infrastructure (winter), and hiking trails to Midžor summit depart from here. The summit hike takes four to five hours round trip from the lodge — Serbia's roof with views into Bulgaria. Temska Monastery in a side valley offers cultural respite with sixteenth-century frescoes.

For VW T3 owners, Stara Planina is demanding but fair — the steepest grades are on R231's lower section; the plateau roads are gentler. Camp at Babin Zub mountain lodge parking or Pirot guesthouses. Zavoj Lake at the range's foot offers swimming in summer. June through September is the season; Bulgarian border crossings nearby enable cross-border extensions. Winter requires chains above 1,200 metres. Pair with Bulgaria's Balkan Mountains routes for a complete eastern range week.