diff --git a/django_elasticsearch/managers.py b/django_elasticsearch/managers.py
index c62a7e7..c5d7f2a 100644
--- a/django_elasticsearch/managers.py
+++ b/django_elasticsearch/managers.py
@@ -11,6 +11,12 @@
 from django_elasticsearch.query import EsQueryset
 from django_elasticsearch.client import es_client
 
+
+try:
+  basestring #py2
+except NameError:
+  basestring = str #py3
+
 # Note: we use long/double because different db backends
 # could store different sizes of numerics ?
 # Note: everything else is mapped to a string
diff --git a/django_elasticsearch/tests/test_serializer.py b/django_elasticsearch/tests/test_serializer.py
index 5dd1def..93436a8 100644
--- a/django_elasticsearch/tests/test_serializer.py
+++ b/django_elasticsearch/tests/test_serializer.py
@@ -10,6 +10,11 @@
 from test_app.models import Test2Model
 
 
+try:
+  basestring #py2
+except NameError:
+  basestring = str #py3
+
 class CustomSerializer(EsJsonSerializer):
     def serialize_char(self, instance, field_name):
         return u'FOO'