Belgrade is a popular destination especially famous for its entertainment and delicious cheap food so it is a perfect choice for a weekend getaway or 2-3 days visit when you are in Europe. Therefore preparing a Belgrade guide to answer your questions on what to do in Belgrade, where to eat in Belgrade and of course Belgrade night life, is my duty as your gezielciniz!
As usual here is summary version of Belgrade guide and don’t forget to check detail versions!
Travel: Belgrade have many cheap flights from Europe and actually arriving with train and bus is also a widely used option though not for comfy traveler!
Airport transfer: Actually I would suggest taking a taxi from airport to city center as it is quite cheap (should be around 1500-1800 kruz so around 12 euro). Otherwise you can also take bus and minibus options. You don’t need to exchange much money at the airport as you can find exchange office everywhere across city even open on Sundays and late evening!
Visa: Serbia is pretty visa friendly country, if you are visiting for touristic purposes (staying less than 90 days in 180 days) they allow 74 country citizens to enter without visa including all Schengen area countries, United states, Canada, Australia, Japan , Turkey..etc..For more information please check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_Serbia
Food: A red meat heaven! Dish names you should especially note are Cevapcici (made from red meat this is flag dish for Balkans, basically they are like meatballs in short finger shape and always ask for `kaymak` with it.) – any Belgrade guide without mentioning this would have been incomplete, and my personal favorite Karadordeva (aka karajorjeva –just amazing must try –again meat dish) , Pljeskavica (another version of Balkan meat ball this time shaped in one big flat piece) , Sopska Salad and as for the dessert Krempita –but do not expect too much of this dessert just focus on the food!
They have a local alcoholic drink called sljivovica or rakija but be warned as it is very strong and spicey and not for everyone! For restaurant and café suggestions check out where to eat in Belgrade.
Sightseeing: Kalemegdan, Nikola Tesla Museum, Zemun (old town), Garos Tower, Knez Mihajlova Street, Skadarlija Street (Bohemian Quarter), St Sava church.
Actually I would like to mention more on sightseeing places in this Belgrade guide but then it becomes too long to read! So for more details on these places and more please check out what to do in Belgrade.
Where to stay: You can find really economic nice deals in Belgrade. We were travelling with 4 people so we wanted to rent a house in city center. It costed 9 euro per person! So it was 36 euro per night and actually it had 5 beds and a coach so basically we could have stayed 6 people there! Building looked really old and not good condition from outside but inside was more than good. Since we were just `home` to sleep, it was just perfect for us. It also had a kitchen but we didn’t use. Where we stayed: Apartments Skadarlija.
Prices: One of the best places in Europe as everything has reasonable prices. (After Norway it felt basically free!) 1 euro is around 120 serbian dinars. (2016-12) and some example prices:a coffee/tee cost around 150-300 dinars depending on your café shop fanciness, dinner for 4 people including 4 main dish (meat) + 3 salad +3 beer +1 cola+ 4500 dinar so it is like 36 euro (so 9 euro per person! -and portions are big here!), entry to Tesla museum 500 dinar, entry to Garos Tower 200 dinar.
So let’s mention some gen
eral impression and tips about Belgrade.
Belgrade will give you oldies but goldies vibe in Europe. When I say old, I don’t mean medieval old in this case but just 10-20 years older than current times. This is actually not surprising because war in 1990s really staggered the growth of Balkan cities and Belgrade is no different. That’s why you feel it is modern but somehow old and still in the middle of developing vibe. I really felt like a trip to the past in Belgrade, because music played in most places were old music and they allow smoking inside so that really gave me the 90s impression.
You can explore the city in couple of days as cultural and touristic places are conveniently closely located to each other therefore making it ideal for a short trip destination.
Before I came here I didn’t understand why so many of my traveler friends visited this place over and over but then once I tried the cheap and good quality restaurants here I could see the reason! I’m also considering re-visiting Belgrade too and I say this despite my unpleasant first arrival in the city which was in a night bus from Bosnia. The bus arrived so early in the morning and my sweet sleep interrupted so suddenly that I found myself out on the cold streets where nobody was around just after seconds I opened my eyes. Needles to stay I was in instant grumpy mode and that was how I first met with Belgrade!
Anyway, most travelers chose to stay near Kalemegdan, Knez Mihajlova and Skadarlija (as we also did). And these places are close to each other in walking distance. Actually you will probably only need transportation when coming or going to airport or maybe crossing the river to go to other side of the city. Otherwise walking on foot is really best way. For public transport, trams are widely used and cheap. Taxis are also cheap; since we were couple of people we used this method a lot. There is this taxi service called `Pink Taxi` where you can call for a taxi in English and prices are controlled so it is also a good option if you don’t want to trust to taxi drivers fearing a tourist trap 🙂
As I just mentioned Belgrade is divided by a river so depending on which side of the river you are (old town side or new town side), attractions change. You can find out more on what to do in Belgrade depending on which side you are in. But if the weather is good don’t forget to take a river tour as well!
Serbians are proud of their guest friendly nature. That was my impression as well after meeting with local friends of friends I first met there and random strangers we met on the streets asking for directions or other things!
So these were my general tips and info about Belgrade guide, don’t forget to check detail parts on
what to do in Belgrade and of course infamous
