Belgrade offers a huge number of hotels of various categories, so it is difficult to recommend any of them in particular. Among the most expensive and most prestigious hotels is undoubtedly the Hyatt Regency, where hotel pampering will cost you 354 euros.
In the four-star Hotel Moskva, which is located on Terazije in the very center of the city, you will pay about 60 euros for a night's stay. There are also quite a few decent hotels in the price range of 20 euros. You can find a list of Belgrade hotels with prices and contact addresses on the website of the Belgrade Tourist Organization www.tob.co.yu. Before going to the city, we also recommend visiting the official website of Belgrade at the web address www.beograd.org.yu, where you can find a lot of useful information.
STARTING POINTS FOR THE HIKING
The easiest and most affordable way to get around in Belgrade is by taxi, of which there are few, from the latest Mercedes to real museum exhibits on four wheels. You might even come across a new table that Zastava is still producing. A kilometer by taxi will cost you about half a euro or 40 dinars. A good starting point for wandering around the city is Republic Square in the very center. The National Theater and the National Museum are also located here, which house more than 300,000 different exhibits, from archaeological finds, important works of art to various historical documents. If you are at least slightly interested in history, definitely worth a visit. The monument to Prince Mihail Obrenovič, whom the locals call "at the horse", on Republic Square is a popular meeting place for young Belgraders, something similar to Ljubljana's Prešeren square. A few steps away, Kneza Mihaila street begins, which runs from Terazij to Kalemegdan, with a bunch of shops and bars along it. A walk through the Kalemegdan park and the fortress, which also houses a military museum, is a mandatory component of a first visit to Belgrade. From Kalemegdan there is a beautiful view of the Sava and the Danube, which hug the city, as long as there is no fog, which is a frequent companion of Belgrade in winter. A zoo and a planetarium are also located near Kalemegdan. Lovers of good food and a romantic atmosphere should visit the Kalemegdan Terrace, a restaurant set up in a former fortress, where you will enjoy good food and the music of a string quintet accompanied by a piano.
LOOK AT THE STORES
Belgrade is not one of the cities that can be described as a "shopping mecca". The range of shops reflects the social condition of the city of two million inhabitants, in which a few percent are wealthy individuals. Stores with prestigious brands are dedicated to them. The other extreme is the stores of once-famous Yugoslav brands, which are slowly decaying today. However, you can find cheap quality goods in them. We were surprised by the varied and rich range of products from some well-known brands of sports clothing, which was even better than in Slovenia. Most of the shops are in the city center, on Terazije and Kneza Mihaila Street, and there are also a few shopping centers in the wider surroundings of the city - you can inquire about them on the already mentioned official website of the city.
DON'T MISS THE CULINARY EXPERIENCE
The culinary experience of Belgrade is a completely different story, especially for lovers of grilled meat dishes. Portions are huge compared to Slovenian ones, and their size increases with distance from the city. The opposite is the case with the price – catering services in the city center are more expensive than in the outskirts, and the prices here are far from uniform. In addition to very friendly and helpful waiters, a feature of Serbian inns is live music. She was also pleasantly surprised by the neatness of the toilets, which are the exact opposite of the dirty streets of Belgrade. The first stop for pampering the taste buds near the city center is the guesthouses in the bohemian Skadarlija, which was a famous hangout for artists in the 19th century. Among Slovenian tourists, the Tri šešira inn is probably the most famous, which is mainly intended for tourists, as connoisseurs of the local conditions for enjoying Serbian grilled dishes recommend a visit to the Srbija inn, which is located some 15 kilometers south of Belgrade along the Iberia highway. A musical group playing folk music and an acting couple in 19th-century clothes telling stories about life in Skadarlija at that time provide entertainment for the guests. They also know how to recite Prešerna to Slovenes. Speaking of Prešerno, the Prešerno Cellar operates on Nikola Pašić Square, which was recently converted into a decent inn. Near Skadarlija, on 29. november street, the Bled restaurant has been operating for the last hundred years. It serves excellent fish dishes, with fish soup and freshwater pike fish standing out. In the center of the city, on Kralja Petra Street, which intersects Kneza Mihaila Street, opposite the National Bank of Serbia, the restaurant Kraljevina was opened in the basement of the restaurant Que passa. It also serves food prepared by the chefs of the Karad-od-evič and Obrenović royal families in previous centuries. According to their recipes, polenta, beans, young and old kajmak, prebranec and other almost forgotten dishes will satisfy even the most demanding taste. A glass of wine goes well with the food, we recommend Montenegrin vranca, which is considered the best variety from the vineyards of Serbia and Montenegro.
AN EVENING OF FUN DOESN'T FAIL
Slovenians are very fond of visiting rafts and taverns arranged on anchored vessels along the banks of the Sava and Danube. This is a gathering place for entertainment, which we often miss in our country - live music, good company, evening dresses... Most rafts are located on Kej oslobode-enje near Hotel Jugoslavija and on Ušč near the business center of the same name, the former high-rise building of the Central Committee of the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia . We recommend a visit to the Žabar raft on the Liberation Pier. The city's catering offer is nicely rounded off by a multitude of cafes, various clubs and nightclubs, where you can have fun until morning. It would be difficult to decide which bar to recommend, as most of them offer pleasant entertainment. Nightlife is best presented on the website www.club.co.yu, on which you can find the current program of happenings in the club scene. Otherwise, Belgrade and its inhabitants have a very special charm, so you will very quickly take the city as your own.
