burneracc
Intern
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2024
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- Qantas
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Just got back from Europe with the majority of my time spent in Belgrade so I figured I'd do a write up, mainly for myself, but maybe some people will find it interesting too.
Routing was PER-SIN-LHR, then MAN-AMS-LHR-BEG-LHR-PER. AMS was a last minute addition so had to sandwich it in-between already booked BEG flights <-> LHR. Caught a train up north to visit family hence flying out of Manchester. As for the long haul, QF1 on the way over, QF10 on the way back. First time in intl J and it was a lovely experience. Qantas at its best (maybe excluding F? but
). I think I am now hooked on J for life though. As a side note, booking air Serbia was utterly hopeless, they were happy to hold a booking charge on my card but could never get me a confirmed PNR / finalise the booking so I ended up booking through 3xp3dia for a very obvious 20% premium 
.
Anyway, trip report. Belgrade is a lovely place, if not very touristy. Luckily, as I was there meeting (and staying with) friends I got to experience it like a local. I think visiting expecting a ton of tourist activities might be the wrong way to approach the place, however for me it was amazing to do "nothing" for a week and a half and loiter around cafes European style while being shown the best spots by my friends there.
The city is absolutely littered with cafes, and they have a surprisingly good coffee culture. Espresso with milk is the locals drink of choice, which tends to be marginally cheaper than a cappuccino but functionally identical. It was great to have nice coffee again after being in the north of England. Not hyperbole when I say there wasn't even a costa near where my relatives live in the UK - I made do, but it was refreshing to get some quality coffee again. Semi related - this is why I love the qantas lounges, as my favourite perk of them by far is having actual barista coffee to look forwards to. The cafes were all very cute (see images), and I enjoyed stopping off at a new one almost every single time - there were maybe two or three that I revisited out of 20+ different places, and again each one had pretty good coffee. If you can't tell, it left me quite impressed!
I've attached some of my pictures which capture the vibe of the city well - I would summarise it as being a sleepy town, not unlike Perth in that regard, but more welcoming. Very few of the cafes are sit in like this back home, so it was a nice culture to experience. The one part that got old was that when you go to pay its invariably a 5-10 minute wait to grab the waiters attention, they go and bring you the bill, ask you whether you will be paying card or cash, if card then they need to go and bring the machine etc, but its not as if I was in much of a rush.
There's not much else to report here as really I didn't do all that much, but honestly I think that those types of holidays are the best types. I have realised that tourism for the sake of tourist attractions (which the vast majority of the time are traps) is kind of overrated. For example I paid ~$60 to wander around the rijksmuseum for an hour or two, which didn't do much for me at all. Everyone is different though, I have just realised that following the masses isn't always best.
Notable highlights / recommendations:
Cost wise it was reasonable. Return tickets direct from LHR were sub $500 aud. As for eating out, being one of the biggest cities in the balkans, prices aren't going to be rock bottom, but overall still far cheaper than Australia on average. $3.5-$4 at a push for a coffee vs $6+ back home would be my metric for comparing the cost of living in this scenario. Bundled in with the fact that I was staying with a friend this made the trip quite inexpensive - not that I am averse to spending money, but after the letdown that was Amsterdam for the price I paid to visit for a few days, I came away from Belgrade far far happier.
The one BIG downside is that everybody seems to smoke both indoors and outdoors. This won't stop me going back again which I absolutely plan on doing, but if you have kids I'd suggest being a bit more deliberate with where you choose to eat. Dealing with indoor smoking was certainly a new experience for me. Maybe this is just me showing my (lack) of age though
A big part of why I wanted to write up this report was that the city left me pleasantly surprised afterwards. Unlike the other parts of my Europe visit (AMS / LHR) which I came away from disappointed, I think that Belgrade is a bit of a hidden gem. This was echoed in the responses I am getting from people who hear about my trip back home - a lot of "I bet Amsterdam was lovely" followed by "whats Belgrade / where is that?". As for "whats Belgrade" - well it was the highlight of my trip!
Routing was PER-SIN-LHR, then MAN-AMS-LHR-BEG-LHR-PER. AMS was a last minute addition so had to sandwich it in-between already booked BEG flights <-> LHR. Caught a train up north to visit family hence flying out of Manchester. As for the long haul, QF1 on the way over, QF10 on the way back. First time in intl J and it was a lovely experience. Qantas at its best (maybe excluding F? but
). I think I am now hooked on J for life though. As a side note, booking air Serbia was utterly hopeless, they were happy to hold a booking charge on my card but could never get me a confirmed PNR / finalise the booking so I ended up booking through 3xp3dia for a very obvious 20% premium .Anyway, trip report. Belgrade is a lovely place, if not very touristy. Luckily, as I was there meeting (and staying with) friends I got to experience it like a local. I think visiting expecting a ton of tourist activities might be the wrong way to approach the place, however for me it was amazing to do "nothing" for a week and a half and loiter around cafes European style while being shown the best spots by my friends there.
The city is absolutely littered with cafes, and they have a surprisingly good coffee culture. Espresso with milk is the locals drink of choice, which tends to be marginally cheaper than a cappuccino but functionally identical. It was great to have nice coffee again after being in the north of England. Not hyperbole when I say there wasn't even a costa near where my relatives live in the UK - I made do, but it was refreshing to get some quality coffee again. Semi related - this is why I love the qantas lounges, as my favourite perk of them by far is having actual barista coffee to look forwards to. The cafes were all very cute (see images), and I enjoyed stopping off at a new one almost every single time - there were maybe two or three that I revisited out of 20+ different places, and again each one had pretty good coffee. If you can't tell, it left me quite impressed!
I've attached some of my pictures which capture the vibe of the city well - I would summarise it as being a sleepy town, not unlike Perth in that regard, but more welcoming. Very few of the cafes are sit in like this back home, so it was a nice culture to experience. The one part that got old was that when you go to pay its invariably a 5-10 minute wait to grab the waiters attention, they go and bring you the bill, ask you whether you will be paying card or cash, if card then they need to go and bring the machine etc, but its not as if I was in much of a rush.
There's not much else to report here as really I didn't do all that much, but honestly I think that those types of holidays are the best types. I have realised that tourism for the sake of tourist attractions (which the vast majority of the time are traps) is kind of overrated. For example I paid ~$60 to wander around the rijksmuseum for an hour or two, which didn't do much for me at all. Everyone is different though, I have just realised that following the masses isn't always best.
Notable highlights / recommendations:
- Kalamegdan park / castle (pic at night attached, they light the place up very nicely!)
- Bad Sushi - name aside it was very very good!
- Danube Silo Mural
- Skica cafe has a notably nice view, located in Kosancicev Venac according to my pictures attached geolocation
- Cevapi - I visited this location twice, as it was excellent
- National museum of Serbia - there are some very cool things in here, some which are thousands of years old
Cost wise it was reasonable. Return tickets direct from LHR were sub $500 aud. As for eating out, being one of the biggest cities in the balkans, prices aren't going to be rock bottom, but overall still far cheaper than Australia on average. $3.5-$4 at a push for a coffee vs $6+ back home would be my metric for comparing the cost of living in this scenario. Bundled in with the fact that I was staying with a friend this made the trip quite inexpensive - not that I am averse to spending money, but after the letdown that was Amsterdam for the price I paid to visit for a few days, I came away from Belgrade far far happier.
The one BIG downside is that everybody seems to smoke both indoors and outdoors. This won't stop me going back again which I absolutely plan on doing, but if you have kids I'd suggest being a bit more deliberate with where you choose to eat. Dealing with indoor smoking was certainly a new experience for me. Maybe this is just me showing my (lack) of age though
A big part of why I wanted to write up this report was that the city left me pleasantly surprised afterwards. Unlike the other parts of my Europe visit (AMS / LHR) which I came away from disappointed, I think that Belgrade is a bit of a hidden gem. This was echoed in the responses I am getting from people who hear about my trip back home - a lot of "I bet Amsterdam was lovely" followed by "whats Belgrade / where is that?". As for "whats Belgrade" - well it was the highlight of my trip!
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From what I can recall it was very clean and pretty busy but also a bit grey. The standard of life seemed to date from the early 1950's. No particular poverty but domestic appliances in the larger shops all seemed a bit dated. The buses were all very crowded and chugged around somewhat.
