SHORT BREAKS BELGRADE DESTINATIONS


SAMPLE PRODUCT


Regent Holidays has a four-night


break in Belgrade from £785 per person, including flights, B&B accommodation in a three-star hotel, transfers and a walking tour of Belgrade. It also includes excursions to Serbia’s second city, Novi Sad, and the monasteries and wineries of Fruska Gora National Park.


regent-holidays. co.uk


the River Sava at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which took a mere 10 years to be refurbished. Its futuristic white 1960s building is a perfect setting for a fascinating collection of modern and contemporary art by painters and sculptors from the region. There’s more cutting-edge


contemporary art on display in the Zepter Museum in Knez Mihailova, which often gets lost among the restaurants and shops that surround it.


Z BEACH LIFE Land-locked Serbia manages to claim a sole Blue Flag beach – on the river island of Ada Ciganlija in the Sava. In summer, Belgraders flock to the beaches and relax on the gravelly banks lined with cafes and sunloungers. When holidaymakers aren’t trying out the water sports, they’re having a go in the adventure jungle, playing golf or renting a bike for a lazy ride along the wooded trails. There’s even a snowboard simulator for a slightly surreal summertime experience.


Z HABSBURG OUTPOST Head across the River Sava past the Tito-era tower blocks of New Belgrade


and you reach the suburb of Zemun. Its distinctive Hungarian architecture reveals its past as a Habsburg outpost that didn’t become part of Belgrade until after the First World War. All along the River Danube are cycle lanes leading to one cafe terrace after another, and there’s even a pontoon bridge that goes up every June to the nature reserve and beach at Great War Island in the middle of the river. Clients can check out the busy morning food market in the centre of Zemun before meandering along the cobbled streets.


Z WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK Belgrade’s restaurants, cafes and bars offer holidaymakers a bewildering choice. In the Old Town, the district of Dorcol is packed with places to eat, drink and – particularly along Strahinjica Bana – to see and be seen. It’s also filled with attractively


ramshackle garden bars that are reminiscent of Budapest’s ruin bars. The old bohemian area of Skadarlija is crammed with traditional Serbian restaurants along its cobbled lanes, where folk musicians serenade diners. The waterside districts along the Sava feature a typically Belgrade


mixture of quirky and smart. The Beton Hala former warehouse complex along the river has trendy restaurants offering international cuisine, while the clubs and bars of neighbouring Savamala are grittier in comparison but no less trendy. And all along the Sava and Danube


rivers are Belgrade’s renowned floating bars, nightclubs and restaurants known as splavovi. Although most are open only in the warmer months, they’re a massive draw for holidaymakers looking for an all-night party.


Z WHERE TO STAY Belgrade’s hotel scene has been changing rapidly and beyond all recognition for clients who might have visited even just 10 years ago. Smart Old Town accommodation, including a branch of the wonderfully wacky Mama Shelter, has joined a sleek new Hilton and four-star stalwarts such as Courtyard Marriott. Some of the five-star offerings show


a welcome individuality missing from chain hotels, notably sophisticated Square Nine opposite Students’ Square and the very elegant Saint Ten in the Vracar district.


ABOVE: Kalemegdan Fortress


LEFT: Belgrade borders the Sava and Danube rivers


17 January 2019travelweekly.co.uk109


PICTURES: SHUTTERSTOCK; DRAGAN BOSNIC; B JOVANOVIC


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