Belgrade, Serbia
To start off my summer trip, I flew Air Serbia’s flight from New York’s JFK airport nonstop to Belgrade, Serbia.
It was an enjoyable flight, and I redeemed Air Canada points for it, which made it that much better. One of the great things about flying directly into a city like Belgrade is avoiding the ultra-long queues in major European cities like London and Amsterdam.
I made the error of trusting a taxi driver standing near the exit (rookie mistake). So, I was, of course, scammed. Next time, I will go to the taxi counter inside the airport that prints a ticket saying how much my ride will be to my hotel and give that to the taxi driver in the taxi stand. That way, I will only pay exactly the amount on the ticket.
I stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Belgrade for 5,000 World of Hyatt Points a night. This has to be just about the nicest Category 1 Hyatt out there. On account of my Hyatt status, I was upgraded to a lovely suite and had access to the Executive Lounge.
I arranged some excursions through the fantastic Concierge, Nikola. On my first evening, I took a boat down the river in Belgrade, which was a lovely way to see the new and old parts of the city from the water.
The following day I had a tour guide take me up to Novi Sad, Serbia’s second largest city. Here, we walked around downtown, visited some churches along the way, and roamed around a fort just outside the city.
A friend of mine from Boston connected with me with someone she knew in Belgrade who was nice enough to show me around Belgrade. I enjoyed seeing the city with a local, and we ended up having a riveting conversation about life in Serbia.
On my final morning, I got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Temple of Saint Sava. This is one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world and is covered with glass mosaics inside. I heard President Putin came to lay one of the tiles since the tiles are Russian made. While the $50 tour price seems high considering you can visit the church for free, the explanations by my guide and getting views that nobody else gets made it 100% worth it to me.
While my time in Serbia, only two days, was short, this was just the sampling I need to know I’ll be back soon. I quite enjoyed my time in Serbia– the natural beauty, great architecture, affordable prices, and hardworking people make a great place to spend time.
Until soon, Serbia!
Serbia is UN Country 57/193 for me.