Belgrade is a very walkable city, let me start by saying this. This may be counterproductive for the rest of this article, but I would genuinely suggest people to walk around the city and hence stop reading this article immediately. I ended up walking for a bit more than 150 kilometres around the city in just nine full days. This would not be possible, for real, if the streets were not properly paved, hills were not quite short, and greenery was not readily available in most streets to shelter one from the sun. It is a decently sized city for sure, but not too expansive. I ended up walking all the way to Zemun from Old Belgrade, where we stayed, and even that journey was quite doable and extremely enjoyable. I would argue that only through walking can you get to see the real Belgrade, with all its most beautiful and “ugly” buildings, excellent and not so excellent graffiti, parks and beaches, clubs and pubs, hidden local gems and all. If all of these were not enough to persuade you to simply stick to walking, carry on and read this extremely short guide on public transportion in the capital of Serbia.
Buying Tickets
There are many ways to pay for the mass transit systems of Belgrade, and the two ways that makes sense the most for travellers are daily cards and simple paper tickets that you can buy from the drivers. Drivers sell these tickets themselves, and for 150 RSD you can get them from them for that single ride. On the other hand, for 290 RSD (40 RSD for the card itself) you can get your hands on a daily transport card, and simple mathematics tells me that it pays for itself quite quickly. Kiosks that you see all around the city sell them, though they need to have the “Moj Kiosk” label on them. Even then, they may have run out of tickets or cards to sell so be ready for that. Funny enough, we were told that we could get cheaper one-way tickets at just 90 RSD from these kiosks too but for some reason we could not manage to do it anywhere we asked. Nevertheless, a 290 RSD card should do the trick for most of you, and there appears to be a few other options when it comes to the duration of said cards. Do check out this link for more information on this!
Navigating Belgrade
There are some websites out there that claim to have the knowhow about the mass transit system and its timetable in Belgrade, but the reality is none of them are fully correct in all regards. While sometimes Google Maps gets thing right, some other times relying on Moovit makes the most sense. There is also this website called EasyWay (and an accompanying app) which seems to be quite helpful, but it too fails to do so from time to time. Fully relying on any information you have on bus schedules etc. is a death sentence, and you basically must be at the bus stop you have to be in as early as possible. There are two exceptions to that though. Buses to and from the airport, as well as the buses that leave to Avala seem to be quite punctual in both ways. You need to take one of the three buses or the one minibus that makes their way from and to the airport quite regularly and taking the number 72 will get you to Old Belgrade. Taking the bus numbered 401 pretty much in front of St. Sava Temple will get you close to the Avala Tower, you will just have to get off at the stop called Avala and make the trek upwards on foot. Do check out these useful links to further find out which buses or trams you may have to take to get from point A to point B in this wonderful city.
Public Transportation for the Nikola Tesla International Airport
EasyWay – Belgrade’s Public Transportation Route Map
We have been told by some locals that simply “not paying” for these rides was also quite common in the city, apparently often by foreigners who did not know enough about the system. Tourists are reportedly treated better once an official realizes that you are not paying, but that sounds a bit too risky for me, and certainly not ethical… Public transportation is not expensive in Belgrade, and it is not even necessary other than for going to the airport and visiting Avala. Simply, buy a daily card or two to enjoy these rides fully, without worrying about whether someone would come up and try to check your ticket, which happened twice to me even if I have only used buses for a total of five times in this city. In any case, suffice to say that there is a fully functional and quite useful, but perhaps only partially reliable mass transit system in Belgrade, and though I would not advise tourists to use it regularly, it is there for the using!