Red Star Belgrade away.

Hi all,

New to the site, but Belgrade-based City fan (first game was away to Oldham in c.Dec 1996).

A bit of basic info:
Buses from the airport: You can pay in cash for the A1 (400 RSD, about £3), but all other tickets must be bought in advance from a kiosk or by text message/app, and I don't think there's a kiosk at the station, but I might be wrong about this. Text messages can only be sent from Serbian numbers. For those services, the tickets are 50 RSD (40p), or an all-day ticket for all public transport is 120 RSD (about 90p).

For buying a sim, there's little difference if here for 2-3 days. You're talking about spending £4 to £5.50 unless you want to make 'real' calls (rather than Viber/WhatsApp). I use MTS. It's 400 RSD for the SIM, and the free stuff you get plus 500 RSD credit (for public transport tickets) should be more than enough to see you through less than 7 days here.

Exchange offices: Usually, they don't accept cards. They also don't accept coins. It's best to bring Euros with you (if you have any left from the summer or lying around from other away trips), because the exchange rate means you'll lose around 0.2-0.5%. On GBP - unless you go to TrangeFrange exchange offices (I don't think they have any outlets in the centre) where the exchange means you lose around 1.2% - you're talking about a 6.5%-ish commission. So, for £100 worth of Euros, you'll get £99.65 worth of dinars, but for £100 worth of GBP, you'll get around £93.50 worth of dinars. Pretty big difference.

Before the game, we'll probably be bussed in from Studentski Trg (Google it), and away fans tend to be gathered at Plato bar. Maybe a 1.5 minute walk from there is Gunners Pub (nothing to do with Arsenal), which has decent local craft beers, if you're that way inclined. Plato is good for the non-smokers, as it has a large outdoor area (I think he bar's name is a play-on-words of Greek philosopher Plato and 'plateau', as it's situated on the plateau below the philosophy faculty).

EDS game - I honestly have no idea how feasible it will be to get from that to the stadium, as it's the early kick-off and pre-game road closures will transect the route from Vozdovac (I live a 5-minute walk from that stadium) to Studentski Trg.

Post-game AVOID TAKING A TAXI BACK TO THE TOWN. Pre-COVID, the taxis parked outside the stadium were 30 quid a pop to Terazije (again, Google the location). Now you're talking in the region of £50+, I'd guess, because they're all unregulated. If you're in a group of 4, it might be worth it, but you're in for a big hit on your wallet if travelling solo. In general, the best taxi companies to use are Pink and Naxis, and Alfa Bell, Lux, Plavi and Lav are all generally reliable.

Also, expect to be held in the ground for 90-120 mins after the game. It's an early kick-off, cold December weather, and a few days before elections, so policing of the game is a bit unpredictable in this regard.

Will try to post a bit more info throughout the evening, and if anyone has any questions, please feel free to put them up here.
 
One more thing - if the tickets for the main match aren't valid for the EDS game too (I think I've read in the past that they are, but might be mistaken about this), as far as I understand, you can only buy tickets from inside the shopping centre under the stadium itself. They should be 300 RSD each, and available from 72 hours to 1 hour before kick-off. Access to the stadium itself is a bit dodgy - I went to a Serbia U21 game there, and had to climb 9 flights of pretty shoddy steps. If the weather's cold and you're not too stable on your feet, I'd seriously advise leaving before the end, to avoid a wave of fans rushing behind you.
 
For nightlife, as others have mentioned, Skadarlija is the place. I'd recommend Tri Sesire (Three Hats, but there are a few bars with similar-ish names) for lunch with beers. In the night on weekdays, the only late bar there is Red Bar, which I only go to after I've had a few. Because of the early k/o, I'd recommend going to a few other places post-match, and avoiding Skadarlija until maybe 22:00. If there are enough people in a decent bar, they may be willing to hold a lock-in, but that'd never happen on Skadarlija, and also, considering upcoming elections, it's hit-or-miss as to whether bars elsewhere would be inclined to do this.
 
Hi all,

New to the site, but Belgrade-based City fan (first game was away to Oldham in c.Dec 1996).

A bit of basic info:
Buses from the airport: You can pay in cash for the A1 (400 RSD, about £3), but all other tickets must be bought in advance from a kiosk or by text message/app, and I don't think there's a kiosk at the station, but I might be wrong about this. Text messages can only be sent from Serbian numbers. For those services, the tickets are 50 RSD (40p), or an all-day ticket for all public transport is 120 RSD (about 90p).

For buying a sim, there's little difference if here for 2-3 days. You're talking about spending £4 to £5.50 unless you want to make 'real' calls (rather than Viber/WhatsApp). I use MTS. It's 400 RSD for the SIM, and the free stuff you get plus 500 RSD credit (for public transport tickets) should be more than enough to see you through less than 7 days here.

Exchange offices: Usually, they don't accept cards. They also don't accept coins. It's best to bring Euros with you (if you have any left from the summer or lying around from other away trips), because the exchange rate means you'll lose around 0.2-0.5%. On GBP - unless you go to TrangeFrange exchange offices (I don't think they have any outlets in the centre) where the exchange means you lose around 1.2% - you're talking about a 6.5%-ish commission. So, for £100 worth of Euros, you'll get £99.65 worth of dinars, but for £100 worth of GBP, you'll get around £93.50 worth of dinars. Pretty big difference.

Before the game, we'll probably be bussed in from Studentski Trg (Google it), and away fans tend to be gathered at Plato bar. Maybe a 1.5 minute walk from there is Gunners Pub (nothing to do with Arsenal), which has decent local craft beers, if you're that way inclined. Plato is good for the non-smokers, as it has a large outdoor area (I think he bar's name is a play-on-words of Greek philosopher Plato and 'plateau', as it's situated on the plateau below the philosophy faculty).

EDS game - I honestly have no idea how feasible it will be to get from that to the stadium, as it's the early kick-off and pre-game road closures will transect the route from Vozdovac (I live a 5-minute walk from that stadium) to Studentski Trg.

Post-game AVOID TAKING A TAXI BACK TO THE TOWN. Pre-COVID, the taxis parked outside the stadium were 30 quid a pop to Terazije (again, Google the location). Now you're talking in the region of £50+, I'd guess, because they're all unregulated. If you're in a group of 4, it might be worth it, but you're in for a big hit on your wallet if travelling solo. In general, the best taxi companies to use are Pink and Naxis, and Alfa Bell, Lux, Plavi and Lav are all generally reliable.

Also, expect to be held in the ground for 90-120 mins after the game. It's an early kick-off, cold December weather, and a few days before elections, so policing of the game is a bit unpredictable in this regard.

Will try to post a bit more info throughout the evening, and if anyone has any questions, please feel free to put them up here.
Thanks for all the info. Quick question, is card payment accepted in most restaurants/pubs/shops, or would it be best to bring some cash?
 
Thanks for all the info. Quick question, is card payment accepted in most restaurants/pubs/shops, or would it be best to bring some cash?
I'd say it's accepted in 80-90% of places you'll go, but definitely bring cash. 1. Tips can't be paid by card, and 2. (If buying a sim) phone credit can't be bought by card (for some strange reason I've never been able to fathom). Also, I don't think you'd be able to buy a ticket for the EDS game by card (if you need to - see my post above), but I can't be sure about that.
 

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