Transportation within Serbia
 

From the Airport into Belgrade:

TAXI- Outside main terminal building there are always taxis waiting to be of service. However, it is probably the best to avoid all of them. They will charge something around 30 Euros (or even more, depending on how malleable you appear to be) for a ride to the city center. The real cost, using taxi- meter should be around 10- 15 Euros. Therefore, before you exit the terminal building you can make a phone call from the public phone (buy a telephone card) and call some of the following taxi services: Alfa Taxi- 444-1113, Palma Taxi- 316-2020, Pink- 9803, Plavi- 555-444, Zeleni- 324-6088, Zuti- 9802. If you wish, we can arrange you a taxi to waiting for you. In that case, driver will wait you after passport and custom control with your name on the table. He can help you with a luggage too. These taxi will charge you 15- 20 Euros for ride to the city center. There is also "Welcome to Belgrade" option organized by Belgrade's guide association. It includes taxi pick up on the airport, basic sightseeing tour of Belgrade with a guide and transfer to hotel. That service costs about 45 Euros.

BUS- The other option is to take bus fro the airport into the city. There is the official JAT bus which departs every hour from 07:00 to 20:00 outside the main terminal building. The ticket costs about 1.5 Euro and bus will take you to Slavija Square (in front of Hotel Slavija) or main railway and bus station. There is also city bus, leaving every 20 minutes from the same place as JAT bus and terminates at Zeleni Venac- green market close to Terazije Square and Kneza Mihaila street. City bus ticket costs 30 dinars (0.4 Euros).

CAR RENTAL- There are several car rental companies on the Belgrade's airport- Ineco (www.ineco.so.yu), Avis (www.avis.co.yu), Putnik Hertz, YU Tim (www.yutim.co.yu). It is advisable to arrange car pick up in advance. If you wish to use car rental service during your stay in Serbia we will be happy to assist you in arrangement with some rental car company. Some guideline about the price- the medium size car type Opel Astra or Skoda Fabia is about 80 Euros per day with unlimited mileage.

If you wish to take some sightseeing tour of Belgrade, either walking or by car, we would be happy to recommend you a guide service.

All distances in Serbia are given in kilometers.
 

Serbia Weather Information

Weather is difficult to forecast but, normally, Serbia has a continental climate. Autumn is often with extended periods of warm , sunny weather. The coldest month of the year is January with average temperature a little bit over 0˚C. Spring is usually very pleasant with daily temperature between 15˚C and 20˚C and occasional rain and showers. The hottest months are July and August with average temperature about 23˚C and daily temperature around 30˚C. The country as a whole receives an average precipitation of between 600mm and 800 mm annually in the plains- about the same as that of southeast England - and about 800mm and 1200mm in highland regions.

 

Packing suggestions

Casual clothing is recommended for most occasions. Depending of the season we will advice you what should you bring on the tour.  You should have a comfortable hiking shoes and one pair of light shoes or sport shoes for the pension/ hotel and time after the tours. Padded bicycle shorts and bicycle gloves are useful. We also recommend to bring arm and leg warmers, bicycle helmet, cycling sunglasses and some bicycle or walking rain gear.
 

General Information about Serbia
 

Currency and Exchange

Serbian Dinar is monetary unit and consists of 100 paras.  In all cities and towns you can find change offices. Most of them have a good exchange rate and do not charge commission. Most of change offices are open from 8am to 8pm. ATM machines are available only in big cities as Belgrade and Nis and they require a PIN number. For arriving by plane, there is an ATM at the arrivals hall (downstairs) of Belgrade's Surcin Airport, which will accept VISA, VISA Electron, VISA Plus, MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus cards. Some of the restaurants and shops accept credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners). The most widely excepted credit cards are VISA, closely followed by MasterCard. Money transaction and travelers checks change banks charge a commission and transaction fee. In a smaller towns it is useful to have enough cash. Foreign nationals may take a maximum of 120.000 dinars in or out of the country.

Most of the shops in Serbia are open from 9am to 9 pm and remain open through lunch.

Restaurants: The main meal in Serbia is taken at lunch from 1pm to 3pm. Restaurants serve dinner in the evening from 8pm till 11pm.

Electric Current

In Serbia current is 220 volts, 50 HZ. To use British electrical appliances a plug adapter is necessary.
 

Telephoning Home from Serbia

Most of the telephone cards (AT&T…) do not work in Serbia. You can telephone from Post Office and pay after the call or buy a telephone card (a phone debit card) for public phones. A telephone card you could buy at tobacco shops and post offices. Ask for “Halo Kartica” <halo kartitsa> card. They are sold in several version: 200, 300 or 500 dinars. The card allows you to make local and international calls by inserting the card into the slot of all public phones. To make a direct international call, first dial 99 (code to access international line) then the country code, the area code and local number. The country code for Great Britain is 44, USA and Canada 1, France 33, Germany 49. To make a national call just dial area code and local telephone number. City codes Belgrade 011, Nis 018, Novi Sad 021. Important phone numbers: Police 92, Fire department 93, Ambulance 94, Auto Motorist Association and road condition 987.

One minute from Serbia with Great Britain, France, Germany costs about 0.3 EUR, with USA, Canada, Australia 0.6 EUR (there is no reduced tariff for international calls), one minute with mobile phone in Serbia is around 12 dinars.
 

Languages in Serbia
 

Official language in Serbia is Serbian but English is widely spoken specially in a bigger towns. Both Cyrillic and Latin Alphabet is in used.