Bus a1 Belgrade airport schedule. Weekend trip to Belgrade. Excursion route, walk through the center of Belgrade

Belgrade International Airport is Serbia's largest and busiest airport and receives flights from all over Europe, Russia and some Asian countries. Therefore, we decided to study in detail all the ways to get from Belgrade airport to the city center.

(international code BEG) is located between the districts of Surcin and Bezhaniska Kosa, 12 km from the city border and 18 km from its center. The airport is named after the famous scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla. The national carrier of Serbia, Air Serbia, is also based here.

Belgrade International Airport is the largest and busiest airport in Serbia

The Belgrade airport terminal complex is small, but cozy and quite modern. The airport has two terminals connected by a common area.

Terminal No. 1 serves domestic and charter flights, as well as low-cost carriers; Terminal 2 receives scheduled flights and accounts for the majority of passenger traffic. There are several cafes, shops, a currency exchange office and other amenities familiar to large airports.

Belgrade Airport also has free Wi-Fi for passengers, as well as numerous outlets for charging gadgets.

Cheap flights to Belgrade

You can buy tickets to Belgrade quite cheaply: the local carrier Air Serbia holds sales with enviable regularity, reducing ticket prices to a minimum. If the promotion doesn’t work out, then the easiest way to fly to Belgrade cheaply is with a transfer in one of the European capitals. You can find a cheap connection using the low price calendar below.

In addition to direct flights to Serbia, Belgrade Air Terminal is also often used by travelers for convenient connections when traveling to and from airports.

Airport map

Belgrade airport is not very big, you can figure out the layout on the spot - it won’t take much time. However, Top-trips found the terminal diagram:

Arrival and departure board

Regularly updated Belgrade airport board with up-to-date information on departures and arrivals:

Airport on the map

Taxi from Belgrade airport

From Belgrade Airport you can easily reach any point in the city and its immediate surroundings by taxi. You can try to catch a car at the exit of the airport terminal building or order it in advance for your flight via the Internet.

The second method often turns out to be cheaper, since it is rare that a taxi driver will resist the temptation to inflate the price for a tourist. When ordering online, the possibility of manipulating tariffs is reduced to zero: the service calculates the cost of the trip even before the actual payment, and “add on the spot” will no longer be possible.

If necessary, you can order a car with pre-installed seats for children, and if you have a lot of things with you, a car with a spacious trunk. The driver meets his passengers at the exit from the arrivals area with a sign indicating their names.

Another advantage of ordering a taxi online is taking into account possible flight delays or cancellations. The taxi service independently monitors the airport board and sends the car exactly when the plane arrives.

You can check current taxi prices and order a car for your arrival on this page.

Buses from the airport to the city

From the airport to the center of Belgrade you can take buses A1 and No. 72.

The Shuttle minibus A1 stop is located at the airport terminal. The bus goes to Slavia Square with an intermediate stop at the railway station. From 8.00 to 19.00 the bus runs every 20 minutes, then the interval between trips increases to 60 minutes. Travel time to the final stop takes about 30 minutes. The ticket can be purchased from the driver and costs 300 Serbian dinars.

Belgrade Airport is named after the world famous scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla

City bus route No. 72 runs from the airport terminal to the Zeleni Venac bus station. The journey takes about 40 minutes, and the journey will cost 89 dinars (about 0.7 €). Tickets can be purchased at the box office or directly from the driver. In the second case, the ticket will be slightly more expensive - 150 dinars (1.2 €).

Car rental at Belgrade airport

There are several car rental companies located in the airport terminal building, and, if desired, you can register a car directly in the arrivals area. However, you should be careful here.

Renting car at Belgrade airport, it is worth considering the so-called additional payments, which are often missing from rental companies' brochures. Most often this concerns insurance.

To avoid surprises, it makes sense to book a car through a specialized car rental price comparison service. One of the most popular in Europe is Rentalcars, the brainchild of the same holding company as the famous hotel portal Booking.com.

The system is built in such a way that all local rental conditions are brought to a “single denominator”, which allows you to select the most advantageous offer in a matter of seconds and leaves no room for price manipulation.

In 95% of situations, this approach allows for significant savings. Find out the cost car rental at Belgrade airport for the dates you need and clarify rental conditions

Belgrade's transport network is represented by all kinds of ground transport: buses, trams, trolleybuses, minibuses and taxis. City public transport includes about 150 bus and several trolleybus and tram routes. Moreover, a significant share of transport belongs to the City Transport Company “Beograd”, and the share of private carriers is small. There are also about 20 night bus routes, operating from midnight to 4 am.

Tickets and fares

From February 1, 2015, fares for public transport in Belgrade have changed. A one-time ticket purchased from the driver now costs 150 dinars. Traveling on public transport will cost less if you purchase an e-ticket from a newsagent rather than from the driver. Such tickets are called BusPlus, they cost 40 dinars and come in three varieties:

— On one day - 250 dinars

- For a three days— 700 dinars

— for five days– 1000 dinars

Important: The card is replenished only once! Check the current prices on the Bus Plus website.

When composting a ticket on a tram, bus or trolleybus, you must indicate which card you are paying with. Once you enter the transport, tap your card on the electronic terminal, this will mean that you have registered in the system, and 89 dinars will be debited from the card - the price for 90 minutes of travel. With each transfer, you will need to again present the card to the terminal at the entrance so that it is “checked in” in the car system. Cards are not valid for night routes. The ticket is purchased from the driver.

Minibuses (minibuses) are more comfortable than regular buses and are equipped with air conditioning. They are designated by the letter E and operate on 8 routes. Trolleybus routes serve the eastern part of Belgrade and the historical city center. And on tram routes you can get to the new district of Belgrade.

If you are caught by ticket inspectors traveling without a ticket, and no amount of subterfuge can be used to get out, you will have to accept your fate and pay a fine of 6,000 dinars. In some cases, a receipt is issued that allows you to pay the fine within 15 days.

Buses

Bus stops in Belgrade are numbered. To find out. when a particular bus arrives at the stop you need, just send a request from your mobile phone - *011*stop number# - you will receive an SMS with information. Stops on night routes do not always coincide with daytime ones, so be careful. By the way, BusPlus cards are not valid on these routes; you need to buy a ticket from the conductor for 150 dinars for the city and 210 dinars for the suburbs.

Quite recently I had the opportunity to visit Montenegro, the beautiful Bay of Kotor-Risan. What does Serbia have to do with this, you ask (and Belgrade, in case anyone doesn’t know, is the capital of Serbia)? It so happened that I bought plane tickets with a transfer in Belgrade. I was flying alone with my child, the transfer both there and back was short, I decided that there was nothing wrong with it and the cost of the flight would more than compensate for some of the inconveniences. However, this was not the case: after some time, the airline announced the cancellation of the second flight and its replacement with another, with a time difference of as much as seven hours versus one and a half. At first I was depressed, but then I thought that this was a great opportunity to see something new and do something interesting. So, Belgrade airport— what to do if there is a long layover between flights?

I’ll say right away - nothing. Belgrade airport is completely boring in terms of activities, there is nothing to do there: the airport itself is tiny, although very cute. At a leisurely pace, you can completely walk around it in 10-15 minutes. I had never been to Belgrade before. Remembering our positive experience of an overnight layover in Budapest (we went to dance in the city at a night milonga instead of sitting on our butts in airport seats), I decided that seven free hours was a good reason to go see the city.

Yes, by the way, at the airport there is a good playroom for children with all sorts of toys, a toilet and even a small kitchen, located almost in the far left corner of the inner hall (where duty free is), if you stand with your back to the planes. After hanging out there for a bit, feeding the baby and getting ready after a tiring night in Moscow (departure was at 4, arriving in Belgrade around 6 in the morning), we headed out. Russians, by the way, do not need a visa to visit Serbia for up to 30 days. Of course, I had read a lot on the internet in advance and already had an idea of ​​how and what I could use to get to the center of the Serbian capital. There really aren’t very many options: taxi (they say it’s supposedly inexpensive, 15-20 euros one way), shuttle, bus number 72.

The currency of Serbia - oh, horror! - dinars. 1 ruble is approximately equal to 2 dinars. A shuttle ticket costs 300 dinars one way (May 2017). About the 72nd bus it is written that the driver’s ticket costs 150 dinars, and when purchased at a kiosk it costs 89 dinars. What kind of kiosk this is, I still don’t understand. There is nothing like that at the airport, but in the city all the interviewed “kiosks” were in deep refusal, they say, they have never sold any bus tickets. If anyone can reveal the secret of these kiosks, I will be grateful.

Since the euro is not used in Serbia, it is advisable for you to exchange a small amount for pocket expenses (round trip travel, buy food/other small items). At the airport there is a so-called “changer”, and more than one. The rate there is not the best, but for a small amount it is completely uncritical. On May 1, 2017, 10 euros cost 1,200 dinars. Change no more than 10-20 euros, since bank cards are accepted for payment almost everywhere in the city. I think you don’t need the remaining extra dinars on your hands. In principle, on the bus it is quite possible to pay in euros (small coins are needed), and in a cafe or restaurant you can pay by card. So decide for yourself. Although in my opinion, having some local money on hand is useful.

Belgrade Airport, how to get to the city?

So, whether you have acquired Serbian currency or not, feel free to leave the terminal doors and go left literally a couple of tens of meters. Just make sure you get off on the right “floor”—there should be a blue sky above you, not an overpass. At first we jumped out in the wrong direction; it was unclear where to move. I had to go up a level. Although if you leave Terminal 1, you don’t even need to go anywhere, you are already there. Here is the stop for both the bus and the shuttle. The shuttle seems to go a little faster, about half an hour, and stops near the train station, for those interested. The 72nd takes about 40 minutes (I timed it) to the final stop Zeleni Venac, it’s right center-center. Vehicles run according to a strict schedule; they usually hang at the bus stop here. I recommend that while waiting for the bus, take a photo of it as a souvenir, especially in the opposite direction. You don't want to miss your plane, do you? Just in case, here is the schedule of the 72nd bus from the airport to the city:

And this is his schedule from the Zeleni Venac stop to Belgrade airport:

It took me a while to find him. The bus to Belgrade airport stops a little further on the same side as the disembarkation point, where houses and shops already begin. In general, take, say, bus 72 and go to the final one, enjoying the views: after crossing the bridge, almost immediately there it is, the final one. Get out (your back will be to the road), turn right and go to the underground passage, you go straight, straight to the end, and there it doesn’t matter, you can go left, walk to the nearest intersection, turn right and literally after a couple of tens of meters you are on the central pedestrian street Belgrade - Knez Mihail Street. Or exit the passage to the right, and after a few meters turn left, go up the steps, walk a little more along with the main crowd of people and find yourself at the very beginning of the same Knez Mikhail.

Belgrade Arbat is quite short, about 25 minutes one way at an extremely leisurely pace to the very end, the Kalemegdan fortress. The fortress itself can also be explored at a leisurely pace in about forty minutes. For lovers of animals, there is a local zoo nearby (I didn’t go). By the way, I was surprised to learn that Belgrade is actually spelled Beograd. The city has several rumored interesting museums and churches. Personally, my goal was simply to take a good walk and have a snack, preferably the famous local pljeskavica - a large flat cutlet.

The tired, well-fed cub finally fell asleep after a night vigil and slept in the stroller almost until the flight, while his mother, that is, I, drove through the Belgrade streets, absorbing the local flavor. A small note for fellow mothers: this is not classical Europe, but Slavic brothers. The city is not very friendly to citizens traveling on small wheels; be prepared to periodically carry your treasure along with a stroller in your arms up rather steep steps due to the almost complete absence of ramps. Swing in advance or take a strong escort with you.

Where to eat in Belgrade?

As I already said, we arrived at Belgrade airport early in the morning. Walking in the city is the best thing, there are almost no people, the sun is not too hot, it’s very pleasant. However, in terms of food, an unexpected problem arose: in almost all the open cafes that I liked by their appearance, the kitchen was not open so early: they say, please come after 11-12:00, but for now only breakfast. In general, you can have a good snack with the local pastries. Bakeries, including mobile stalls with a wide variety of pies, can be found almost at every turn. And how delicious it all smells! The drooling comes on its own. But I was determined to go for the splash and steadfastly controlled myself. On the next street running parallel to Knez Mikhail, my patience was rewarded in a café that was nondescript from the street but very colorful inside. True, to find out if the kitchen was working, I had to first look for at least one of the staff who was alive.

To satisfy my growing hunger and at the same time use my spare money, I ordered all the most expensive things I found on the menu. Specifically, Shopska salad:

Very tasty! The cheese just melts in your mouth, and the tomatoes smell like summer and sunshine. Beef soup:

Very strange. A whole plate of ordinary broth, in which several hefty pieces of carrots were floating. All. Local beer Lav:

And of course, pljeskavitsa, for which everything was started. Here she is, beauty:

Very large, the size is not quite adequately conveyed in the photo. I barely made it through. The sauce (orange) is simply gorgeous! I think it was ajvar. I ate like a bun. How much did all this beauty cost? And here is the score:

1,110 dinars, a little less than 10 euros or approximately 620 rubles. In my opinion, it is very budget-friendly. Let me remind you that these were some of the most expensive dishes. You can check out the menu for yourself:

For a change, I took off the menu in another large cafe, located almost on Knez Mikhail Street:

I think that in terms of food in Serbia, everything should be very good, tasty, plentiful and affordable - since Belgrade is the capital, prices here are most likely among the highest. A little more about the city itself. It seemed to me that Beograd is not too large in size; I suspect that it can be easily explored completely in two or three days without particularly straining. That is, going here for a week is most likely overkill. And I liked the atmosphere here; there is something subtly in common with my beloved Budapest, although in terms of architectural beauty, the Serbian capital is undoubtedly inferior to the Hungarian one in everything.

I can’t say anything meaningful about the local residents, since after several hours of walking along deserted streets it is difficult to form any adequate opinion on this matter. I think these are classic Slavic brothers with all the attendant pros and cons. Moderately gloomy, moderately smiling, moderately sociable. I read that the “lazy and cunning” Serbs tried to deceive or rob some of the tourists. I don't know how common this is. I think that, like everywhere else, you shouldn’t completely relax and lose vigilance in an unfamiliar environment. I didn’t have time to see any special crime. Everything is peaceful, with occasional police encounters.

From observations: the Serbian language is sometimes very funny to the Russian ear. Although I notice that almost all other Slavic languages ​​seem funny to Russians. I wonder if it's the same on their part or not? Do Slavic brothers laugh at Russian speech? It would be interesting to know. In addition to the funny moments (dobro dolezli, ulaz, izlaz, knizhara, stomatoloshka and the like), the Serbian language turned out to be surprisingly understandable. Comfortable. :O)

Overall: the overall impressions of the city are extremely positive. The only thing, in order not to spoil your impressions of visiting the capital of Serbia, calculate in advance the time of your comfortable return to Belgrade airport and arrive at the bus stop on time. I would love to come here again for sure, for at least a couple of days. I even (slightly) regretted that there was a short transfer on the way back and, even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to look into the city one more time.

I wish you a wonderful holiday!

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You may also be interested in articles on how to travel to, or to, yourself.

In this article I will tell you how to get to the city from Belgrade airport. I will share all the methods, of which there are few. There are three of them: public transport, taxi or car (own/rented). I’ll tell you about the nuances of buses, the cost of taxis and parking at the airport, and also tell you how to get from the airport to the hotel for less than 1 euro. Are you going to or from Nikola Tesla International Airport Belgrade? Then you are at the right place.

If you decide to get from Nikola Tesla Airport to the center of Belgrade by public transport, then you have two options.

• Express A1.
• Bus number 72.

Travel on the A1 bus costs 300 dinars per person one way (the BusPlus card is not valid on it). The ticket is purchased from the driver. Travel time is 30 minutes. The bus follows the direction Belgrade Airport - Slavija Square (Serbian Trg Slavija) almost without stops. I know for sure that it stops at the Railway Station (the bus station is also located there). Perhaps the driver can stop somewhere at your request, but I’m not sure.

From 08:00 to 18:00 the bus departs from the airport every 20 minutes, at other times – once or twice an hour. It runs from early morning until late at night (the break in movement is two hours - from 03:00 to 05:00).

At the airport, the A1 bus stop is very easy to find. It is located almost at the exit from the arrivals area.

Bus number 72 is a regular city bus departing from Belgrade from the Zeleni Venac market nearby and going to Nikola Tesla Airport. Travel time is 40-50 minutes. The fare is 89 dinars with a BusPlus card (zone 2), 150 dinars if you buy a ticket from the driver. In the fall of 2018, in public transport in Belgrade it became possible to pay with a direct bank card (no need to take Bus Plus). But I was unable to pay using a card (Alfa-Bank, Russia).

The bus takes longer, but its advantage is that, having a BusPlus card, you can transfer to another type of public transport within 90 minutes after validation. For example, I lived for . I arrived by plane, boarded bus No. 72, and drove to Zeleni Venac. I got off the bus, went up to Terazii Square, took bus number 26 and went home. And I paid 89 dinars for everything.

In detail about public transport in Belgrade, about BusPlus and payment for travel.

At Belgrade Airport, bus number 72 stops on the upper tier.

From Belgrade airport by taxi

The Nikola Tesla Airport website provides official taxi prices. The price is fixed, divided into zones. For example, in Novi Beograd a taxi from the airport will cost 1,400 dinars (14 euros), and to the center of Belgrade - 1,800 dinars (18 euros). If they quote higher prices, don't agree. Better yet, book your transfer in advance online. It costs a little higher, but the driver will meet you at the airport with a sign, the meeting guarantee is 100%.

From Belgrade Airport by car

The distance between Belgrade Airport and the city center is 18 kilometers. The two points are connected by a wide modern highway, there are all the necessary signs, it’s difficult to get lost even without a navigator.

There are counters of international rental offices at Belgrade Airport, but I recommend not looking for an offer on their websites, but comparing prices in one place. Just keep in mind that in Serbia there are very few cars with automatic transmission, and their rent is usually almost twice as high.

There is a large parking lot at the airport. Parking directly at the terminal costs 100 dinars per hour. Paid at a special kiosk that operates in the parking lot.

If you fly to Belgrade from Moscow and drive to the airport in your own car, then the information about parking at the capital’s airports will also be relevant. For example, using the link you can book parking in Domodedovo. The same resource allows you to book a parking space at other Moscow airports.

If you are flying from Belgrade for several days and need to leave your car in the airport parking lot, then there is another parking lot for this. It is located 300 meters from the terminal. 1 day parking costs 800 dinars.

Having arrived in the Serbian capital, Rus may become confused and needlessly pay taxi drivers a tidy sum. I'll tell you how to reduce the damage to your wallet by understanding a little how it works. And also about why it is necessary make friends with fur seals. But first things first.

Belgrade has been promised a full-fledged metro since 1950, but so far construction ambitions have been embodied in just one underground station. So the city family of transportation services is still represented only by buses, trams, trolleybuses and the Beovoz electric train.

You can ride them by paying the fare:

— BusPlus card (for 1, 3, 5 days or refillable);
— from the driver (2 times more expensive);
— using a mobile phone with a tariff of a certain operator.

Excellent maps will help you figure out how to get to the right place. belgrademaps.com. At first glance, the diagrams of day and night transport lines seem frightening, as if web of a spider that has eaten too much dye. However, once you take a closer look and get used to it, you will appreciate the intention of their creator.

A scary “spider” of transport lines. Once you figure it out, it becomes convenient. Screenshot: belgrademaps.com

I personally downloaded the “web” in pdf format and now, when I have to go somewhere far away, I just look out for nearby lines. Some people prefer to use a smart site planplus.rs, which offers a ready-made route, but it seems to me that sometimes it creates entities unnecessarily and greatly complicates the task. In short, it's a matter of taste.

Another option is an app. Moovit for the phone, which surprisingly well “understands” public transport in Belgrade. Just enter the starting and ending points of your trip and follow the instructions of the artificial logistics intelligence.

Travel zones

To streamline the collection of money from riders, Belgrade was conditionally divided into 4 zones with corresponding tariffs. If you are not going far to the suburbs, it is enough to pay for travel in the first and second zones(center and residential areas).

On the BusPlus website you can see in which zone the place you are interested in is located and estimate how much it will cost to get there by public transport in Belgrade: https://www2.busplus.rs/lt/zone-tarifnog-sistema

How to pay for transport fares

1) At the driver's

150 dinars(zones 1+2), 300 dinars (zones 1+2+3), 400 dinars (1+2+3+4).

An option suitable if this is your first time standing with your mouth open at the exit from Belgrade airport. Or if you suddenly ran out of the house in your pajamas, jumped on an approaching bus, and exactly 150 dinars were lying in the folds of your pants.

Only in these cases is such wastefulness justified. In all others there is BusPlus travel card, according to which one trip can cost only 89 dinars (more details below).

If the driver suddenly doesn’t have a ticket, we sit down with a clear conscience and drive off - the controller does not have the right to issue a fine.

From airport to city There are buses No. 72 (last stop – Zeleni venac) and A1 (to Slavia Square). And this is where you can and should buy a travel card.

2) Temporary pass for 1, 3 or 5 days - “day card”

For all types of BusPlus travel passes, the following applies: you can buy it at any kiosk, and use it on any type of transport from 4 am to 24 pm. Exactly at midnight, he will turn into a pumpkin, and you will be charged a double fare on the tram (150 dinars for the first two zones, 300 for the remaining ones). In addition, you will have to pay separately for rides in a minibus with the letter “E” on the windshield - an analogue of our minibus.

An energetic tourist or a poor fellow who has to run through various bureaucratic authorities is recommended to purchase unlimited travel pass, real 1, 3 or 5 days(no more options). To do this, you need to stick your head through the window and ask:

- One-day/three-day/pet-day Busplus card, we pray to you.

The seller will be captivated by your knowledge of Serbian and will give you a blue paper rectangle, which you will pay for 40 dinars(the card itself) plus:

As you probably already understood, with this rectangle you can ride around the city as much as you like, without restrictions on transfers (don’t forget - except at night and on minibuses). The validity of the card in public transport in Belgrade begins from the moment of purchase. Despite the fact that everything is “paid” for, it should be applied to the validator upon entry.

3) A refillable travel card without a name – “the card is not personalized”

Plastic BusPlus, which works on the principle of an electronic wallet - as much money as there are songs. The card itself is in the kiosk 250 dinars, lives 3 years, and you can top it up with any amount (no more than 2500 at a time and, maximum, 5000 dinars in total on the card).

Come in, put your card on the validator, it will be debited from it 89 dinars for 1 trip. Moreover, after the validator beeps, you will have exactly 90 minutes for all kinds of transfers and rides. True, each time you need to “beep” the card again when entering the transport.

LIFE HACK: if you top up your card with at least 1000 dinars at once, you will receive another 100 as a bonus on your travel card. In general, 900 dinars should be enough for such a bonus, but for me the last 3 times nothing worked with them, but with a thousand there were never misfires.

89 dinars is most likely enough for your regular trips, but for outings to the suburbs there are different tariffs:

Zone	Price (for 90 minutes)
1 and 2	89 dinars
3	89 dinars
4	89 dinars
1, 2, 3	179 dinars
1, 2, 3, 4	269 ​​dinars
3 and 4	179 dinars

By the way, with this pass you can pay for several people at once by clicking on the inscription on the validator “Grupna karta” and selecting the quantity (maximum 5).

4) Personalized travel card - “personalized card”

A magical piece of plastic with a photograph, which can be obtained by both Serbs and foreigners with a temporary or permanent residence permit. You need to regularly deposit a fixed amount onto this card, paying your loved one a daily “unlimited” allowance.

Marching with money to the kiosk is officially allowed from the 25th to the 30th/31st of the month (to pay for the next whole month) or from the 1st to the 24th (to pay for travel for the current month). If you decide to go for a walk and pay for the whole year in advance, you will receive another bonus from BusPlus - discount equal to the monthly cost of the travel card. That is, as a result, you will pay not for 12, but for 11 months.

Here are the costs of personalized passes for public transport in Belgrade in 2019:

		ZONE
Category	Period	1	1 and 2	1,2,3	1,2,3,4	3	3 and 4	4
Working Serbs; foreigners with residence permit	month	2.990	3.275	3.890	4.990	3.275	3.890	3.275
	365 days	32.890	36.025	42.790	54.890	36.025	42.790	36.025
Unemployed Serbs, students and other beneficiaries	month	1.090	1.120	1.410	1.730	1.120	1.410	1.120
	365 days	11.990	12.320	15.510	19.030	12.320	15.510	12.320

And people over 65 years old pay for unlimited travel in all zones 407 dinars per year. It’s lovely, beautiful, and gratifying to see.

In order for a foreigner to issue a personalized travel card, you need:

• come to the office of the SHG organization with your passport and its copy,
• say: “sy-y-yr” into the camera of a local employee;
• fill out a standard application and sign consent to the processing of personal data.

5) Using a mobile phone

If you purchased a SIM card from an MTS operator (not Russian, but local - Mobile telephony Srbije), your phone runs on Android no older than version 4.4 and supports NFC technology, download the application mts centar. When you need to pay for your bus fare in Belgrade, select the Bus Plus option and buy a ticket.

Moreover, this can be done even before the bus arrives. But at the entrance, be sure to lean the back of your mobile phone against the validator. When the ticket inspector approaches you, give him your phone and show him your phone so that he can make sure that you are an honest citizen and have bought a ticket.

How to find out when the bus is coming

While waiting for a bus (tram, trolleybus), look around - somewhere nearby on a pole there is a small red, white and blue sign covered with mysterious Serbian letters. They will reveal to the savvy traveler the name of the stop and the numbers of the Belgrade public transport lines passing by.

A digital code sent from a mobile phone will tell you how soon this same transport will arrive (about 3 dinars will be deducted from the account, a nightmare). The beginning and end of the code are always the same, and the changing part is the serial number of the stop:

*011*523# stop number – 523

Upon request, you will receive an SMS, which will indicate how much time is left for which transport to reach you. For example, 23 – 2;12 means that two buses number 23 are approaching, one is two stops away, and the second is twelve stops away.

The fly in the ointment: sometimes buses in Belgrade begin to take on a life of their own and deceive the electronic announcement system.

Punching the ticket

Electronically fed validator is green and peaceful

In order for the fare to be considered paid, you need to attach your Busplus card to the validator at the entrance to the transport and make sure that it happily blinks green. Some devices look a little different, and the travel card is applied not to the screen, but to the black field below it.

If suddenly you forgot to put money on the card, the artificial intelligence living in the validator will flash angrily red, will loudly and contemptuously notify the entire bus about your poverty ( nemate quite a loan- srb), and machine guns will stick out from under the seats and shoot you on the spot, you will only have to go out and replenish BusPlus at the kiosk or wonder if the controller will catch you.

Okay, this mug doesn't appear on the screen. But the waves of electromagnetic contempt from the validator just keep coming

The validator also has a bright, caring side: a tiny diagram hangs in the upper right corner of the screen. When touched, a list of all stops along the route opens in the correct order, and the one where the bus is currently located will be highlighted. Healthy.

Crouching controller, hidden hare

In Russia, a controller is usually monumental aunty, an orange vest, dimensions, a stern expression on her face - reigning in the salon with her entire appearance. She does not leave him until the end of her shift, and greets incoming passengers with a majestic wave of her hand, without rising from the throne. It is impossible not to notice it, it is impossible to avoid it, you just need to submit to it and pay tribute with a sigh.

Completely different - Serbian controllers, who probably borrowed their strategy from "fur seals". They operate in groups of 2-3 people; they are not always on the bus, but selectively organize raids on popular lines.

An ordinary Belgrade ticket inspector is indistinguishable from an ordinary city dweller: if earlier they waved hand-held ticket checking machines as a force, now they have become more insidious and hide these machines in their bosoms. Passengers are packed into the cabin, and the controllers are the last to enter under cover - into the head, tail and middle of the bus.

The doors close, the controllers barely noticeably nod to each other, the word “CONTROL” lights up on the malicious validator - that’s it, the trap has slammed shut, not a single pass can be punched anymore, and people rush, some into the windows, some into the chimney in all directions. Particularly lucky ones stall for time until the next stop, where they urgently run out, as if that’s how it should have been.

The rest are discharged fine (from 2000 dinars) or they try to take him to the municipal police to establish his identity. Many Serbs consider the fare to be unfairly high (89 dinars = 3 loaves of bread), so there are entire websites on the Internet dedicated to the fight against controllers and boycotting BusPlus. You can speculate on this topic, but you should not forget:

Public transport in Belgrade is not free. Paid travel = gasoline, driver salaries, repairs and maintenance of buses.

Additional discounts and bonuses on BusPlus card

Holders of personalized travel cards can receive discounts from 5 to 10% from BusPlus partners - for example, in supermarkets, furniture and sports stores, clinics, etc.

You can see the list of partners and bonuses on the BusPlus website in the “Partneri i popusti” section.

Summary – public transport in Belgrade

So, let's summarize. If this is your first time arriving at Nikola Tesla Airport, buy a ticket to the city from the driver for 150 dinars.

If you are a tourist and want to have a good look around Belgrade, grab some from the kiosk 1, 3 or 5 day pass.

If you are going to frequently travel to the Serbian capital or even live in it, buy refillable non-name card and spend what you put in.

Well, since you’ve already firmly settled here and plan to ride around the city a lot and often, register personalized unlimited travel pass with a fixed monthly cost.

Don’t anger the fur seals and pay for your rides in a disciplined manner. Have a good trip!