In short
Belgrade is built at the confluence of the Sava and the Danube, a position that explains its history: the city has been destroyed and rebuilt a considerable number of times, which has left it few old monuments and a great deal of character.
Kalemegdan, the fortress above the confluence, is the central park and the city's viewpoint. Stari Grad is the old centre, with the pedestrian Knez Mihailova street. Skadarlija is the former bohemian street. Savamala and Dorćol hold the nightlife. New Belgrade, across the Sava, lines up post-war modernist blocks.
Arriving and getting around
Nikola Tesla airport is some twenty kilometres out, linked by bus.
There is no metro: trams, trolleybuses and buses cover the city. The centre is walked, but it slopes.
Serbia is not in the European Union and uses the dinar.
What it really costs
Belgrade is one of the cheapest large cities in Europe, eating and going out included.
The kafane, traditional taverns, serve considerable portions cheaply.
When to come
May–June and September–October. Summer is hot and the city moves to the riverbanks; winter is cold.
What nobody tells you
The splavovi are floating clubs moored on the Sava and the Danube. They operate from late spring to autumn and account for most of Belgrade's nightlife reputation. Some are family restaurants by day.
The Nikola Tesla Museum holds the urn containing his ashes, along with his personal archives and live demonstrations of his inventions. The inventor was of Serbian origin and born in present-day Croatia.
Ada Ciganlija is a former river island turned into an artificial lake by a causeway: it is Belgrade's beach, free, fifteen minutes from the centre and very busy in summer.
Zemun, to the north-west, was a separate town under the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918: its architecture and its Danube-side feel have nothing in common with the rest of Belgrade.
Buildings bombed in 1999 are still visible in the centre, left as they were. They are the subject of continuing local debate.