Where to stay in Belgrade
4 stopsUpdated July 2026
Zemun was another empire until 1934 and New Belgrade was a swamp until 1948. Those two facts explain why choosing a neighbourhood here is choosing a century: this isn’t a city that grew outwards, it’s a collage of pieces that were other things and got stuck together, and each keeps its character and even its architecture.
For a short trip the answer is the old centre, Stari Grad, which is where everything is and where you walk from. But it’s worth knowing that the other options aren’t suburbs: they’re different cities twenty minutes away, and one of them, Zemun, is probably prettier than the centre.
The route, stop by stop
4 STOPS- 01
Stari Grad
The old town, between the fortress and the pedestrian Knez Mihailova street, is where almost everyone ends up sleeping and rightly: the fortress is at the end of the street, Skadarlija five minutes away, and everything you came to see is walkable. The buildings are nineteenth and early twentieth century, among the few that survived.
It’s the most expensive area in Belgrade, which in Belgrade means it’s still cheap for anyone coming from western Europe. And it has the advantage that here the nightlife is on the street rather than on the barges, so you can eat and have a drink without taking a taxi at one in the morning.
If you’re here two or three nights, it’s this and there’s nothing to think about.
- 02
Dorćol
Next to the centre, dropping towards the Danube, Dorćol is Belgrade’s liveliest neighbourhood: small bars, good restaurants, galleries and a density of places to drink that the old town doesn’t have. Its name is Turkish (dört yol, “four roads”) and it was the Ottoman city’s commercial quarter, with Jewish, Greek and Armenian populations.
Today it’s where locals go out before heading down to the river, and it’s the best combination in the city: you’re ten minutes’ walk from the fortress and at the same time in a neighbourhood with residents, without a single restaurant with a menu in six languages. Prices are Belgrade’s and not the centre’s. If you’re here more than two nights, or if you’re back, this is the area.
- 03
Zemun
Half an hour from the centre, Zemun doesn’t look like Belgrade because for centuries it wasn’t: it was the last town of the Austro-Hungarian empire, with the Ottoman border on the other side of the river. It has low coloured houses, narrow streets, a tower from 1896 on top of a hill and a Danube promenade with fish restaurants whose tables sit at the water.
Sleeping here is a different and a good decision: it’s cheaper, it’s prettier, it’s quiet and the river is at the door. The trade-off is distance: half an hour by bus to the centre, and at night that means a taxi. It’s the choice if you’re here as a couple, if you want calm, or if you aren’t going down to the barges at three in the morning.
And on Sundays, when half the city comes to eat fish, it’s the best place in Belgrade.
- 04
New Belgrade
Across the Sava, the city of blocks raised from 1948 on a swamp filled in by hand by volunteer brigades. It’s where the big business hotels are, and it’s the least attractive place on this list by a distance: numbered superblocks, wide avenues and Soviet scale.
It has two arguments and they’re good ones. One: the big splavovi, the techno barges, are moored right here, so if that’s why you came you sleep ten minutes’ walk away instead of a taxi ride. Two: if architecture interests you, this is the best socialist modernist ensemble in the Balkans and people come only to see it, with the Genex Tower as the finish.
For any other reason, cross the river.
Frequently asked
Where should you stay in Belgrade?
Stari Grad, the old centre, for two or three nights: the fortress at the end of the street and everything on foot. Dorćol for the liveliest neighbourhood at Belgrade prices. Zemun if you prefer calm, the river and a town that was another country until 1934. New Belgrade only for the splavovi or the architecture.