From and to the Belgrade airport “Nikola Tesla”

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This blog post is part of the “Must read” series for people visiting Belgrade. Find all other blog posts in the “Essential” category HERE. 

Nikola Tesla Airport is the only civil airport in Belgrade at the moment. It’s some 15 km away from the city center and basically very well connected through the highway that goes through the city. If you are going by car (or taxi, or rent-a-car) you will be pretty much OK. Public transport, on the other hand, is a bit more tricky.

By Car (or rent-a-car)

If you own a car or rent one, reaching Belgrade (especially New Belgrade) is a walk in the park (or ride through the high-way). You just exit the airport, follow the signs to Belgrade and after some 5 minutes you will reach New Belgrade – Belgrade Arena, Hotel In, Holiday Inn and many more popular landmarks are there. Driving further down the highway you will reach Sava Centar and then cross the bridge – entering the old part of the city. You will pass Radisson Blu hotel, and you will be really close to Kneza Miloša street, one of the main streets in Belgrade. If you go for a couple of minutes more, you will reach “Autokomanda”, really close to Slavia square, St.Sava temple etc. So really nothing hard.

By taxi

As I have already mentioned in the public transport article, the only safe and legal way to get taxi at the airport is to buy a voucher at the Taxi Info stand, located in the baggage claim area (right after you pass the passport check).

City of Belgrade made a decision about the prices of the taxi transfer from the airport and divided the city in zones:

Basically, closer to the airport, lower the fare – it starts at 1400 RSD (about 12 EUR) for the Yellow zone, goes all the way to 6000 RSD (50 eur) for the orange one. If you are visiting Belgrade, 99% of the times you will be in Zone 1 (Yellow) or Zone 2 (Red), so it’s either 12 EUR or close to 20 EUR (2000 RSD).

You can buy voucher for the ride at the mentioned Taxi booth and look for taxi when you exit the customs.

Important: Do not ride with the drivers outside customs that will offer their services. They are not part of the network and you will be charged more.

It works both ways, of course, so ride from one of the zones to the airport mustn’t be more expensive than the voucher price for the said zone. List of approved taxis can be found here, and feel free to call them in advance while planning your ride back to the airport.

Public transport

If you are up for an adventure, I can suggest riding with two GSP lines – 72 and 607. Ticket price is 89 RSD (150 RSD when bought from the driver) and all the rules written HERE apply. Line 72 will take you to “Zeleni Venac”, large public transport HUB in the city center while 607 rides to New Belgrade. Both lines are “standard” public transport lines which mean that they have lots of stops throughout, they don’t have a special luggage area etc and I really cannot recommend it. Especially when getting back to the airport. Also keep in mind that both 72 and 607 stop at departure level, not arrival area.

A1 express line

While A1 line is part of the GSP (public transport in Belgrade) it doesn’t use the standard Bus Plus tickets (as explained here) and the ticket costs 300 RSD (around 2,5 EUR).

A1 has just a couple of stops – Fontana (New Belgrade), Main Railway station (Which actually isn’t the main railway station for a year or so, but the name remained) and Slavija Square. If you are staying at New Belgrade, Fontana stop is the right one for you, while Main Railway station is sort of a tricky one, isn’t near anything. Slavija Square is the place where Slavia hotels, Hilton and a couple of others are, also lots of public transport lines stop there, so it’s the best choice in my opinion.

A1 is the best choice if you need a cheap service to get you to the city. You can grab A1 at the arrivals area, right when you exit the building.

Car-Go

Don’t forget our local Uber substitute (since we don’t have Uber) – CarGo. It’s cheaper than taxi, more expensive than public transport but will get you where you wanna go.

Keep in mind that CarGo CANNOT pick you up at the arrivals area, you have to go to the upper floor at the departures and get out.