Living Large in Affordable Belgrade

As full time travellers, we want it all. We want to stay in a beautiful apartment, eat in great restaurants and get to know the culture — and we want for a very reasonable cost. This can sometimes be a little difficult to achieve in Europe. The best-known cities see so much tourism and prices are sky high, especially during peak summer season. We wanted to know if maybe Eastern Europe was the answer. Could we get that European experience we wanted for a much more affordable price?

We’ve been in Belgrade for a full month and now it’s time to tally the final bill. We’ve stayed in a stylish apartment right in the city centre. We’ve enjoyed delicious meals out almost every single day. We’ve really settled into that European cafe culture. When we add it all up, was it really the low-cost version of Europe that we were hoping for? Or did dining out every single day end up costing a little more than expected? 

When we first started researching the cost of living in Belgrade, we thought that our money would go fairly far. But what kind of experience would we get? We were a little unsure about what the city would have to offer. Our impressions of Serbia were leftover from the conflict in the 90s. We didn’t really have a sense of what Belgrade is today. And we certainly didn’t expect to find such a sophisticated, cosmopolitan city. 

Let’s start things off with our Airbnb, which is always the biggest item in our budget. We’ll admit that we have pretty high standards for our Airbnbs. Since we travel full time, we really want to feel at home no matter where we are in the world. And we got a lot right with this apartment. 

It’s a modern apartment, stylish and minimal. The interior is pretty small but the host did a great job with compact furniture and lots of charming art on the walls. Overall it’s light and bright and really welcoming. And for those of you who were surprised that we carry yoga blocks in our suitcases, there was still plenty of space to do our morning yoga.

Normally we do like to have all the amenities. We’re talking dishwasher, washing machine, air conditioning. Well, we did get air conditioning but that was it. And the lack of appliances makes sense because the apartment has a tiny little kitchen with barely enough room for one person. However, if you don’t mind preparing with fairly simple meals, this is actually a great spot for a stay in Belgrade. 

The best part of this apartment is the location. Because we’re so well located, we really didn’t have to spend anything on transportation aside from taking a cab from the airport. We’re close to all the action yet it doesn’t feel too touristy. We’re on a quiet cobblestone street — one of the oldest streets in the city — and close to the Sava River and Kalemegdan Park.

And that brings us to entertainment. There’s so much to enjoy in Belgrade just walking around without having to spend a dime. We’ve enjoyed long walks in the pedestrian area, past Republic square and down Skadarlija, the bohemian quarter with all its historic taverns. We had to take a look at the Temple of St Sava as well, which is among the largest Orthodox churches in the world. But our favourite place for walking has to be the Belgrade fortress. It’s a place to get amazing views of the Sava River, especially first thing in the morning or at sunset. 

Of course, we did have some paid entertainment as well. We went to the Ethnographic museum, which gives a really interesting slice of peasant life back in the 19th century. We checked out Princess Ljubica’s residence which gives a sense of how royalty lived around the same time. And we spent one very memorable afternoon sampling five different types of rakija, which is the regional version of fruit brandy. 

Ultimately dining out is our favourite form of entertainment. Of course, it’s never easy to navigate a brand new city and figure out which restaurants are worthwhile and which ones are tourist traps. For our time in Belgrade, we did a lot of research to find the best restaurants. And we also reached out for recommendations from bloggers, Instagrammers and fellow nomads from our own community. 

All the research meant that we’ve had great dining experiences here in Belgrade. In fact, the prices are so low here that we’ve eaten out almost everyday. We have our neighbourhood go-to restaurant for local Serbian meals such as sarma and cevapi and schnitzel.We also tried the street food classics like pljeskavica, sis cevap and sausage (basically lots of meat-on-a-bun type snacks). We often started our day with a traditional burek from the local bakery but we also enjoyed a lot of breakfasts at more international restaurants too. You don’t have to look too far to find an avocado on toast in Belgrade. 

Of course, we don’t just dine out when we’re traveling. We also enjoy cooking meals at home, even when we’re working with the world’s smallest kitchen. We bought some of our basics at the Maxi, which is the local grocery chain. But we did most of our shopping at the green market which has farm-fresh produce at incredibly low prices. 

Shopping at a green market in a foreign country is not for the faint of heart.

It can be crowded and fast paced but really the biggest challenge of all is the language barrier. Most locals that we encountered in restaurants and stores did speak English but that hasn’t been the case in the green market. We’ve learned that you have to be comfortable making a lot of gestures to get what you want. And maybe get to know some basic numbers in the local language. It’s really worth it to make the effort. If you’re doing a lot of cooking at home, you can easily get by in Belgrade on a pretty low budget. 

Overall we were very impressed by how far our budget went. This is a really affordable yet pretty sophisticated slice of Europe. We came expecting it to be a bit more gritty or rundown. But what we found was a city with a well preserved historic centre, cobblestone streets, charming restaurants and lots of green space. So how much did it cost?

Our Airbnb came in at $1,056 USD, which seemed like a pretty decent price for a modern apartment in the perfect location. Transportation cost us a whopping $20 and that was just for the cab from the airport. Entertainment was just $21 while dining out every day and sometimes twice a day cost $411 USD. Finally, filling the fridge with a month’s worth of groceries came in at $351 USD.

If you thought that spending time in Europe is always expensive, you’ll be very surprised by our total for a full month. Adding all of these up, we spent $1,858 USD.

Of course, every destination in Europe is going to come with different costs. Not every place is as affordable as Belgrade. We’ve spent the past couple years travelling around Europe and tested out what kind of lifestyle you can buy in each city. You can check out the next post right here for a round up of our favourites.

Look What $2,500/Month Gets You in Europe