Visiting Belgrade Fortress
Summary
I think Belgrade is one of those cities where you really need either local friends to show you around the edgy happening bars, or a guide to show the historical significance of the Habsburg, Ottoman and Soviet legacies that aren’t brought to life as well as they could be. Belgrade Fortress is the obvious site worth checking out for its views over the Sava and Danube rivers meeting, but outside of that I don’t really remember that much from Belgrade and it feels quite low down the list of highlights of the Balkan States
If you are though keen on a trip around this part of the world for its stunning castles and old towns, and some of the best coastline in the world all compactly housed within 8 countries, see this travel entry for an itinerary and general tips for how to get the best out of your trip – 3 week trip around the Balkans States
highlights
#1 Heading up to the Belgrade Fortress for views over the city and generally checking out the walls, history and funfairs and cafes that have sprouted up
#2 Seeing the views of the mighty Danube River and Sava Rivers meeting
#3 Heading into the more edgy parts of the city to see some of the street art and hidden bars
#4 Seeing some of the former artillery and tanks shown for display in the fortress
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other European Capital Experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone