Expat Ukraine’s 2020 Belgrade Guide

The following is a guest post by ExpatUkraine.

INTRODUCTION

Serbia is at the top of many male traveller’s lists of places of interest, and for a good reason. With a lovely climate, beautiful women, and a fantastic nightlife scene, the capital city of Belgrade is one of the most sought after cities in all of Eastern Europe.

I’ve just finished spending 9 months on location. I can honestly say that I’ve run the gambit in Belgrade, learning from my own successes and failures, as well as those of others. It has now been over 6 months since I’ve lived in Belgrade. After a fair amount of time to process my experiences, I present to you what may be one of the most detailed guides to Serbia’s capital city of Belgrade within the entire men’s travel community.

Nearly 5,000 words later, here we are.

Many thanks to Mark Zolo, and the Naughty Nomad Community for giving me a platform to post share this. I hope that my experiences can help to maximize your time spent in one of the best cities in Eastern Europe, and possibly the world.

Let’s get started!

WELCOME TO BELGRADE

Overview

Perhaps the best way I can describe Belgrade would be by saying that it is a cross between Russia and Italy. Like much of the Balkans, it is a cultural mishmash of the hotter, more Mediterranean climate of the Balkans, and the hardline, formerly Communist Eastern Bloc.

People are friendly, open, and usually quite animated. Hugs, kisses, and physical contact are typical greetings between Serbs. At the same time, there is a sense of cold, social restraint that is often exhibited towards strangers that’s more typical of Slavic culture.

This is paradoxical, like many things in Serbia.

As a foreigner, you’ll often find yourself on the receiving end of both.

Logistics

Belgrade is broken up into two sections: New Belgrade in the West and Belgrade Proper in the East. The two are separated by the River Sava, you’ll likely be spending 99% of your time in Belgrade proper. New Belgrade is primarily a residential area. Except for a few malls and the splavs (floating river clubs that we will discuss at length later), there’s not much here. 

In terms of where to stay in Belgrade, it depends on what type of person you are. If you’re a total party animal who loves night game, you would probably benefit from getting a place close to Skadarlija, the city’s “bohemian quarter” that is home to a great many of the city’s best bars and close to the central shopping district, TRG Republika.

However, you will probably pay a premium. Realistically, if you get an apartment anywhere in Dorcol (the neighborhood that Skadarlija is in), you will have no problem transporting girls back to your place via a CarGo, and meeting up at common locations for dates.

Personally, I lived in both Dorcol and Vracar. Vracar is the “rich” part of Belgrade that’s a bit quieter and less crowded. Here, you’ll see more luxury flats, Mercedes Benz filled lots, and the occasional supercar. Vracar borders Dorcol, and while it was kind of inconvenient getting down to Dorcol all the time to get to the bars, I enjoyed the trade-off. 

If you’re going for a short trip, Dorcol is the place to get an Airbnb. While you can live in Savamala, Paulila, or even Zemun for an extended stay, I don’t suggest it at first. Get a place in Dorcol, and if you decide to extend your trip, start touring around other neighbourhoods.

Like most of the Balkans, Belgrade is really kind of an ugly looking city except for a few neighbourhoods, like Vracar. You can really tell that the Communists took this place over, especially as you fly in. The whole city is really not too easy on the eyes. That being said, as in the case in most formerly Communist countries, getting around is pretty straightforward.

There is no metro in Belgrade. There is, however, an abundance of streetcars and busses that you can take, which nobody ever really pays the fee to ride on. While riding busses is usually very difficult in other Eastern European countries where you don’t speak the language, the Moovit App shows you precisely what routes to take based on your location, and even an updated schedule. It’s simply amazing, definitely download it. Then again, busses and trams are often not on time, so be prepared for this.

Other than that, you’ll probably be using the CarGo App to get around, or the country’s version of Uber. Yandex Taxi is also popular, though the cars and quality are usually quite poor compared with CarGo. Both are similarly priced. One downside is that during rush hour, it can be tough to actually get a cab at times. You may be sitting there requesting for over 40 minutes when it is at its busiest. 

This is not an issue all of the time, but it was massively inconvenient at times, but still not a deal breaker.

Food

Perhaps one of the best parts of Serbia is the food. Generally speaking, fresh, grilled meat is available 24/7 as both street food and at inexpensive, grille type eateries. I’d often spend 300 dinars (roughly $3) on a late-night, protein-filled snack.

Local favourites include Pljeskavica, a Serbian burger like dish, or Cevapi, which are Serbian sausages that are often topped with a mixture of feta cheese and sour cream called kajmak. If you’re having a proper sit-down meal in Serbia, be sure to try Sarma, or mini stuffed cabbages, the country’s national dish.

But, let’s be honest. Food isn’t why you’re going to Serbia…so let’s talk about the real reason you’re interested in travelling to the Balkans.

SERBIAN WOMEN

Ah yes, the section you’ve all been waiting for. While Serbia is a decent enough country for lifestyle alone, its main allure in this corner of the Internet is its women.

Appearance 

Serbian women are some of the hottest in all of Europe. Kyiv and Belgrade are often said to be neck and neck for the sheer number of above-average looking girls roaming the streets. 

And it’s true. Serbia is absolutely bustling with stunners.

Serbian women tend to have a darker complexion, darker eyes, and brunette colored hair. Natural blondes aren’t as common. The women in Serbia are often quite thin, with longer hair, and impeccable fashion. In many ways, they closely resemble Ukrainian women in terms of their styling and physical characteristics, albeit being far more “dark” looking than their lighter, more Eastern counterparts.

The average Serbian woman is sometimes rather tall, though there are plenty of average-sized girls here as well. One big takeaway was that I found many girls to be stunningly hot, but just a few inches too tall for me. Any girl over 5’8″ is really a dealbreaker. Even still, Serbian men are some of the tallest in Europe, so it’s less of an issue when they are dating amongst themselves.

Serbian women are quite appearance-conscious, but not as much as girls in Ukraine. You won’t see many girls putting on high heels to go to the grocery store (to be fair, I didn’t see tons of this in Ukraine either), but you catch my drift. Roosh pointed out that they dress quite “sporty,” often wearing leggings, an athletic top, and the general athleisure style popular in the West today. 

This is, by and large, somewhat true. The upside here is that very rarely did I come across a girl who was genuinely obese. While I’d see a few chubsters each day, it’s clear that women here understand that being fat is a big no-no.

Attitude

In my experience, Serbian women are a bit of a cross between a Latina and a purely Slavic woman. While they’re nowhere near as extreme as a Puerto Rican or Brazilian girl, they’re not nearly as quiet and reserved as a Ukrainian girl.

What I found quite lovely about Serbian women was a bit of raw passion I hadn’t seen in many other places in Europe. There were a few occasions where I’d meet a girl in a club, and 10 minutes later, we would be making out, with her biting my lip and squeezing my arms.

However, that same passion can go cold at the drop of a hat, especially when it comes to sealing the deal. For example, that same girl who was biting my lip in 10 minutes of meeting did not end up coming back to my place, or even meeting up with me the following week.

You could say Serbian women are passionate, yet restrained. Sometimes, that passion can turn into a quick lay, and other times, you’ll need to deal with her more logical side and build sufficient comfort to get her into bed.

The plus side here is that this initial spark does exist with these women, and it can lead to some seriously memorable nights.

GETTING LAID IN SERBIA

Serbia is interesting, as it is a country where I see many men sing its praises, and others curse it.

In many ways, I see both sides. 

My results in Serbia…

I banged 7 girls in 9 months in Belgrade. At least three of these months were spent in intense periods of work where I was hardly going out and not focused on getting laid at all, which definitely reduced my numbers considerably. 

In reality, it was more like 7 girls in 6 months if you took out the months of 80-hour online workweeks I was pushing for much of my trip.

Attractiveness wise, these girls ranged from 5-8. Two were from Tinder, and one was a social circle introduction. The rest were from approaching both in the day and at night. 

Honestly, my rejection rate in Serbia was higher than anywhere else on the planet.

I’ve been to Ukraine, Romania, Georgia, the United Kingdom, the USA, Mexico, Spain, and a few other places as well. Serbia, undoubtedly, was a tough cookie to crack.

Granted, I always felt it was worth it when I’d land a lay.

Here are a few observations about Serbian women…

A few lays per girl are possible, though long-term relationships with foreigners aren’t as common.

There is a real taboo that comes with dating foreigners in the Balkans, and Belgrade is no exception.

Unless a girl has travelled abroad for a significant amount of time, there’s a good chance that she will eventually want to shack up and have a family with another Serb, integrating him into her social circle, meeting his, and perpetuating their culture of group-oriented activities.

But, that’s not to say that you can’t have a little fun with her while she’s in her party years.

Sadly, I often found that I was only able to keep Serbian girls around for a few good bangs before our relationship would fizzle out. This was incredibly frustrating, as getting them into bed would often take a few dates.

If I were to go back to Serbia, I’d be conscious of this and work it into my game. After successfully laying her, I’d realize that each girl was only there for a limited amount of time before she’d start to flake out.

Online dating is not popular at all.

In both Serbia and Romania, there is generally an understanding that if a girl uses Tinder, she is using it to get fucked. As such, it’s pretty shameful for a girl to be found out to be on the app in these cultures. In 9 months in Serbia, I successfully met up with 2 girls from Tinder and closed them out the same night. One, however, was a Brazilian visiting Serbia. To be fair, the local girl was a complete psychopath with a body count well over 50. We banged within 20 minutes of meeting. 

The Tinder scene in Belgrade totally sucks. Even in Ukraine, it’s way better. It is worth pipelining with Tinder Gold to see if you get lucky. Still, every single person I knew there using Tinder did quite poorly. For the most part, my time spent swiping on the app was a complete waste. This alone tells you a great deal about the dating scene there.

Had I simply gone out and done more in-person approaching, I would have done far better.

Being foreign nets you very few points.

There are TONS of countries in the world where you can go where people will automatically take an interest in your due to your foreign status, especially if you are from the West. Countless pick-up artists have discussed how you should go to places where your appearance is deemed “exotic” to have your best results. 

This tends to mean that darker and more Mediterranean can guys do best in Slavic countries, that white men do great in Asia, South America, the Caucuses, and so forth.

Now, even if you’re a white man who goes to Ukraine or a Spaniard who goes to Asia, you can still absolutely crush it. Part of the reason for this is that you are immediately granted something of a higher status than the local men because you are from a cool, exciting country. 

You have an immediate “in,” so to speak.

In Belgrade, this doesn’t seem to work very well at all. While some girls will be interested in the fact that you are from another country, this quickly fades away. In reality, as a foreigner, you are actually of lower status than local men in many ways. 

Think of it like this: compare a random guy from the USA who does not speak Serbian and has no social circle to a cool, well-connected Serbian guy of similar attractiveness.

The latter usually wins out.

Social circles are vitally crucial to Balkan culture.

People from the Balkans are a “group-oriented” ethnicity. 

You can see this in every facet of Balkan life. Children often live with their families until they marry. Meals are almost always eaten together. Festive celebrations are vital parts of the Balkan social calendar. People will rarely go out without their friends. 

In Serbia, one of the ways that women will assess men is based on whom they are friends with. A guy can even have some real fame outside of Serbia, and this can still put him beneath a regular, semi-popular guy in Belgrade.

The opinions of a Serbian girl’s friends are highly relevant to her. I know this sounds ridiculous, especially as a man who is used to traveling around and tapping into that wild, animalistic part of female nature where caution is thrown to the wind in a fit of passion ending up in your Airbnb bedroom.

Sadly, it’s true.

If two Serbian people are dating, it’s generally expected that her friends will meet her new man’s friends. Everyone will integrate, and connections are made once more.

As a foreign guy, you don’t have much of a social group to start off with. In Mark’s 2017 video, he details how him and five of his friends all went to Belgrade and threw a house party. That, my friends, is a serious pro move right there, and something I wish I had done.

If you want to spend an extended period in Belgrade, it really pays to integrate with a group of guys, go out with them, and get naturally introduced to others. 

This all harkens back to the idea that Belgrade is not a weekend destination, but rather a place you should plan to spend at least one month in.

But, that’s not to say that you can’t cold approach. As a foreigner in Serbia, this is likely the primary way by which you will meet women.

Day game definitely works for some guys.

Belgrade is a very solid city for a day game. However, I would say that it is a bit played out insofar as men have been coming to Belgrade for years, doing laps around TRG Republika, and spitting game at the local women. 

In my own day game exploits, I had a meager conversion rate. I’d meet girls who were interested in chatting, however, when it came to meeting up, I had a tough time actually getting them on dates. To be honest, I never struggled with this as much as I did in Serbia.

Night game, however, was always my best bet for collecting leads for future bangs, and landing one night stands.

Night game is critical.

Belgrade is one of the best “going out” cities on Earth, period. There are hundreds of bars and nightclubs to choose from, and drinking and carrying on into the night generally fits in with the freewheeling, group oriented nature of Serbian culture. Serbian people, for the most part, seem to love going out. 

If you’re not much of a nightlife person, I’m not sure if Serbia is right for you. A great many of my lays came from approaching at a bar or a nightclub, where copious amounts of drinking were taking place. 

Imagining having fun in Belgrade without a little party involved seems like a total bust, if I’m honest.

Serbian men are, for the most part, excellent dudes.

In most of the countries I have visited, the local women DO NOT like their men.

Eastern European men, by far, get a terrible reputation amongst their women. Whether it’s high rates of alcoholism, the normalcy of poverty, or just a bit of laziness, it’s easy to see why lots of guys will go to Eastern Europe and very quickly find themselves a decently attractive girlfriend.

Younger, Western men with their appearance and game dialed in are somewhat of a hot commodity there.

In Serbia, however, things are different. For the most part, I noticed that Serbian men tend to be tall, handsome, and generally quite masculine. It’s widespread for men to lift weights and compete in sports. Children are fed a diet rich in healthy protein sources from a young age, and there’s a bit of a natural “alphaness” that many Serbian guys have that I’ve never seen anywhere else.

A 22-year-old local Serbian guy once told me “if you just go out, approach 100 girls, you’ll get at least 2 who will want to sleep with you. This is just kind of what we do.” Mind you, he had never read a single book on meeting women and had no idea what a “pick up artist” is.

Amazingly, this was just his natural conclusion from having lived in Serbia his whole life.

I became good friends with a lot of these guys. Unlike Ukraine, or a place like Georgia, there’s no shortage of “quality men” in Serbia.

My conclusion is that male competition in Belgrade is actually kind of high. Women have options, and being that your foreign status is a lot less attractive than a local guy who is well connected and popular amongst his social circle, the odds aren’t particularly stacked in your favor.

As such, you need something of a tailored approach to your game that allows you to circumvent the social circle awkwardness. 

Instrumental in this approach is choosing the right venues.

VENUES

There are so many places to go to Belgrade. I spent 9 months there and did maybe 30% of what the city has to offer. 

Again, most of my success in Belgrade came from night game. Even just as a way of collecting Instagrams from local girls, it was my primary social outlet. I’d often go out with 2-3 guys I’d meet at the gym as wings, and approaches were standard direct, or indirect openers.

Below are my favorite places for going out, night game, and just a few spots I enjoyed hitting with friends.

TELMA: Located in Vracar. Great cocktail bar that has Jazz every Monday night. Solid for dates & approaches.

RED BAR: Old faithful here in Belgrade. This place is open every night until at least 3AM or so. It’s quite lovely on the inside, well put together, has a huge selection of drinks, and a beautiful outdoor terrace. You’ll end up here a lot if you go out in Belgrade. It seems like everyone goes here, especially girls who are open to meeting foreigners. Tables are closely pushed together, and you can easily start conversations with people here. Highly suggested.

STROGI CENTAR: An “underground” type of bar that you have to pay 300 dinars to get into. Located in a very cool, old building that’s full of art and hot, hipster looking girls. Great for approaching, and home to a small dance floor if you are into that.

BLAZNAVICS: On the same block Strogi Center. Another chill, outdoor seating type of bar. The bathrooms look like they’re from Africa, but still quite a nice place otherwise. This place is better for bringing dates, or as a second venue to take girls after pulling them out of Red Bar.

SCHLEP: Schlep is one of the infamous “splavs,” or floating rafts with nightclubs built on them on the New Belgrade side of the Sava River. There is an entire “splav area” with well over 20+ clubs that you can jump back and forth from, and even make approaches while gallivanting around between clubs.

Schlep is unique as it’s kind of a big free for all. Various parts of the club are not too noisy, so you can have conversations, and the setup is generally conducive to approaches. DJs play anything and everything, and the crowd is mostly college-aged. Highly suggested.

20/44: 20/44 is just a few rafts down from Schlep. This is a more hipster, Electronic type of nightclub. You won’t hear big, banging EDM, but rather underground House and Techno. This nets a crowd that’s quite liberal, open-minded, and not too difficult to lay. The second floor of the raft is for smoking and socializing, making it a good place for approaching.

MAGIC GARDEN: The shittiest dive bar ever, but I’ve certainly pulled some hot chicks from this place. I met a beautiful French girl here that I had a same night lay with. Communal seating at shabby little small tables encourages socializing. This is certainly not my first stop of the night, but it’s always a good last place for a last ditch effort.

MANIAC: If magic garden is the shittiest dive bar ever, this is slightly worse. Maniac is a bar that’s built into the underground passageway that’s beneath the streets near TRG Republicka. This place never really closes…I think. Every time I go here, it’s a mistake.

It’s basically an after-hours that people only go to around 3AM. There is minimal lighting, loud rock music, loads of indoor smoking. I don’t suggest taking girls here unless they’re super open-minded, party girl types. That being said, as a last resort on a night out, this is a solid place to look for the last few girls to shoot your shot at before calling it a night.

THE EXPAT SCENE

I really felt it necessary to include a section on this here.

I have met more loser expats in Serbia than I have anywhere else on Earth.

Belgrade is, by and large, the cheapest capital Eastern European city that exists. With low rents and affordable food, you can really get by here on almost no money. You can rent a studio apartment for $350 with ease. You can eat street food each day for $2 a meal.

You’ll survive just fine in Belgrade on next to nothing.

On top of that, it has the most relaxed visa rules of any country I’ve met. While the process of getting a temporary residence permit is actually pretty tricky, no expats really do it. I’ve literally met one expat out of what’s probably close to 50 or so here that have gone through the trouble of setting up a company, registering as a preduztnik, and getting a legal residence permit.

Instead, everyone just does border runs every 90 days. Bijeljina in Bosnia is the most popular destination for this, traveled to by way of bus instead of chancing it at the immigration desk at the airport. In other words, as of 2019, you can effectively stay in Serbia indefinitely as a person with a Western passport.

This has created a perfect storm of lazy American & British economic refugees, aka: lazy dudes who cannot make it anywhere else who have flocked to Belgrade. 

These same guys are naturally filtered out of other big cities in Eastern Europe because most countries don’t allow you to continually break the visa laws, and have pricier housing. On top of that, you have a huge bar and party scene that pretty much never shuts down in Belgrade.

The point is not to complain, but rather to remark at how the low prices and the laissez-faire attitude at the border has made Belgrade a prime spot for washed-up guys from the West. I’ve traveled all over the world, and the highest concentration of do-nothing type of guys is definitely here.

A WORD OF CAUTION

Serbia was a LOT of fun, but it definitely came with a few caveats that ultimately made me want to leave and realize I liked it better elsewhere.

Serbia was undoubtedly not an easy place to get laid for myself, and while I managed to do okay, I had 3+ friends who did not get laid one time in 4 months. These are guys who had done pretty well in the West, and in the Baltics, who really just couldn’t crack the code of Belgrade.

While I personally find this to be a little bit ridiculous, it does go to show you that this is a country where some work is going to be involved. 

Like I mentioned before, why would most Serbian women settle for a foreigner when there are plenty of good looking, honestly quite cool Serbian guys to choose from?

It’s a fair question, and to me, this explains why the majority of my lays were short affairs with no real long term potential, or even the chance of keeping them in an extended harem. As a good friend of mine told me upon leaving, “the girls there are hustlers, they’ll only keep you around for a bit.”

So, are foreign guys really going to Serbia and puling quality tail on the regular? It’s definitely possible, but my experience and watching that of others shows me that it was not easy at all, and that other countries in Europe are better destinations if sex is your primary goal.

Personally I enjoyed the challenge that I faced here, though I wish somebody had told me how difficult it was going to be. I would have prepared myself far more.

But, I have to say that the Serbian flag is definitely one worth adding to your collection, and some of my best lays ever took place there.

The big takeaway here is that this is NOT the type of place you go for just a weekend and hope to get lucky. The best thing you can do is go to Serbia, get integrated with a group of guys, hit the bars, and approach like your life depends on it.

CONCLUSION: SHOULD I GO TO BELGRADE?

Belgrade is 100% worth a visit. In many ways, it is the perfect place for expats to live long term. The weather is generally quite lovely compared to other locations in Eastern Europe, prices are extremely low, the food is excellent, and there are really no restrictions on the amount of time you can spend there.

That being said, Serbian women are not “easy” by any stretch of the imagination. Getting laid there is 100% doable if you have your looks, game, and lifestyle dialed in. However, I found it to be a lot more work than I am willing to put in on an ongoing basis, especially compared to better lifestyle factors and easier women in other countries.

In retrospect, I did date some of the hottest chicks I’ve ever had in my life in Belgrade, and meet some seriously feisty, freaky girls who wanted to get as down and dirty as possible.

My personal favorite was a 90-pound girl named Bojana who literally sucked me off to completion three times in one hour, after effectively breaking her in half and throwing her all over my apartment. Ahhh yes, the memories that will last a lifetime…

Couple that with some excellent food, a crazy ass nightlife scene, and a sizable population of guys doing the same thing as me, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy myself.

Have fun out there, guys!

-Expat Ukraine

Expat Ukraine is one of the web’s leading resources on expat life and dating in Ukraine. Click here to check them out!