This is one of the hotel’s I have stayed that I really enjoyed waking up to.
I am a city person who loves a dose of the bucolic life from time to time, that is why when I travel, I make sure to visit small towns and villages and even prefer to stay here. They say that what you do not have, you look for it. Precisely! But for the daily grind when I am back home? I have to say that I prefer living in the cosmopolitan world, after all I am a very practical person, I like to keep my life simple and easy.
In Belgrade, I stayed at the Zepter Hotel located on Terazije avenue. I loved its right in the smack of the city location and that it is just a stone’s throw away from the main pedestrian street of Stari Grad (Old Town), the Knez Mihailova. I just have to walk around the corner and voila, I am there!
To the right from the busy Terazije is the direction to the Vracar neighbourhood. The street becomes one with Kralja Milana Avenue which is a main city road of Belgrade with many offices and commercial establishments. The Kalemegdan Fortress and the bohemian quarter Skardalja are also just a few minutes walk away. It is very central and I felt safe. I really am very satisfied that I stayed here.
Moreover, I love waking up in my hotel room in the morning. My room has a tall ceiling equipped with tall and large glass windows, and the door opens out to a small balcony. It makes me feel good to wake up to the light coming through the tall windows and knowing that there is a city below me that is about to wake up as well. I love opening the window doors in the morning before I set the coffee machine and turn on the news on TV. It is a habit of mine to check CNN and BBC, well online everyday and on the TV when travelling. I seem to have gotten this habit from my news-hugging parents!
This hotel room also reminds me of my days in Manila, Philippines more than a decade and a half ago. I used to live in Greenhills on Wack Wack Road (I know, this is a really funny sounding road!) and I have a floor to ceiling window that I wake up to in the morning with views to a golf course and the Ortigas skyscraper skyline. I kind of miss those days. Those were a different time in my life that I truly enjoyed, but life moves on.
My room’s view at Zepter is the Terazije avenue and farther ahead to the right is Kralja Milana and to the left is Kolarceva with a peek to the Republic Square.
In the evening I love hanging out here in the room, watching TV and surfing online. As a personal rule when travelling alone, I do not stay out late at night. I am usually back in my hotel room between 22:00 and 23:00, after a dinner and a walk in the centre. Then I spend a few more hours online and zapping through the TV channels.
I make it a point to watch local programs as well, just to have an idea what topics people in the city and country discuss. It gives more body to the information you already know about the said city and country on a more personal and local level, not just tourist and general facts. What better is it to learn about the pressing and relevant matters of the place you are staying.
Here is a short video I made:
I also want to thank the attentive personnel at Zepter Hotel for arranging the return of my Mac laptop’s charger. I left it at the Leopold Hotel I in the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, a lovely hotel in a historical location I must say, and they managed to speak to them and bring back the charger in time. Thank you so much! I appreciate both the coordination and efforts that went into this, both the from Zepter and Leopold hotel personnel. Great customer service deserving the mention.
And oh, also to the hotel guy personnel on my first day in the city who went out of his way to help me park my rental car at the back of Zepter. My GPS on my Nokia Mini did not work on street level in Belgrade, but luckily I was able to find the hotel just by driving around and paying attention to the street details!
You can read the story here and scroll down to the section on GPS challenge (Nokia & iPhone) especially in Belgrade: My Travel to Serbia: My Road Trip Route, Rental Car, GPS Issues, Parking Tips and More
The location of the hotel on the map of Belgrade:
I made collages of the pictures I took of the hotel and here they are:
Travel Period: March 2016
Destination: Stari Grad, Belgrade, Serbia
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Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)