Three phrases get you almost anywhere: Do aerodroma, molim ("to the airport, please"), Koliko košta? ("how much?") and Ovdje je dobro ("here's good"). Say where you're going, check the price, tell them where to stop. The rest of this is just widening that out to buses, trains and the handful of words that stop you overpaying.
Published 8 August 2026
The first taxi I took from Belgrade's Nikola Tesla airport cost me roughly triple what it should have. A friendly bloke picked up my bag before I'd agreed anything, and by the time we hit the city I'd learned an expensive lesson: in Serbian, the sentence that saves you money isn't complicated, it's just one you have to say before you sit down. So that's where I'll start.
Two habits. First, either book through an app (CarGo and Yandex both work in Belgrade) or use the official taxi desk at the airport — never the man who approaches you in arrivals. Second, if you do flag one on the street, say the meter line or agree a price up front. Here are the exact words:
| Serbian / Montenegrin | English | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| Do aerodroma, molim. | To the airport, please. | doh a-eh-ro-DRO-ma |
| Koliko košta do centra? | How much to the centre? | KO-lee-ko KOSH-ta |
| Uključite taksimetar, molim. | Switch the meter on, please. | OO-klyoo-chee-te |
| Ovdje je dobro, hvala. (SR: Ovde) | Here's good, thanks. | OV-dyeh / OV-deh |
| Stanite ovdje, molim. | Stop here, please. | STA-nee-te |
One small grammar win hides in there. After do ("to, as far as"), the destination changes its ending — centar becomes do centra, aerodrom becomes do aerodroma. That's the genitive case doing its job, and once you've said "do aerodroma" a few times it stops feeling like grammar and starts feeling like a reflex.
Here's the honest truth locals know and guidebooks bury: in Serbia and Montenegro you take the bus. It's faster than the train on nearly every route, it runs more often, and it reaches the little coastal towns and mountain villages the railway never bothered with. Belgrade's main station is BAS (Beogradska autobuska stanica); every town has its own autobuska stanica, usually a short walk from the centre.
At the ticket window — the šalter — you need almost nothing:
Jedna karta do Kotora, molim. — One ticket to Kotor, please.
Kada polazi? — When does it leave? (KA-da PO-la-zee)
Koji peron? — Which platform? (KO-yee PE-ron)
On the coast they'll sometimes charge a euro or two extra for a bag stowed underneath — that's normal, not a scam, and the driver hands you a little ticket for it. Keep small notes: nobody at a kiosk wants to break a 2000-dinar note so you can buy a 150-dinar city ticket.
City buses are where beginners freeze, because you can't see your stop coming. Two sentences fix that:
People will help. I've had a whole minibus keep an eye out for a tourist's stop because he asked that second question once at the start. Ask early, sit near the front, and you'll be fine.
Skip it for getting places quickly — but take the Belgrade–Bar line at least once for the ride itself. It climbs through 254 tunnels and over the Mala Rijeka viaduct, one of the tallest railway bridges in Europe, and drops you at the Montenegrin coast. At a train station the words shift only slightly: the platform is still the peron, a ticket is still a karta, and voz is the train (Montenegrins may say vlak). "Which platform for the train to Bar?" is Koji peron za voz za Bar?
How do I say "to the airport"? Do aerodroma, molim. Swap in any destination after do — do centra, do stanice — and it takes the genitive ending.
Do I have to speak to insist on the meter? One line does it: Uključite taksimetar, molim. Or settle the price before you get in with Koliko košta do…?
Bus or train? Bus, for almost everything. The train is worth it only for the Belgrade–Bar scenery.
How do I buy a bus ticket? At the šalter, say Jedna karta do… and your destination; they'll give you the peron and time.
Transport words pair naturally with two things you've hopefully already got: your numbers (for prices and platforms) and the art of asking directions for the last stretch on foot. If Belgrade's your first stop, the Belgrade language guide has more of the local flavour. And if you want the grammar under all this explained the moment you meet it — why do bends the next word — that's the whole idea behind the Serbian roadmap.
Learn these as real sentences, not a list, and the next time a driver reaches for your bag you'll have the price sorted before he's opened the boot. Gora drills exactly this — the phrase, the pronunciation, and a fox who'll happily play the taxi driver until do aerodroma falls out of your mouth without thinking.