A few days ago, a news ignited my circle of friends.
For Serbia , many people know that this country is the second iron country after Pakistan . China-Serbia relations are in a honeymoon period in the past two years. President Vucic occasionally confesses to China. Before the epidemic, Serbia has given China visa-free policy, which makes many people who love travel want to visit this magical country.
Of course, many people have already begun to prepare to drive to Serbia and have a good time to have a good time. , but there are very limited practical strategies or travel notes about Serbia that can be found online, and there are very few contents about self-driving. I will share my experience of driving in Serbia with you here.
About car rental
For Chinese tourists who are driving in Europe for the first time, they personally recommend , Ctrip or platform companies like Renren Car, which is similar to booking accommodation on agod. Not only can there be many well-known foreign car rental companies to choose, but it can also provide international certification for driver's licenses (of course, although Serbia and China have recognized each other, it is still necessary to bring a translation), free GPS can be used, and various third-party insurances and other practical services. However, I think the most worry-free thing is that once a dispute or any emergencies occur, it is the most important to have a resolution platform that can be contacted 24 hours a day.
Of course, if you have no language problems, you can directly book on the website of a foreign car rental company. The direct reservation fee is much cheaper than booking through car rental and , but I still don’t recommend newbies or second-newcomers to choose. In the end, no matter what channel you make, you must carefully read the terms and conditions of the car rental and be careful to avoid getting lost.
※Precautions for car rental※:
- is recommended to make reservations as soon as possible, because the earlier you book, the cheaper it is;
- try to pick up and return the car at the airport, but pay attention to whether the pickup point is in the airport or within a few kilometers around the airport. Because sometimes when the pickup point is very far from the airport, you drag your luggage and go through the procedures, it will really make you crazy
Belgrade Airport is very small, and you will be in the parking lot when you go out
. The business hours of the car rental company. Generally speaking, many large car rental companies can pick up their cars 24 hours a day, and some non-operating companies can actually pick up their cars during non-working hours, but they need to explain and communicate clearly to the car rental company in advance. Otherwise, when you can't pick up your car, you have to wait for several hours, and it will be a waste of money.
4. The longer the car rental period, the cheaper it will definitely be. Generally, there will be additional discounts for 5 or 7 days or more, and the price may be equivalent to the price you rent alone for about 3 days.
5. You must see whether the automatic transmission or manual transmission is clearly visible. This can be selected when ordering a car online. However, most of the manual transmission cars in Europe are. If it is not specifically indicated, it is likely to be a manual transmission. You must confirm it on site.
6. Do not choose the specified model when renting a car, as there will be an additional surcharge. It is recommended to choose a certain type of car. For example, if you book a "POLO and its car of the same grade", and there may be no car on site in the end, then you will get an Audi A3. Isn't it very good? The price has not changed at all. Moreover, car rental companies will not take the initiative to reduce the car model for you, so they will refund the difference.
7 million, be sure to pay attention to various restrictions, such as the limit on the number of kilometers that a vehicle can travel, whether there are cross-border restrictions, and the most important thing is the driving age limit. I personally recommend that no matter what the requirements are required on the car rental website, for insurance, you must email the staff of the car rental website to determine the various restrictions, or directly check the email address on the website of the company you rented and send an email to confirm.
8. When making payment, you need to ask which of the prices are car rental fees and which are insurance.Because many car rental platforms provide a relatively cheap super supplementary insurance, and there is no need to purchase supplementary insurance repeatedly, you only need to purchase the most basic insurance.
9. When picking up the car, you must use a credit card to pay the car rental deposit. It will be refunded when returning the car, and a violation deposit will be paid at the same time. This fee was frozen at that time, and it will be refunded a few days after the return order is completed. I will wait for at least 1 month. If you are not at ease with the car rental company, you can write an email to urge me.
- When returning the crude oil volume as required, if the oil volume is insufficient, in addition to the fuel fee, a high handling fee will be charged, including refueling fees, labor fees, duration fees, etc. Therefore, you must add the oil to the oil mine when picking up the car before returning the car. If you can't remember it, fill it up. The excess car rental companies will pay you at the oil price. Generally, when picking up a car, the car is full of oil. If it is not full of oil, you must take a photo and record it and require it to be marked on the vehicle inspection sheet.
Preparation before departure
original driver's license and translation
You must bring the original domestic driver's license when driving abroad, because this is the legal document. Some travelers took the translations from certain platforms and went there, which is absolutely not possible. The "Translation of International Driver License" provided by a certain platform is just a translation of international driver's license , but it actually has no legal effect, because this is not international driver's license .
At present, my country has not joined the International Automobile Driving Alliance, so Chinese driver's licenses are only recognized in individual countries. A true international driver's license requires a series of tests to obtain (of course, there are some political reasons involved). This so-called "newbie version" of self-driving is only used as a translation. If the car rental company recognizes it, it is necessary to present the original and translated Chinese driver's license at the same time to explain it. It is not possible to present any of them separately. Therefore, although the Chinese and Serbian driver's licenses have recognized each other, we still need to prepare the international driver's license certification for
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Also pay attention to the driving experience issues mentioned earlier. Generally, veteran drivers over 2 years are fine. The main car rental companies are those with driving experience of 1 to 2 years. Anyone who is less than one year is basically passed.
》Visa credit card with chip
Driving in China, everyone is used to WeChat, AlipayPayment. However, due to different national conditions, most European countries are unattended gas stations and highway toll stations, and can only use bank cards with chips. At present, some European countries also support mobile payments, but they are limited to mobile phones with credit cards, so it is necessary to have a dual-currency credit card with chips. Most gas stations in Serbia have people, so you don’t have to worry about this problem, but it’s still recommended to apply for a chip credit card.
》Navigation
I used to drive abroad and used a lot of navigation software. Here I will introduce two software to you that you can drive in Serbia. There is no need to say more about
, you can understand it. It is easy to use navigation without friends, supports Chinese voice, English search, and coordinate input. I highly recommend it. Of course, at present, only the wall can be used to solve the problem of this map in China.
Because my phone is Huawei mobile phone, it feels good to use Tantu Map because this map supports offline map navigation, especially in the mountains of Serbia, Google Map has a poor signal, so this map has become my only way to navigate in the mountains.
There are also some car rental companies that will come with GPS, but I basically don’t use it because the accuracy, signal, and interface are too disappointing. , so the overall navigation plan I personally recommend is mainly Google maps. When there is no network or Google’s chain drop, use Exploration to remedy. The overall navigation performance of google map is still very good. When connected to the Internet, the driving time estimate is very accurate. But I can't all believe in the navigation of Google maps. Google map once brought me into rivers, into the back mountain, and into foreign military camps.
》Internet device
Serbian traffic phone cards can be purchased on universal TB in China, but it still uses China Mobile's overseas traffic, not pure overseas phone cards.
suggests buying SIM cards directly at the airport, with 7 days, 4G traffic, only a few dozen yuan. In addition, sim card has another very convenient place for self-driving, which is that you can pay for parking fees. Therefore, if you have a trip of more than 5 days, you must apply for a SIM card, which has enough traffic and can also make convenient payments, which is particularly suitable.
》 Charging device
Domestic cigarette lighter USB, including cigarette lighter speaker, can be used in Serbian cars, and the interface is the same.
》 translation software
When you need to park or refuel, if the other party doesn’t know how to speak English, you can download a Google Translate in advance. Serbs are very friendly to Chinese people. With translation tools, they can communicate more, and at the same time, there are fewer unnecessary misunderstandings and troubles.
Traffic rules and driving habits precautions
》Driving headlights
In European countries, whether during the day or at night, the law requires driving headlights to be used to ensure driving safety.
is actually rare in China, but in terms of my own feelings, turning on the headlights during the day can indeed increase the recognition of the front and back cars, and make a judgment in advance. But do not turn on the high beam.
》Turn right lane
In Serbia, as long as it is a red light, you cannot turn right even at the intersection. This is completely different from in China. There are special right turn lights at intersections when driving in the city. If not, you must wait for the straight running light to be green before you can turn right. Many of my friends who just came here are not used to this rule. In short, you can only leave with a green light, just remember this one.
》Minist road makes big road
European countries pay great attention to road rights . Although China's traffic regulations also clearly stipulate that small roads give way to big roads, Chinese people often do not implement them in place.
When you drive in Serbia, you will see that there are no traffic lights in many intersections. Before coming out of the path on both sides, you must completely stop at the intersection (note that it is completely stop) . If you want to turn right, you must observe that there is no car on the left at all (note that you can't see any car at all) before the EMU can start turning right. If you turn left, you must observe that there is no car at all in the left and right directions before you can turn left.
Because European traffic strictly implements the rules of small roads to make big roads, no matter how small or narrow the roads, everyone can pass smoothly without worrying about cars rushing out halfway.
》The entry and exit of the island
In Europe, as long as the traffic rules are followed, the island circumference is an extremely efficient facility. The traffic rules are also very simple:
》 About pedestrians
said above that there are basically no traffic lights in Serbia, so if pedestrians are passing or are about to pass, all cars must stop and give way.
But sidewalks with traffic lights must follow the instructions such as red and green. When turning right or left, you should still let the sidewalk pedestrians at the green light of the sidewalk go first, and do not honk the whistle and urge them. Of course, there are also people in Serbia who don’t look at traffic lights, so driving in the city is just one word: slow!
》Let's go and take turns to pass
There are still many paths that are difficult to pass in Europe. Especially some tourist attractions or bridges in old towns can only accommodate one car, so you must look at the sign of giving way. If you encounter the opposite and you are in the direction of giving way, you must reverse the car as soon as possible. Moreover, Serbia is located in a mountainous area and often blocks the road while it is open, so you have to turn around and drive back.
》About
on the highway in Serbia, as long as it is a road with more than 2 lanes, whether it is a city road or an international express road, everyone strictly abides by the rules, that is, as long as you are not overtaking, you must immediately return to the right side to drive. You must never overtake from the right.
》Hurning whistle and high beam
in Serbia, you must not honk the whistle or high beam flare in front of you when driving normally, especially in residential areas and downtowns. So when you drive, just relax some of the irritable emotions in China and show your good side.
driving tolls on the highway section
The highway conditions in Serbia are similar to those in China. The A1 high-speed is mainly based on the A1, and some are also based on the E. The expressways here do not charge the entire journey. There will be closed entrance and exit charging ports between several important city expressways.
When entering the toll section of the highway, it is similar to that in China. Go to the highway machine to get tickets, get off the highway and go to the manual channel to pay the tickets. Never take the ENP channel, it is equivalent to domestic ETC, and it is generally not available in a rental car. The highway cost here is also cheaper than in China, about 20 RMB 100 kilometers.
Serbian highway speed limit is 120 kilometers, but few people follow it. This phenomenon can be seen in most European countries, one is because there are fewer cars, and the other is because there are fewer cars. There are almost no cameras, and occasionally traffic police will take photos and test them, but there is no speeding stop.
About refueling
Gas stations in Serbia are usually on duty, so there is no need to worry about the operation of self-service refueling, which is basically the same as in China.
The most common gas stations are: Nis and OMV. The former is a domestic brand in Serbia, and the latter is an oil company in Austrian .
directly tell the worker that your car's gasoline number, and then full, it's fine. Just press the number of the refueling gun to go to the counter to pay.
parking
parking in Europe is a super difficult problem. Therefore, when booking a hotel or apartment, try to book a hotel that provides "free parking". Parking must be free, otherwise, in some hotels with "car parking spaces" in Belgrade, the cost of parking for a day can be as high as 30 euros.
Parking spaces in Serbia generally have the P sign. If it is just a P letter, this is an area or parking space that can be parked free of charge all day, which is generally more common in residential communities.
If there is a ZONA logo under P and there is a time period on it, the most important thing is that there is a sign with an SMS phone, which will charge a parking area. must use the Serbian mobile phone number to send the license plate number text message to the number, usually free of charge for the first 60 minutes or 120 minutes. .
In addition, if you see the parking space drawn with the yellow line, try not to park as much as possible. Generally, the parking spaces are reserved by local residents or government agencies.Parking within the white line is the safest.
If you are in Belgrade, the convenient way to is to search for garages in Google Maps. I have stopped at Parking Obilicev Venac several times, located in the center, and can reach the main attractions on foot.
Basically these are some small experiences of driving in Serbia. I hope everyone will have the opportunity to visit Serbia after the epidemic. Serbia is really a country that is suitable for driving by itself. The city has a rich culture and the scenery in the remote suburbs is picturesque. Even if you drive continuously, beautiful scenery can be seen everywhere.
Finally, thank you very much for following #Chuange Travel##In-depth Travel, I hope we can meet in the future.
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