Travelling amid a pandemic from Tel Aviv to Belgrade

TRIP REPORT

We flew from Tel Aviv to Belgrade in October as we didn’t need to do any tests or quarantine upon return. Coming out of a second harsh lockdown we were very excited to visit a country and city we probably never would. Who would have thought that in order to reach Belgrade we would have to wait for two weeks to find available seats on an Israir flight?

At Ben Gurion Airport body temperature is measured at the entrance of the terminal and a health declaration form has to be presented which you have to fill up in advance on the Ministry of Health website. The airport wasn’t busy, but it was nice to see other passengers around. At the same time as our flight, which was at 9AM, there were only about 5 other flights. From entering the terminal until arriving to the duty-free area it took just 15 minutes as there were no queues.

The duty free area was slowly getting back to life and some shops had reopened although the majority were still closed.

Our flight to Belgrade was indeed completely full. There were families with small children, couples going for a romantic city break, groups of adults heading for an active holiday and even some single travellers. At the time, Belgrade was the solution for all types of passengers desperately wanting to go abroad.

We pushed back five minutes ahead of schedule and were on our way to Belgrade. During the flight, everyone adhered to the new rules. Everyone was wearing a mask and almost no one got out of their seat throughout the flight. There was minimal service during the flight with just water offered. Israir's leather seats on the A320 are tight. I resorted to watching Netflix for most of the flight. There are drop down screens every few rows which were showing a moving map of our progress. Soon enough we touched down at Nikola Tesla Airport. We disembarked in groups so we could maintain social distancing (ironic since we were all just packed in the plane next to each other).

Belgrade welcomed us in the most perfect way it can welcome Israelis who have not been abroad for at least eight months and the weather was perfect. Belgrade was a much-needed change of atmosphere. There was no talk of corona, shops and cafes were open late into the night and everyone was welcoming. We stayed at the Metropol Hotel which had some nice views from the tenth floor where our room was located.