Exciting Belgrade

Kalemegdan Park is Belgrade’s birthplace. Filling much of the promontory where the Danube and Sava Rivers converge, the green sprawl was settled millenniums ago by the Celts and bears traces of many successive peoples and empires. For views and history, enter at the north end of Knez Mihailova Street and head left. Along the clockwise circuit, crenelated stone lookout points offer views of the Sava and the waterside party rafts that flare to life at night — notably Hot Mess (with its own swimming pool) and 20/44 (a retro clubhouse of electro music) — before the path leads into an old citadel, built mostly in the 18th century. The grassy grounds contain a Roman well, 18th-century Austrian clock tower, Ottoman mausoleum, 19th-century Slavic half-timbered mansion and a military museum surrounded by old tanks and artillery: an almost-full retrospective of Serbia’s past.

By day, the gentrifying Savamala district under the Brankov Bridge beckons with art galleries, new wave barbershops and cultural centers like Mikser House, a former industrial space with products by Serbian designers. Come evening, the bar scene features spots like Ben Akiba, a sultry, red, candlelit bohemian bar with vintage furniture and a drinks list thatencompasses everything from Brooklyn Lager (480 dinars) to Tetka Bosiljka (absinthe, apple liqueur, Passoa, basil and apple juice; 550 dinars).Deli 57 is a tiny, minimalist-modern bagel, sandwich and burger joint that at night becomes a packed, D.J.-fueled dance party. Serbian indie brewing provides the buzz, including spicy Supernova IPA by Kabinet (390 dinars).

What is this dusty, dismal, downbeat structure hidden in a charmless passageway just off noisy Makedonska Street? Surprise — it’s Belgrade Design District. Occupying a disused shopping center, the six-year-old initiative has filled the abandoned retail spaces with boutiques by independent Serbian designers. For women’s wear that’s black with a touch of “Blade Runner,” duck into Imi, the store of the designer Ivana Ristic. More colorful and retro, the work of Vesna Kracanovic — for sale at her Modle boutique — includes long-sleeved vests with folkloric striped embroidery, sparkling pink pleated skirts with a 1940s touch and other retro-modern mash-ups.

Past or present? The choice looms at the top of the street called Dzordza Vasingtona — a.k.a. George Washington. Take the street called Skadarska, and you’ll discover a cobbled, tree-shaded pedestrian path lined with wrought-iron streetlamps and Belgrade’s oldest restaurants. The wooden porch of Kaldrma Bar is a pleasant perch for sipping the house cocktail (vodka, gin, triple sec, lemon juice, Red Bull; 495 dinars) while listening to Balkan folk bands that work the street. The ambience changes if you take the street called Cetinjska, where a former brewing complex now pulseswith Belgrade’s newest and noisiest night-life spots. Polet is a stone-walled haven of vintage furniture, artwork and quirky tunes (includingragtime and drum ‘n’ bass) where you can quaff Jelen beer (190 dinars) amid the academics, aging cool cats and thrift-store divas.