Review: The St. Regis Belgrade [Serbia]

Serbia wasn’t really on my radar as a travel destination until I saw the opening of a St. Regis in Belgrade that comes with an intriguingly low points requirement redemption. Belgrade also has other Marriott hotels like the Courtyard and Moxy, so it’s cool that a luxury brand has entered the market for Serbia’s capital. Thus, I decided to book a 5 night stay here and see for myself on what Belgrade’s newest hotel has to offer!

St. Regis Belgrade- Booking

I booked a 5-night stay with 132,000 Marriott Bonvoy points which is a great value since the hotel typically charge more than 300 EUR per night, especially with the 5th Night Free rate on points. It’s a Category 5 hotel, so a 35K or 50K Free Night Certificate redemption are very realistic to redeem. It’s one of the more attractive options to redeem the lower-end Marriott FNC’s in all of Europe.

St. Regis Belgrade- Location

St. Regis Belgrade is located in the Belgrade Tower (Kula Belgrade) within the Belgrade Waterfront, a new upscale pedestrian area of the city with a big shopping mall nearby (Galerija Belgrade), and many restaurants and cafes with riverfront views.

Kula Belgrade is the tallest skyscraper in former Yugoslavia, but the hotel occupies the first 11 floors with the rest reserved for St. Regis Residences. The address for the St. Regis may not be updated in rideshare app like Yandex Go, so you’d want to enter Kula Belgrade/Belgrade Tower as the address to get to the hotel with app-based taxi.

St. Regis Belgrade- Check-in

We’ve arrived some time at 4pm, and the lobby was very beautiful with white and gold scheme that lets me know that I’m in a St. Regis. I’m a fan of the individual light bulbs that sparkle in the lobby, along with the contrasting black grand staircase.

Check-in was smooth and it is sit-down like other St. Regis I’ve been in.  I was notified before check-in that I’d be upgraded to the Junior Suite for the whole 5 nights of stay. The front desk thanked me for my Titanium Elite status, and we were then escorted to our room by the butler team.

St. Regis Belgrade- Junior Suite

My Junior Suite is Room 611 on the 6th floor. After opening the door, we were met with an open wardrobe with glass-covered closet and giant mirrors across.

After that comes the main bedroom area after turning left. The Junior Suite is an open plan room compared to the Caroline Astor (next room category) with a separate living room. The size is 62sqm (667 sqft) which falls in line on what you’d expect from a Junior Suite.

Personally, I started to be fond of this floor plan despite the smaller space since I typically just don’t use the separate living room. It makes it feel that the space is well-appointed and utilized.

Across the bed is the main desk with a TV attached to the wall above it. The entry to the bathroom is to the left.

To the left of the TV is the room’s bar area with a large cabinet that stores the coffee machines, water, and expensive-looking alcohol and glassware.

What’s awesome is that the soft drinks and snacks in this hotel are complimentary, and they are replenished daily should you consume them. Only the alcoholic drinks are chargeable. It’s definitely a very appreciated benefit that’s sadly uncommon in the current luxury hotel market. I absolutely took advantage of them, specifically the soft drinks.

Across the minibar is the living area with a large sofa, coffee table, and a plush chair by the floor-to-ceiling windows.

An elaborate set of welcome gifts were presented including a note, local Serbian sweets, fruits, and a bottle of cold brew coffee.

The views are stunning with a sweeping view of the Sava River. This is one of the cases where being on a lower floor of a tower is better since it makes the river wider than it seems. Plus, it’s cool to see a better angle of the human activities below, suitable for people-watching.

Though the windows are two-way, meaning that people outside will be able to see through the room.

Moving on to the bathroom, it’s made in beautiful white marble with the sink area in the middle. Some of the things I liked was how few good wooden toothbrushes were provided and a nice gel facial cleanser that seemed to be the new standard for St. Regis hotels now. Keep in mind that my last stay at a St. Regis was in Doha in 2022.

To the left is the bathtub, also by the two-way window as a friendly warning should you want to enjoy the view with your bath.

To the right of the sinks are the separate shower and toilet area. The shower pressure was decent.

The toiletries are Sodashi for the body wash and Sachajuan for shampoo and conditioner. At first, it seemed the housekeeping mixed up the body lotion and body wash bottle so I called them up to replace it. The bottles are the same except the word difference.

Overall, the Junior Suite is great paired with good views of Belgrade’s Sava River. The open floor plan makes each and every corner fully utilized, and the free soft drinks and snacks in the minibar are well-appreciated. Though part of me feels the design is just a tad bit more bland compared to other St. Regis I’ve been to. Many parts of it feel like a newly-built Marriott rather than a St. Regis.

St. Regis Belgrade- Breakfast

Breakfast is served at the Savant Brasserie that’s located in the back of the building facing the Sava River.

The breakfast is a la carte style, so everything is made-to-order. Marriott Platinum and higher can order as much as they’d like with no out of pocket cost so long as they pick free breakfast as the welcome gift during check-in, and there are no premium items that I knew of that had extra surcharge!

Below are the menu with the price noted in RSD that’s helpful if you don’t have the free breakfast benefit.

There are outdoor seating and we mostly sat outside and preferred it there. Though, some days were windy.

The duck royale was fantastic, and it was my favorite item here. The crunchy fried shredded duck meat below the egg were just so so right!

Great breakfast here overall, and they’re one of the strongest points of this hotel. Even if you don’t have free breakfast, the items here are surprisingly well-priced for a restaurant in a St. Regis.

St. Regis Belgrade- Rise Patisserie

Rise Patisserie is located just after the revolving door at the entry. In here is where desserts, pastries, coffee, and tea are sold. There’s afternoon tea service here as well.

The inside space is very spacious, but I think there’s a missed opportunity in having it by the front door. It would’ve been so much better if desserts and tea can be enjoyed alongside the river instead.

We tried out different desserts that looked interesting, and they were all pretty great. The cutleries were also pretty cute. I liked the toffee and tiramisu on the bottom left the most. Everything costed $40, including the tea and coffee which were pretty expensive, but is to be expected.

We got ourselves the pleasant-smelling lavender tea and coffee that I didn’t take picture of.

The teas are by Jing, and there are plenty of flavors to choose from here.

St. Regis Belgrade- St. Regis Bar

The St. Regis Bar is to the right of the reception desk behind a singular door. I only managed to get a glance of it, but it looks like a fine cozy place to have some drinks and mingle.

St. Regis Belgrade- Pool

The pool is located on the 2nd floor that includes a swimming pool with jacuzzi next to it. The size is pretty small, and the windows to outside view is frosted. I think this is also a missed opportunity since I think it’d be better if we can see the Sava River from here, especially with the chairs set up facing the windows too!

It’s an okay pool facility overall.

Other than that, showers and locker rooms are available here, along with a small sauna room.

St. Regis Belgrade- Gym

The gym is on the same floor by the pool. There’s cardio and strength training equipment with the cardio machines overlooking the Sava River.

There are refreshments available like water and electrolyte powders. There are also ball-shaped energy bars for extra sugar needs.

St. Regis Belgrade- Birthday Treats

My birthday was in one of the days of my 5-night stay here at the St. Regis Belgrade. On the day of my birthday, the hotel staff surprised me with a few things after returning to my room in the evening after dinner at Iva New Balkan Cuisine. I was given a bottle of non-alcoholic champagne, a chocolate cake, and few personalized notes! It was very cool and I heartfully thanked the staff at The St. Regis Belgrade for this!

Conclusion

The St. Regis Belgrade is a great and beautiful hotel paired with an upscale location by the Sava River. It’s especially an amazing value for the Marriott points redemption, and it is more true if you can manage to use 35K Free Night Certificate to redeem at this hotel. The breakfast was really good as well, with everything a la carte and freshly made after you order. Not only that, but the many of the items in the room minibar are complimentary which is very cool.

The downsides I can think of are that the room designs are somewhat feel uninspired, and the pool facilities were nothing special. I think there’s too much use of the white and neutral colors inside the rooms, and it could use some more composition of contrasting color to make the rooms look more inviting. They are still nice rooms, it’s just what I think could make them better.

Still, I think this could be Belgrade’s best hotel and I’d recommend it for those with Marriott points or FNC’s to spare.