The Blue Train – A New Star of Serbian Tourism

The Republic Day, November 29th, was considered as the most important public holiday in the former Socialist Yugoslavia. This year, on exactly that date, the first group of tourists started a journey, travelling by Tito’s “Blue Train” from Belgrade to “Užice Republic” – the only free territory in the whole of occupied Europe during the Second World War.

This is for the first time in the history of the Blue Train that even ordinary passengers may also step into its compartments. The luxury interior of the train has remained unchanged even more than half a century later. The glorious history of Tito’s Socialist Yugoslavia is written in it. President Tito travelled to all the cities and towns of his big country by this train and hosted his innumerable statesmen and diplomats in it. Other attractive programs have also been thought out together with the stories about interesting historical facts and anecdotes from Tito’s journeys.

Užice Republic Today

The passengers were also able to visit the city of Užice, the museum setting dedicated to Užice Republic, the underground ammunition factory and other amenities of the city, whereas those showing a special interest, an excursion was organized, which included a visit to the memorial complex of Kadinjača, Mokra Gora (Wet Mount), Drvengrad (Timber Town) and the monastery of Rujno. The details of this program are displayed on the platform for the excursion online reservation, Serbianadventures.com, via which this tour can be booked. Within the two-day program, apart from the vivacious stories, the passengers also had a chance to taste Tito’s favorite meals and enjoy the great music evening in which the numbers from the time when brotherhood and unity were celebrated came one after another, like in a time machine.

An Extra Ticket for the Blue Train

This interesting program, which,(although organized for the first time, was booked to the last seat, is organized by the tourism agencies Magelan (Novi Sad) and Republic Tours (Užice), which plan regular departures at least once a month. When the December schedule is concerned, apart from individual visitors, they expect to welcome the first groups of Slovenian tourists, whereas tourists from China are expected to come in January and February, according to the respective schedules. The train can capacitate 110 passengers, for which reason the organizers also expect that firms will show an interest in extraordinary departures for the purpose of team-building and other journey intended to their employees. During the summer season, this tour will be enriched with a greater offer of facultative excursions. Judging by the first reactions, the regular departures of the Blue Train may become a magnet attracting tourists from throughout the world, who might also want to visit Serbia even because of the exclusive history of the train itself.

BelGuest
Photo: Serbian Adventures