dear travellers,
here%26#39;s the situation: i am thinking of visiting belarus in the summer time.
- i could get a private invitation from a family, or
- i could also book via a belarussian travel agency
now i wonder which is the best / most convenient
the tricky part is, that the family that i am visiting is from the north western part, close to vilnius, as i heard a somehow restricted area.
i am unsure which option would be the best, as i will be visting the family, but are intending to stay at the local hotel. any help would be appreciated!
thanks - tom
|||
Guten Abend,
I am afraid to tell you that there are no restricted parts or regions in Belarus, unless your friends reside in some military garrison or something - areas that are normally closed for foreign visitors.
Most people book a hotel and thus receive an invitation from a Belarusian travel agency so as not to bother their hosts but then live either at the local hotel or with the hosts at their mutual convenience.
Andrei
|||
thanks felix,
i though so, too, it is better not to bother that family with the via matter.
i have another question, though: the village is close to the planned nuclear power plant, are foreign visitors allowed in this area?
danke nochmal - tom
|||
Perhaps about this one you should ask the family members. They are more aware of the local situation.
And check out about the local hotel (that must be few in number).
But you aren%26#39;t going to blow the thing up, nicht war?)))
Andrei
|||
Tom,
There are restricted areas in Belarus. These are those situated just near the border with either Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania or Latvia. All the inhabitants of the villages situated in that border area have to obtain a special permission from the police to move from and to that area. There are even special announcements about that at the railway stations of big cities having R-Bahn connection to those villages(Gomel for example is such a city).
So if your friends are from that kind of villages you will have to obtain that permission too. Just make inquiries. I am sure this is not your case but it%26#39;s better to precise on this point.
Both visa variants are ok.
One of our business partners from Italy had a private invitation from the family he once hosted a kid from in order to come to Minsk for business talks with the company I work for )))) though we offered him our help)))
So you see there are many ways to get Belarus visas)))
|||
regarding the nuclear station matter
it has hardly been planned on paper.
what info could a foreigner get at this place?
the number of trees in the forest or the height of snow lying on the ground? rofl
i am sure there is no need to worry about that unless you are a NATO spy, hehe
no seriuosly, where did get that eirie info about the nuclear station construction, I guess that was Frankfurter Allgemeine, i know they like publishing scary articles about Weissrussland))))
|||
I have heard of passes that the villagers need to have in order to cross the border daily or very often to see the relatives and such like. Also the border itself or a military unit can be called a restricted area - but there are a lot of green-uniformed chaps who will not let you in.
What else restrictions are there? Can you refer to some document?
It appears that from 6 FEB 2009 the border zone has been narrowed from 50 km to 10-15 km and one does not necessarily have to turn to MIA to get a special pass (however there is a list of railway stations and towns that can only be entered with a permit).
To enter such zones you must show up at the border check-point with a passport, write an application and pay a fee. Just check with your local hosts.
Andrei
|||
Oh beg your pardon, this %26quot;applying procedure%26quot; is for Belarus citizens only.
|||
thank you all for your information. seems to be quite complicated...i do not recall where i have heard the rumours about the nuclear plant, but the family is living close to the lithian border, which seems to be the restricted area.
no, there are not scary stories about belarus in the papers, i would not consider to visit your country if so!
|||
btw, i do not refer to any documents, i refer only to my travelling experience.
just came back from vacations at a Ukrainian ski resort. Planned to meet my Ukrainian friends in Kiev to go to Bukovel together with them. However due to being overcharged at work I forgot to prolong the validity of my passport which turned into my passport being expired for a couple of days. At 3 am at the entrance to the border zone between Belarus and Ukraine I had to get off the train(because my passport was not valid for crossing the border) and to spend a sleepless night in a tiny lounge of a tiny railway station Teriuha to wait for the diesel train to Gomel in order to take a train back to Minsk.
So believe me an MIA permission is necessary for those who enter that narrow stripe of the land adjacent to the border with other countries.
Ende gut alles gut. I came back to Minsk, got a new passport within 7 hours and went again to Bukovel to ski.
But that was a truly stupid and unnecesary experience I will remember for a long time.
|||
Well, Britons seems not to trust their papers that much, but let%26#39;s leave it to them. There must be many things about EU-RB friendship these days.
Let%26#39;s conclude it by saying that a foreigner does need a pass. Your hosts must be aware of the situation.
It%26#39;s an amazing term to have one%26#39;s passport made!
No comments:
Post a Comment