Hi
I am planning to visit minsk this summer for a weeks holiday and sightseeing.
could anyone help with the following
do i need visa ( have british EU passport)
wheres a good place to stay
whats the exchange rate compared to the pound
what clubs / bars are good , which are crap?
how friendly are the locals ( i ask this after visiting riga where locals are very hostile to tourists)
any other info i need to know?
cheers
Phil
London UK
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Hi,
ive just came back from 5 nights in minsk so heres some info.
you DO need a a visa. you can get it either from a belarus embassy in your home country or at minsk 2 airport.
you MUST have an invitation letter and a voucher from a travel agent in Belarus. You get this when you book your apartment or hotel with them.
so the 2 options are these,
1. book your apartment/hotel with a registered travel agency in belarus and get an invitation letter and voucher from them. in the UK you can send copies of these and a completed application visa form to the embassy and get your visa this way. this is the cheapest way also.
2. you can get the travel agency you book with to send your invitation letter and voucher to the consulateat minsk 2 airport and when you arrive with your filled in visa form they process the visa there and then for you.
As for the health insurance being a UK citizen you dont need to purchase this at the airport like some other nationals.
the visa situation seems more complicated than it is.
Money, you get 4150 Rubles to the £. Minsk is not an expensive place at all.
Place to stay. you can either take a hotel or apartment. if you want any advice about this then email or pm me and i can tell you where i stayed and places in good locations. hotels cost slightly more than apartments at around $65 and $50 respectively.
Locals are friendly, i got no one hassling me at all and the ones i asked for directions or info were always polite, smiley and nice.
Bars/clubs, well minsk is NOT the place to go to party. i went to westworld nightclub that is at hotel belarus and its rather poorin my opinion. between £3 and £6 to enter deonding on the night of the week and for a beer it is 7500rubles or around £1.50
Food is minsk is not great in my opinion but relatively cheap.
minsk has beautiful buildings and streets are spotless. i wandered around in the early hours of the morning and never once felt unsafe or nervous. women in minsk are stunning and im sure if you speak any russian you could have a nice time with the locals having a drink and some food.
minsk is not a big city and you can easily see everything in a couple of days.
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This is not true. You need a VISA but not an invitation letter if staaying for less than 30 days. Just go onto Belarussian Website in London : http://uk.belembassy.org/
There you can download application form. Fill it in , apply for a visitor visa and send it of. £40 pounds, will take a week in the post.
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Hi Phil,
you do need a VISA to enter Belaus.
There are two types of single entry visa - tourist and visitor.
A Belarusian travel agent can provide the letter of invitation to get a tourist visa. The tourist visa is £20 cheaper than the visitor visa, but it does mean that you will have to book your accommodation through yhe travel agent. It might be cheaper to book the accommodation direct yourself and bypass the travel agent. There are many websites you could look at. Even expedia.
You don%26#39;t need a letter of invitation if you are applying for a single entry visitor visa with a maximum period of stay of 30 days. This is easy to apply for, from the Belarus Embassy in London, and it can all be done by post. This is what I have done on my last 3 trips to Minsk.
As for travelling there, don%26#39;t expect any change out of £330 return, and it will be a stop over in either Prague, Vienna or Frankfurt. Going with Belavia is a good deal cheaper, and 3 hours direct, but they only fly from Gatwick to Minsk on Wednesdays and Sundays.
By far the cheapest option is to go via Vilnius (only about 130 miles from Minsk) and no visa is required. A returm flight with Air Baltic from Gatwick can be got from about £110. Then a return coach journey to Minsk will set you back about £20. Vilnius is well worth seeing.
Minsk airport is about 40km from the centre. As a tourist expect to be charged over $30-$40 for a single trip. A local would pay $20.
Bear in mind that if you are staying in Belarus for more than 3 working days, you have to register your stay at the local police station within this time. I imagine this can be difficult - finding the police station, not many people understand English etc. You will have to do this yourself if you rent an appartment. If you stay in a hotel, the hotel takes your passport for a day or two and does all the work.
As for where to go, try the Juravinca nightclub. Cheap to get in, good food, floorshow and disco. Expensive by Minsk standards, but £40 for two will push the boat out. There is also a good bowling alley in this complex, drink is cheap but price of bowling not that much cheaper than England. Try the Baltica 7!
Other thing you can do is look up %26quot;In Your Pocket%26quot; guide to Minsk on the internet. Good information here.
I hope you enjoy Minsk.
If you want more info you can contact me at ciren@fsmail.net
Good luck
Kev
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they have a new fun thing for foreigners coming to belarus: after passing boarder control you fill in sc %26quot;migration card%26quot;, which is also supposed to be stamped or signed or whatever when you register your stay on place in police nad you only give it back when leaving the country. Be careful - don%26#39;t loose it and don%26#39;t forget to submit it in police for you can be qualified as a spy or smth of the kind then. trust me, dealing with belarusian police can be a sensitive experience. If book a hotel and they will register you, ask about this migration card, anyway.
ps: we go to belarus in august, too
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and, by the way, try clubs Bronx and Goodwin.
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Yeah, avoid the police. but the locals are extremely friendly.
Juravinka and Gudwin are very nice places,not very cheap but they%26#39;re worth it.
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Hi
I spent three months in Minsk last year, from September till December.
You do need a visa, that is for sure, and you de need an invitation letter from the hotel you will book your room in, if you apply for a visa, you have to give an address. Without an invitation you won%26#39;t get a visa.
People in stores are not friendly at all! But it is not personal, so don%26#39;t try to bother much.
there is no need to feel unsave in Minsk. It is by the way a very clean city.
It is true that Minsk doesn%26#39;t have a very spectacular night life, on the contrary. I went to the Alcatraz night club once, that is under the theater building on oktjaberskaya. There are not many bars. But O5 is ok. There is a live band playing very regularly. Their is an Irish pub as well, but it is quite %26quot;expensive%26quot;.
There are some good restaurants on Prospekt Nezavisimosti, as well as the McDonald%26#39;s, where people just go to drink a coffee :-) or eat an ice cream.
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try to contact a local travel agency for information and eventual support. they should be able to submit the booking of an appartment (tell me if you won%26#39;t find any :) i%26#39;ll help) which you will then send to the embassy. requirements for getting a visa also depend on the type of visit and your country of living - for EU citisens, f.ex. no invitation is needed if visit is private. by the way, the appartments are much cheaper in minsk, depending on the area, between 10-30 euro per day, sure thing, you can always find more expensive if you want to.
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