Has anyone ever been to Belarus?

nltrainer
Traveller
1405 comments

warning: transit means get THROUGH_not come back same way. You MUST have tickets to show this intention.
frankly: avoid it by now. If you want to have a -cheap and visa-free too, glimpse of what the Old East Europe used to be; go to either Ukrayna or Moldova.
there are also many reports that they simply refuse you any visa, when you tell you want to go Lithuania-Ukrayna: there are direct buses via Poland so there is no need at all.
much more sensible reports and Q+A on the lonelyplanet/thorntree forum . Go to east-eur, set to Byelorus and read.

Pleasexplain
Traveller
24 comments

Well they approved my transit visa for exactly that! I'm heading for Kiev -(via the PMR), then night train to Minsk to have a look around for the day and onto Vilnius to fly back to Scotland!

Any do's / dont's for Byelorussia?!


-hey everyone!
Kris.
(Loving the site!)

Peter
Traveller
9333 comments

Hi Kris.
Never been there... but always happy about information... :)
So if you like, post your experiences here. I'm curious.
Have fun on your rail trip , Pete :)

Pleasexplain
Traveller
24 comments

Hallo Pete!

I certainly will! I'm in Munchen at the moment. -Miene erste mal in Deutschalnd! Took an EC from Zurich to Lindau today -(what a beautiful little town), and then an Alex -(why are they called Alex trains?! Lol) on here to Munchen tonight. Been up der Leopoldstrasse to Schwabing / Munchner Freiheit. Deutschalnd its geil! -anyway I'm way off topic.. I've only dug up a 4 year old thread about Belarus and. O hijacked it!

This site needs more activity!

Prost!
Kris.

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hi!

ALEX originally means [b]AL[/b]lgäu [b]EX[/b]press and was used for the semi-express trains from Munich to Lindau and Oberstdorf. Later, the network got extended from Munich towards Regensburg - Schwandorf - Hof and ALEX now meant [b]A[/b]rriva [b]L[/b]änderbahn [b]EX[/b]press (Arriva Länderbahn would be the operator's name). Later, the operator's name was rebranded Netinera after a merger and nowadays the name ALEX remains as a standalone brand name. :)

I dont really have tips for Belarus (but if you would share your experiences that would be great) however, you _have_ to go to one of the Snekutis pubs in Vilnius. Great beer, great food, great places! :)


Flo 8)

maxitravels
Traveller
8 comments

I went to London with the 2 day transit visa forms and the photos. It was for me and my two children so the cost was just £15.00. Two weeks later I went to London to collect our passports.

For our trip we flew to Lithuania and then came home from Poland. We arrived at the train station at 07.20 for the 08.00 train however the travel agent had the wrong time. They had the time listed as 08.00. We had to buy bus tickets for 09.00 ! When we arrived I changed my money and went by taxi to our hotel. We took a trolley bus into the centre of Minsk. We visited two museums and wished for more time.

The next day we went on a train to the border where we looked around a fortress. It was a very cold day for us. That was in October 2015. The border between Belarus and Poland was very basic indeed. It was worth the money to a 2 day look at Belarus.

Pleasexplain
Traveller
24 comments

Hallo Pete und das team!


I\'ve not posted back on here in too long but I hope to get more active on this forum in the future. I\'m a lot more active over at www.railforums.co.uk under the same UN.
Anyway, I\'ve started a blog about my travels: http://le-vauban.blogspot.co.uk/ and started off by writing all about my short visit to this most interesting country. I hope to add more in the future and write the whole story of this grand circular tour of Europe I made in late 2015 which was my first experience of the central and eastern European countries.


I hope you all enjoy reading it and please feel free to comment.

Btw Pete, vielan dank for your tips regarding München! I had an amazing time there at die Hofbräuhaus and have since been back, hoping to get to Oktoberfest this year!!

Pleasexplain
Traveller
24 comments

And I forgot to add thank you too Flo for your info regarding das ALEX zug und Vilnius! I do enjoy reading your blogs, particularly the trip you and Pete made to Moskva on the RZD EuroNight! :>

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hi Kris, good to hear from you again!

I had a quick look at your blog but didnt find the time yet to read it all. Will try to do this weekend. :)

Hopefully you did enjoy Vilnius as I did!? :D
Belarus would be very interesting for me after last years trips to Ukraine and Russia..but let\'s see. There is a summer season night train from Minsk via Lviv - Chernivtsi - Bucharest to Varna...very tempting...

The trip on the Paris - Moscow sleeper was really great indeed. Definitely recommended.

Flo

MorMor
Traveller
1 comments

My experience may be VERY DATED . . . but might also suggest what to anticipate.
My daughter and I traveled by train from Vilnius, Lithuania to Vitebsk, Belarus in 2002.
There was only one departure per day, and we missed it by minutes because the Vilnius train station is laid out differently from other East European train stations: the tracks run parallel to the station, not perpendicular. So if your train departs from, say, Track 16, you have to get there by walking the length of Tracks 1 - 16 through an underground viaduct.
Could be a l-o-o-n-g walk.
It was not possible to get a refund. I had to re-purchase tickets for the next day\'s departure; and then find lodgings.
We arrived in Vitebsk at about 2:00 in the morning.
We were met by hotel personnel; but spent our first hours in Vitebsk asleep.
The combination of losing a day by missing the train, and missing another half-day because of the bizarre arrival time, cut our visit by more than half - this after securing visas that cost about 300 USD.
Very frustrating.

The Chagall Museum was closed on our only day in Vitebsk; but walking through the town was like visiting a Chagall painting: tumbledown cottages with chickens in the yards and kerchiefed housewives boasting about their blini . . . a changeless, misted river where boys play rough games and girls dream . . . bakeries emitting fragrance of freshly-baked bagels . . . tiny wooden bridges . . . intriguing bookshops . . . old churches standing in empty fields . . . destroyed concrete workshops overgrown by thorns . . . Soviet apartment blocks with companion chicken "apartments" nearby.
Belarus currency was badly inflated. We needed ROLLS of bills to pay for trifles like toothpaste.
Restaurant fare was modest, affordable, and satisfying.

I would cheerfully have another couple of days in Vitebsk . . . after a refresher course in Russian language to better banter with the locals.

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hi and welcome to railcc!

Thanks for your interesting lines about your trip to Belarus! :)
I only passed through the country on my way to Russia: [ux]https://rail.cc/blog/night-train-paris-moscow/[/ux]

Flo