Belarus

You do know that Belarus is in Europe. You might have better luck with "General Europe" and it appears that very soon the "Russia" forum might be appropriate.

Our Daughter in Law is from Minsk and a wonderful lady. We have been to all the countries around Belarus, but not the country. At one time Americans had to have a sponsor to visit the country. I don't think that is the case now.

I have read that until a few years ago that Russia and Belarus were considering a merger, but now Belarus has moved away from that and has become more friendly to the West. I understand that there are site to visit in the country, but I haven't researched that.

When Belarus starts to get close to the west the Russians put troops at the border much like Ukraine or they shut of the flow of oil in the dead of winter as recently happened. Russia wants to form some sort of commonwealth and Belarus is required to join.

Last time I checked, if you flew in and out of the Minsk airport you could buy the visa at the airport and Russia nixed the plans to mote freely open the land borders.

I would be interested in any tourism ideas you come across.

I've removed a few posts. Let's keep this thread on topic. Belarus, please.

Did you get my private message about our trio to Belarus? We particularly like Grodno in the west. We also enjoyed driving around the smaller villages near Pinsk. We went to Babrysk in the east, but I wouldn’t recommend going there. In general, most places we visited, besides Minsk and Grodno, did not have many, if any, lodging options.

Beth,
We only overnighted in Minsk four nights; however did have a very good, long day outside Minsk at the Mir castle complex and the Nesvizh Radziwill family complex. Both are UNESCO World Heritage sites. We hired a car and guide thru our hotel. Mir is about 70 miles from Minsk and Nesvizh about 80 miles back to Minsk. The two UNESCO sites are nicely placed about 20 miles apart.

Last year was our first trip to Belarus. People were positive, friendly and helpful. It was part of a far Eastern Europe trip to Ukraine and Moldova and our third visit to the Baltics.