Minsk Travel Answers

We were recently in Minsk for a few days. We always got money out of the ATM. The hotel we paid ahead in Vilnius with Euro. Public transport was quite cheap, the rest was more expensive than Poland. Entrance fees to museums were also cheap.

Thanks for replying, but could you be more specific please? What does cheap mean to you? How much would you estimate per day given that I have accommodation and just need to pay for public transport, lunch and dinner and drinks in the evening? Thanks a lot. Robert

Hello, We were in Belarus for 10 days at the end of August and really enjoyed our time. We travelled on our own just independently and explored the following cities: Minsk, Zaslavl, Brest, Kamenets and Hrodna. Regarding money I can only recommend to get it from cash machines (ATMs) which are widely available in the bigger cities. Interesting enough we didn't see many exchange offices. Credit cards don't seem to be used that much. To plan your budget I would estimate the following prices (August 2011): Dinner at an average restaurant: 40.000 to 60.000 BYR per person A pint of beer costs something between 6.000 and 8.000 BYR Public transport, one ride on a bus in e.g. Minsk: 900 BYR Public toilet: 500 to 1000 BYR Museum Entrance: 5.000 - 7.000 BYR (discounts with a minicards possible) Bottle of mineal water 1,5 l from a supermarket: 2.500 BYR Train Minsk - Brest: 21.500 BYR Suburban Train Minsk - Zaslavl (Belarus) 2.000 BYR Accomodation in Minsk seems to be relatively expensive. We stayed in the Hotel Sputnik and paid about 75 Euro for a double room, including breakfast. In Brest and Hrodna accomodation was much cheaper, only about half of the price of Minsk. If you need a good guidebook I can only recommend to download the In Your Pocket Guide - Minsk free of charge here: inyourpocket.com/data/downlo... The printed version is available in all bigger bookshops in Minsk for about 15.000 BYR. We are looking forward to seeing your VT travel pages about your trip afterwards. *winkygrin* I hope this helps, HORSCHECK

At this moment there is a period of high inflation in Belarus, so prices in national currency still unstabile. For instance, today we've got one moment +40% transport tickets price increase, from 950 to 1300 BYR. its not a problem to buy EUR\USD at this moment. Exchange offices is not developed, as bank offices ( where you can get same). Thats it, and welcome to belarus :)

Thanks for the info guys. Apologies for not replying earlier, for some reason I never got an email update so I assumed nobody had answered. In the end I never made it to Minsk because I very foolishly hadn't realized that I needed a transit visa to fly via Moscow. Duh! Should have just flown direct and spent the extra money. Never mind, you live and learn. Hopefully I'll make it at some point in the future. Cheers. Robert

First of all you should decide where to live. Hotels are quite expensive, it is better to rent a flat. I recommend you http://apartmentsinminsk.com. I always book flats form this website. Then you should decide what to do. Bars and restaurants are quite cheap. For 10-15$ you can eat and drink. Prices in Night Clubs are higher, but not very much. For example cup of bear is nearly 3-5$ everywhere. So describe more exactly what you want to visit:)