Belarus - Safe or Not
 

Hey boy and girls !
I am currently in Estonia (Tallinn) and leaving tomorrow and going towards Latvia. My plan from there is to go to Lithuania and into Belarus. So therefore my question is how safe is it there ? Has their economic crises caused problems?

Have heard rumors that most ATM's are not working and that changing currency can be difficult. Can anybody confirm any of this??

Also anybody around this area and doing the came route want to join ??

Belarus is one of the safest countries in Europe. Welcome to Europe without global consumerism, enjoy it while you can. Don't be scared by what is excreted by the TV, Belarus is perfectly safe.

There is a great shortage of hard-currency in the country. The Belrussian Rouble has lost considerable value, so consequently people are trying to hoard Dollars, Euros etc. I don't know what the situation is regards getting Belarussian Roubles out of an ATM, but if you bring any hard currency; Dollars, Euros, even Russian Roubles or Baltic currencies, you will have no problem changing them. People will be very glad to get them.

Daniel

I've not been there but various family members here have.

Ignoring the Russian habit of telling you "the next town is dangerous - don't go there" and expressing surprise that you safely got through the last town, I would have no qualms on going to Belarus on the information I have.

However, what might not be safe is to eat wild mushrooms, as still we don't around here. (Chernobyl fall out areas).

Hi Denis,

we have been there ~10 days ago. No problems in Belarus. There is enough of everything. ATMs are working (you may not get more than 500.000 BYR in one transaction, that is ~70 EUR). You can get everything everywhere.

Hope you did it. :-)

cu, Marc

I was there 2 weeks ago with my van and 9 motorbikes. my wife is Belorusan with familly in the country
the situation is very fluid at the moment, changing almost daily but at the moment travel is relatively straight forward. there has apparently been a new decree that garages aren't to take rubles from foreigners. some did but some would only take euros or dollars from us. because of their trade and economic policies, and other problems, there is a considerable shortage of forign currency in the country so I think this is a way of trying to get more money in. you will find it almost impossible to change rubles back into something else so only change as much as you may need.

we had no problems with ATMs but have heard there are sometimes temporary problems with them.

borders were relatively straightforward and the queues are much less than previous times I have been over.

A few years ago there was a big purge on corruption on the borders so don't try and bribe anyone there. the coppers are up for it though!!

Also we were told at the border on entry we didn't need to buy insurance. I knew from previous visits we did and made sure, in the face of some complaints, that all our group had it. we were then checked on the way out of the country (which I have never had before)so if they didn't have it there would have been problems, so make sure you get insurance at the border. I think this may be a new way of trying to get money out of tourists.