About Belarus

Articles dedicated to Belarus history, Belarus politics, Belarus economy, Belarus culture and other issues and Belarus tourist destinations.

Why hire a private Minsk guide?

If you plan a visit to Minsk, Belarus, you will normally search for whatever information is available online and discover a number of official resources and forums with up-to-date reviews and other interesting data. There will be no difficulty to find and book a hotel in Minsk or any other regional center. But it will be trickier to contact a budget hotel in Minsk or an inn in any small town, e.g. Novogrudok, or even to find any information on these.

Also, you can do your Minsk sightseeing with a guidebook – there are very nice editions, but my tourists complain that they are focused on Belarus in general and on its major towns and do not have much detailed information. A live Minsk guide – preferably a licensed one – will do a much better job explaining the current local situation and tailoring the itinerary based on your interests.

Although they are slightly more expensive, private guided Minsk tours have a number of competitive advantages over group tours. Compare: a group of forty would be painfully waking up in the early morning, having their breakfast in the overcrowded restaurant and assembling in the hotel hallway or near the bus, wasting at least 15 minutes waiting for somebody who forgot his camera, sunglasses, etc. Walking past the sights you will be listening to monotonous veteran guide (very much sounds like a tape recorder) who has been hired because your tour operator has always worked with him or her and there haven’t been any problems… And there will always be someone in your group who will be asking tricky questions trying to measure the depth of the guide’s knowledge – and you will be going mad listening to them. A stop here is forbidden and a stop there is not on our list, so ladies and gentlemen… you will all be politely herded back into your coach.

When on a private tour in Minsk or around Belarus, you have a vehicle and a guide completely to yourself – within certain limits, that is. You can ask the guide to pull over at the roadside to admire the scenic landscape or visit an old church that is not on the itinerary – but who cares on a beautiful sunny day? A private guide will often not mind telling you much more than an old guidebook or a fresh news article might reveal giving a unique insight into the past and present of Belarus. And he will be more flexible regarding the payment and schedule.

A private guide might be handy when it comes to more complicated missions like tracing family roots in Belarus. I have had a few customers willing to visit certain places in Belarus which their grandfathers had left for overseas destinations decades ago and to have a look at what had become of those places – cathedrals, houses, cemeteries. I found these jobs rather fascinating. Working in the archives and talking to the survivors of such tragedies as the Great Patriotic war is rather entertaining – and definitely more informative than any standard tour.

Finally, a Minsk private guide can be very helpful in different travel problems. It might be booking of a hotel in a minor regional town or fixing the local Minsk registration, the deadline for which you nearly missed, or even recovering an item that you left behind on a train from Brest... A private guide will tackle these issues to the top of his abilities because you are his personal customer and the guide is keen (well, I am) to render you sterling services far beyond the office hours. While a tired travel agent or a hotel receptionist – in my experience – who is only looking forward to the end of the office day and the pay day will normally politely brush you off with the matters that are not on the company’s price-list.

So when including Belarus on your personal itinerary across Europe, do not overlook the possibility of contacting a private Minsk guide on whatever Belarus travel issues you are unsure of. I know – there are plenty!..  

Why hire a guide... Guests from Israel say