Pre-Travel – Packing – Minsk Airport
(January 2018)
Pre-Travel
Visa/paperwork requirements
As a UK passport holder, you no longer need to apply for a visa if your stay covers no more than five days (which means four nights, eg 1st to 4th covers five days. A ten-day visa-free regime is under consideration).
You need paper proof of travel insurance (with at least £10,000 cover). Do not underestimate the extent to which this will be checked and don’t be blasé and think, “Oh, surely I won’t need that”. You will. Apparently you can buy insurance at the airport, but I doubt it is good value or straightforward to apply for.
You also need proof of funds to cover your stay, currently around 23 euros a day. However, apparently a bank card and perhaps GBP could suffice. We were not asked for proof of this though.
Packing Suggestions
If you are travelling in winter and don’t think you have suitable footwear for snow or ice, I could easily have bought far more interesting, far cheaper, far more appropriately-soled shoes or boots from shops in Minsk, and with a huge and varied range. Likewise hats, scarves, gloves, mittens, warm clothes and sheepskin shoe liners (I’m thinking not buying sheepskin shoe liners was a missed opportunity). I would have headed straight to Tsum or Gum department stores. However, I can see that this may not appeal to many people, I just have this dream of packing very light and buying all necessary clothes from my destination. This could be a flawed packing model, but one day I’ll do it …
People dress smartly for dinner and going out, significantly smarter than in the UK. I hadn’t even contemplated packing smart clothes, going instead for practical warm layers that would fit in hand luggage. I felt conscious of being underdressed but not particularly uncomfortable.
We flew with LOT airlines, changing in Warsaw, as their flight times allowed the most of the five days in Belarus. However, the novelty of a cheaper hand-baggage-only ticket wore thin when we realised most people had chosen the same option and the overhead storage was full. On the return flight, most people were obliged to weigh their cases and have those over 8kg stowed in the hold. The overhead storage was still full.
Minsk 2 Airport (MSQ)
Minsk 2 airport is approximately 45 minutes’ drive into central Minsk, most of which is a tree and rural-edged motorway. There are minibuses and taxis into the centre, possibly other options too. The buses are very cheap. I don’t know about taxis as we were lucky enough to have someone pick us up.
Arrival
Collect and fill in the two identical sides of the immigration paper before you queue for the Immigration booths. One half will be left in your passport. You MUST NOT lose it, the fine is quite hefty and I’m sure it wouldn’t be a simple process.
I was scrutinised, very officiously, having to remove my glasses, twice, by the Immigration Officer for maybe two long minutes. (only about one minute on the way out) Immigration is very, very serious business. My travel insurance breakdown was scrutinised and discussed with a colleague (all fine) at great length. My passport was studied on most pages with an eyepiece magnifying glass. In summary, the Immigration zone (don’t use your phone in the queue) is a highly serious, no-nonsense process, which made me feel like I was in a Soviet-era film trying to get through Immigration with a fake passport. It all added to the sense of adventure though.
As soon as you exit the immigration booth, you turn left and almost straight in front of you is an ATM. It dispensed small notes, 5s and 10s, for my 200 ruble request, though I suspect that was the luck of the day.
Departure
Check-in opens two hours before departure (this appears to be standard for all flights. We were three hours early, for no good reason, so had to wait for an hour).
My passport was scrutinised in slightly less detail on the way out, but still the magnifying glass was used. The half of your immigration paper that you desperately hope is still lodged firmly in your passport will then be taken off you, passport stamped and off you go.
Once through Immigration, it looks like there are only a few duty free shops, but carry on round past signs that make you wonder if you shouldn’t be going that way and there is a series of kind of similar shops, chocolate, alcohol, bags and cigarettes being the main goods on offer.
Airport shopping
Unless you want alcohol or cosmetics, the best shops are in the pre-departure area. Pre-departure, prices are in rubles, card or cash. In the departure area, rubles are not accepted and prices are in euros.
There are a couple of small souvenir shops in the pre-departure area, prices seemingly ok. There is also a Luch watch shop (very small). Luch watches are made in Belarus and range in price from cheap to expensive. They have a good range and between three of us, we ended up buying four watches. They are not sold in the departure lounge (or certainly not with such a good selection).
At one end of the terminal, also pre-departures, there is a kind of minimart. It sells a few souvenirs and some snack food, cheeses, cured meats, alcohol (good to buy there especially if you want to pack it into checked luggage), soft drinks and lots of chocolate.