New Year trip to Belarus
Good afternoon. My wife and I decided to spend the past New Year holidays outside the house. After thinking carefully, weighing all the pros and cons, climbing the sites, we decided to stay on vacation in Belarus. We contacted our local travel agency where they found us a 9-day tour to Belarus under the romantic name: "New Year's Tale in the Center of Europe": New Year's Eve in Minsk and a wellness vacation in the Priozerny sanatorium. This vacation was kindly provided by the Russian tour operator Multitour. problems. We read about the company and its successes on the tour operator’s website. Only it seemed strange to us that there was no feedback on the Multitour website (only an emergency phone number). Well, so that tourists satisfied with the trip bombarded the campaign with their positive releases. Well, yes, and God bless him, we decided. Moreover, the girl in the local travel agency so colorfully described to us all the advantages of this tour. To be honest, for us the only advantage of this tour was the fact that we fit into the framework of the holiday (the tour lasted 9 days). What did they promise us? (I write selectively so that it does not turn out to be very long and tedious)
31.12. 11-to 3.12. 11-Accommodation at the IBB 3 * hotel (the hotel is located in the Moskovsky district of Minsk, quite far from the metro and the center). December 31-New Year's Eve at the Westfalia restaurant.
01/01/12 - at 16.00 free bus tour of the evening Minsk.
2.01. 12-Excursions in Belarus (for an additional fee)
01/03/12 at 10-00-check-out from the hotel and transfer to the sanatorium "Priozerny" (Minsk region, Myadel district, Naroch village)
8.01. 12-transfer to Minsk by train railway station.
Let's start with the fact that we ourselves had to arrive at - "Druzhnaya station" in the center at the paid parking lot bus number....With a sign "Hotel IBB".
Well, well, for example, I know that the Druzhnaya parking lot is located near the station, and I know in what place (even a primitive scheme was not attached), and others? , collecting our vacationing clients. But alas, this did not concern us, we had to look for a parking lot ourselves. (This is of course a trifle, but it shows an attitude towards Russian tourists). - "Belarusian satellite", and below - "Hotel IBB". To the question to the guide girl with explanations, we get the answer - "You see, it is written IBB, then you are here. "
We sit down, we go, we are accommodated in a hotel. Normal rooms. An incomparable New Year's Eve, well, just super (it was marred a little by the refusal to change a bottle of vodka for wine, just buy it for money. ) Let me explain, my wife and I don’t drink vodka, but on the table as evil (a table for 2 people) - a “check” of local champagne and 0.5 vodka (and the wine in the restaurant is probably more expensive than vodka). Saved the “free” champagne in glasses in the bar put up by the restaurant. (Believe me, we paid a lot of money for this evening Belarusian concepts of money).
On January 1, we are going on an excursion, almost 100% of those who arrived. The bus tour is “at the expense of the company”, and the evening Minsk illuminated by lights is beautiful. .
Surprisingly, at the end of the sightseeing tour, there were 8-10 (and there would have been more) who wanted to go somewhere on an excursion on the 2nd (for a fee, of course) - You should have seen the size of the eyes of the guide girl accompanying us (apparently responsible for each event one representative of the company) when she was asked in a polite manner about these excursions. Apparently, the poor woman was told something... Rousseau tourists can only trinken fodka and eat herring on a holiday... All she could advise was (this is at 6-30 pm on January 1 ! ) contact a couple of local travel agencies by phone (phone numbers were given)... - “maybe they still have a couple of places for tomorrow's excursions, call, but our company does not conduct excursions tomorrow . . ” And in the morning (to 8-00) you have to take 2 buses to the center yourself (to take a sightseeing bus). Well, of course, no one agreed to this, and on January 2, our tourists entertained themselves. For example, we went to the center. It’s not clear, but then why was it for a lure to write? We went to the cinema (the Berestye cinema is nearby). For lovers, a couple of department stores with excellent wine and vodka departments.
January 3 went to the "Priozerny"...
I used to think that only Egyptian and Turkish hotel paparazzi can rent their hotel in such a cool way to show only its advantageous sides. . . This is to say that when we saw the door to our room....I immediately remembered visiting some kind of hostel in the 70s. And the smell in the bathroom nostalgically resembled the smell of a toilet in a communal apartment. you can’t do everything at once, and a poor tour operator can’t look into every room. Just imagine (the Priozerny building, 3rd floor, room 313) one corridor - on one side - European-quality repair, new doors, new wallpaper, etc. . , and on the other side of the corridor is a hostel of the 70s. No, everything is there: a refrigerator and a TV set and two beds (very low for some reason), spoons, forks, glasses and piles. the distance from the wall (from the side) to (sorry) the edge of the toilet is 5 centimeters? How is that? So I had to sit sideways on the toilet .
Maybe someone will say, I’m writing one negative. Dear, my relatives, you yourself will see the positive if you go there! It’s just my fly in the ointment in that sea of positive that tour agencies provide.
There is also the building "Azure" - well, if you compare it like the "Metropol" in Moscow and some kind of seedy hotel in Kyzyl-Orda. words.
I didn’t like the dining room - one large room, noisy like in a pub. Food - you won’t die of hunger, but there is always such a feeling that something is missing here.
True, my wife “rolled us” with a pool, the doctor said that the pool is very small, literally a bath for taking procedures. And only after watching the commercial of the sanatorium on the last day, we saw on the screen a small (in my opinion 10x5 meters), but quite a decent pool.
And again the excursion program let us down. The fact is that the excursions are conducted by one person (she is also responsible for cult-mass work) and, accordingly, 1 excursion per day. a pro-excursion somewhere in Brest, Grodno, we received an answer that it was very far away and therefore impossible. And only then we realized why the bus is small, and the road is long, and gasoline is expensive. So because of 5-7 people, the excursion is also it is inappropriate to conduct. In general, the tour is carried out by the forces of the sanatorium itself and no more (there is an option - hire a taxi driver and ride all over Belarus, or better, go by car - the roads near the Old Man are a driver’s dream).
And the last minus is the beautiful lake Naroch nearby, but you can’t swim in it, the birds brought some kind of infection.
In any case, according to the reviews of local vacationing pensioners (trade union sanatorium), the Priozerny sanatorium is the best of the sanatoriums located on the shores of Lake Naroch (even despite all the shortcomings I have described).
I must say that there is no information from the Belarusian Sputnik agency on the territory of the sanatorium. Of course, upon arrival, we were warned about the time and order of departure.
On January 8, a bus arrived, a young girl marked us. To my question about the Multitour, she only said… “we cooperate with them…” and that’s all.
. . . The guide girl silently drove with us to Minsk and just as silently and without saying goodbye left (compare this even with Turkey, even with Egypt).
I would like to express special gratitude to the driver of our bus, this is really a professional, a good person. A professional not only in terms of driving, but also in terms of communicating with tourists. either Turkey, or maybe we want to go back to the Old Man, to Belarus. Thank you very much. In general, we liked it, we went somewhere else in the summer. For example, to the Brest region, closer to the forest. Minsk (and Belarus in general) is first of all cleanliness and order. It seems that young people are the same, but they don’t throw beer cans anywhere, and I didn’t see syringes. There are absolutely no our “brothers” from Central Asia and the Caucasus. In general, there are resorts in the world besides Turkey and Egypt. Belarus!
