Exploring cultures and communities – the slow way

Nigel Roberts' new guidebook to Belarus, just published by Bradt Travel Guides, is authoritative and insightful. We review the first ever English language guide for travellers visiting Europe's least known country.

article summary —

Just consider for a few moments. Which is the country in Europe about which you know least? Tiny San Marino perhaps? Moldova possibly? Or might it be Belarus? We hear so very little of Belarus. It is too often written off as being a post-Soviet wasteland, and too often mentioned only for its involuntary involvement in the Chernobyl catastrophe - the errant reactor, you might remember, was not in Belarus at all, but away to the south at Prypiat in Ukraine. But there is another Belarus: a country of warm and friendly people, often intensely devout; a country with great tracts of forest where bison, beaver, lynx, wolves and elk still roam; a country with magnificent baroque churches, opulent palaces and beautiful gardens.

This is the Belarus which is very competently mapped in the first ever English language guidebook to the country.


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About the authors

hidden europe

and manage hidden europe, a Berlin-based editorial bureau that supplies text and images to media across Europe. Together they edit hidden europe magazine. Nicky and Susanne are dedicated slow travellers. They delight in discovering the exotic in the everyday.

This article was published in hidden europe 22.