On my quest to visit different countries to ski, I also visited Belarus. It is not an obvious destination, certainly not recommend for a visit in recent times. And there aren't that many skiing options, but there was an easy ski resort, Silichy near Minsk, easily accessible and easy for foreign tourists to book and visit. And it was not a standard western resort experience either, I got clearly Belarusian and Russian culture vibes from my visits to the sauna, for instance. And the skiing was nice.
In particular, I liked to smooth curves of the slopes, and the fact that at the top they were steep enough for fun turns. Weather was wintery, with snow everywhere, trees covered in snow, etc.
There are five lifts and 2.8 kilometers of pistes (see skiresort.info). The reports about vertical differ, skiresort.info said only 55 meters, other sources indicated initially 76 meters but later extended with added dirt at the top to 116 meters. I didn't measure the vertical but to me it felt more like the two latter numbers than the first ones. The resort also isn't at a high altitude, it sits just above 200 meters of altitude, so you'll have to watch snow situation if you plan to visit here.
The resort only opened in 2005.
Silichy is at N 54.15709 E 27.83746, about half an hour's drive from Minsk. More information about Silichy can be found in Wikipedia or in their own home page. There's also a Belarus Holiday report.
The resort has their own hotel, where I stayed. It was ok; the villas next door would have been nicer. But staying at the hotel was nice.
More information about the situation in Belarus can be found here; it country ranks lowest on the democracy index in Europe. My visit was before the their worst behavior -- today I would not travel to Belarus or recommend anyone else travels either.
See also the separate articles I wrote about the Minsk Airport (alt. link) and saunas in Silichy (alt. link).
Hotel and villas:
This article has also been published here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2019-2026 by Jari Arkko.
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