Braslaw Lakes National Park

• The park is in northern Belarus and includes lakes, forests, and wetlands.
• Drivyaty, Snudy, Strusto, Voloso, and Boginskoye are among the national park’s largest lakes.
• Activities include hiking trails, cycling and water routes, and boat trips.
• Accommodation is available at the Drivyaty, Leoshki, Zolovo, and Slobodka tourist complexes, as well as at campsites.

The Braslaw Lakes lie in a water-rich landscape in the north of the country. The national park’s largest lakes include Drivyaty, Snudy, Strusto, Voloso, and Boginskoye. Spending time at a larger lake makes it possible to arrange shoreline activities and boat trips differently in your daily schedule than a walk along a marked trail. Lakes and wetlands form the heart of this landscape; their shores, marshes, and smaller bodies of water offer a variety of nature experiences.

Choose your base according to the activities you have planned and the distances between your accommodation, the lakeshore, and places you want to visit. Staying in one place for a short trip leaves more time to explore individual parts of the landscape, while a tour of several lakes calls for extra driving and breaks. The lakes and wetlands invite you to enjoy a range of shoreline and nature experiences. For a chance to unwind between outings, peaceful breaks in nature are especially suited to a slower pace.

Braslaw itself is well worth a visit. From Castle Hill, you can look out over the town and its lakes; nearby are the Catholic Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and the Orthodox Church of the Assumption.

Marked hiking destinations include the Slobodka Esker, Pharos Hill, and Belmont Park. Cycling and water routes, along with boat trips, add to the options for active days. This selection helps you choose an activity to suit your preferred terrain and pace: a walk on a nature trail is different from a trip on the water or a longer bike ride. Rivers, waterfalls, and gorges offer further inland water landscapes alongside the lakes.

Set aside a separate excursion for architectural and cultural landmarks rather than cramming them into an already busy day of lakeshore walks. History and memorial sites and towns and architecture offer different themes for stops along the way. On a multiday route, you can spread a peaceful day in nature and a visit to a historic place across separate days.

Accommodation options include the Drivyaty, Leoshki, Zolovo, and Slobodka tourist complexes, campsites, and the Bogino Fishing House. Private guesthouses and farm stays are also available in the region. A guesthouse in town and accommodation by the lake offer different locations for your stay. Choose accommodation that suits the part of the lake you want to visit, your arrival plans, and your daily travel; accommodation by destination and location can be selected accordingly. On a multiday trip, this leaves more time at your chosen lakeshore and less time spent making unnecessary changes of location.

When travelling to northern Belarus, plan available border crossings, transport, and the return journey together. Border crossings, travel times, stays, and breaks determine the order of the individual legs; good scheduling keeps the journey on track. Other holiday destinations can be added as separate sections according to landscape and length of stay.

All border crossings with Ukraine and several crossings with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia are closed. At open crossings for passenger traffic, restrictions on modes of transport vary by crossing point. Non-Belarusian credit cards work only to a limited extent.

These conditions affect both arrival and your stay, as well as any possible tour of the region. Plan your daily route around crossings that are actually accessible and transport connections that are available. Allowing extra time for the return journey and staying near the planned destination for the day give the route a clear structure. Lakes and wetlands remain a nature destination, but a visit must fit into a route that is realistically accessible.

When was the Catholic Church of the Nativity built in Braslaw?

Construction of the church began in 1824. It was extended and renovated in 1897.