Białowieża Forest

I visited the Polish side of this WHS in August 2020. Knowing that August isn't the best month for birdwatching, my main goal was to visit the Strict Forest Reserve and if possible see European bison, the largest land mammal in Europe, if not in the wild at least in the Show Reserve (together with wolves, boars, lynxes, hybrid bisons, moose, tarpan horses).

To visit the Strict Forest Reserve I followed Els's suggestion and specifically asked for Arek to be my guide and he surely didn't disappoint. Perhaps due to the season or due to the lack of tourists, I was charged 60 euros for the circa 3.5 hrs guided private tour of the Strict Forest Reserve with a slightly later meeting time at around 05:00. Apart from his more than 20 years experience as a local licensed guide, Arek was thrilled that I had previously visited his far away home town and even knew how to pronounce it - Tarnowskie Gory! Apparently he's also a former miner from the recently inscribed Polish WHS. Even though the entrance to the Strict Forest Reserve is always open, but to enter you need to be accompanied by a licensed guide as 'rangers' frequently check tickets and licences!

The Strict Forest Reserve protects forest stands of natural origin and its primeval characteristics. New species are still being discovered here and natural processes are still being investigated in several scientific studies. It is one of four large areas in Poland under strict …

August 2017 - this Park was on my must see List for a long time. Finally we had the Chance to visit. We spent the night in a hotel in Białystok before entering the park. The weather was way better today. From polish news we heard about Protests against the timberindustry, cutting Down parts of the bufferzone. Fist thing we saw passing Hajnowka was Trucks with wood. Great! One of Europes oldest forests is not getting 100% protection?

We found a campground in the Main village of Bialowieza and visited the NP house, the village, the historic trainstation. And had some good kotlet schabowy.in the afternoon we drove on the Zebry Zubra, a hiking Trail to the Bisons, which leads through dense forest.

For the next day we were thinking about taking a guided Tour to the corezone. However we decided to take advantage of the free visa for the belarusan side. What an adventure! We arrived at the border with our bikes, the polish Guardians were friendly and told us not to bring back produce from Belarus. But going through the customs of BR was a bit intimidating, reminding of Soviet spy movies. I had some number wrong in the passport, so they didnt want to let us through. But finally he ca,us back the passport and we could Enter the Park.

Being with bike, we spend 6-7 hours driving on pathes through the quiet forest but only got to see Birds, foxes and a few …

After so many unsatisfying visits described by previous reviewers, I tried a different approach to covering Bialowieza Forest. I pre-booked a private tour into the Strict Reserve on the Polish side, a part that can only be visited with a licensed guide. This is also the core area that was originally inscribed in 1979 (the WHS has been extended several times since). I went with Arek Szymura of Pygmy Owl Nature Tours; I knew he was serious when he suggested meeting up at 4 am! Just in time before sunrise, it was light already and a pleasant 15 degrees Celsius.

So 5 minutes to 4, I stood waiting in front of Bialowieza’s orthodox church. This lies next to Palace Park, which I had visited the day before. Our tour started with a quick crossing of that park (with a short stop for observing a tawny owl) and exiting it again at the northwestern corner. Between the park and the strict reserve is a stretch of some 500m of meadows, they were very pretty in the early morning light with a bit of haze. We encountered a small group of people with spotting scopes there, hoping to get a glimpse of bison who sometimes come out of the forest to graze. However, we only saw the first woodpecker of the day (many more were to follow, “The Bialowieza Forest is paradise for woodpeckers” – the nomination file states rightly).

The Strict Reserve has a similar wooden entrance gate to …

Reading reviews about this site, I was not enclined to spend too much time trying to get to tick it.

I am not a big fan of animals in captivity. As I had a rental car on the Belarus side, my objective was (as Soligvant mentionned) to enter the UNESCO inscribed area and « experience » the forest. I tried to research the best way to visit the forest while skipping the touristic village (called « Father Frost Village ») or being driven around in a tractor for a « photo-safari ».

Not much information is available on the internet, I just went with google map and try to find a route through the northern part of the inscribed area. It is 1 :30 hours south from the city of Hrodna

I first tried the north-south road parrallel to the Belarus-Polisg border, leaving from Nezbodichi village. Unfortenately, this road is closed by military police, being in a border area, and is checked. I was (very politely) turned down just after having passed a big roadsign welcoming me into the national park (but not in the inscribed area after the 2014 boudary modification).

Leaving the border area I took a road 3 km east, leaving from the village of Grinki. Bad luck again. The road is blocked by a wooden fence just at the national park (and inscibed area) limit (see picture). The key to gate’s padlock is hidden in one of the stakes. Just after having …

In common with Nan, we felt that we were arriving at Bialowieza (Sept 17) without a clear picture of the best way to see this WHS, despite a fair bit of research. So, when we reached the area somewhat earlier than we expected from Zamosc, we drove on the 22 kms past our booked hotel in Hajnowka to the “village” of Bialowieza to try to establish how best to spend the time we had scheduled the next morning for our main visit.

Bielowieza may be categorised as a “village” but nowadays it is clearly a busy resort/tourist centre and at the end of the road is a pay car park and a collection of souvenir stalls, restaurants and huts displaying “I” signs for “Information Centre” - these are in fact commercial tourist agencies selling visits of various sorts inside the Bialoweza National Park (BNP) and surrounding areas. Behind them, running between 2 lakes, is a path leading into the “Palace Park” where the BNP HQ, Nature and Forest Museum, Guest House, Educational Centre and official “Tourist Information Point” lie. This latter is situated in the museum foyer. 1 zloty bought us a single page flyer which contained a reasonably detailed map of the BNP and related areas. No freebie documentation is available other than the flyer of the PTTK or “Polish Association of Touring and Sightseeing of Bialowieza”.

In short, you have 2 choices for seeing Bialowieza –

a. Do your own thing in the …

For most Poles I know the bisons of Bialowieza are a symbol of their country. The core zone of the park is a fully protected nature reserve housing the last bisons of Europe as well as other rare animals that roam freely between Poland and Belarus.

Seeing that you will probably not run into a bison on your own, the park also has a small zoo with all the key animals on exhibition. The zoo is embedded in the forest and gives you a rather representative image of the wild life.

Due to a lack of preparation and in my opinion rather poor online resources I wasn’t aware of the access restrictions. While the museum and the bison reserve are part of the core zone, I could not venture into the forest itself as you need a guide and we didn’t have a reservation. This was a bit underwhelming. Indeed, I had a hard time taking a nice picture, never a good sign. At the end, I was left wondering if this wouldn’t be better served as a Unesco biodiversity hotspot. Maybe it's better on the Belarus side, though.

Of late the Polish government is reviewing the protections of the park. They would like to extend logging activities. A minister is on record saying that the site should be converted to a cultural site. I am hard pressed to see the cultural value here apart from the large imprint on Polish cultural identity. If the Poles move …

I visited the Polish side in autumn when few other visitors were around. Enjoyed long hikes in the forest examining flora and fauna. The varity of fungi that I found on rotting trees was amazing. Wandered off the track at one point and found myself on the Belarus border. Not good as I didn't have a visa.

Saw a range of animals in a reserve, including deer, bison, lynx and wolves.

I travelled by bus to Bialowieza from Vilnius, changing buses in Bialystok.

Belovezhskaya Pushcha was the greatest disappointment ever as a WH site. We have visited Belorussia as a part of a Baltic trip in August 2007, the first stop was Brest, the ideal jump off point to visit the national park. But the problems begun much earlier. Normally every trip begins with scrutinizing all the possible on-line (and some off-line) resources on the designated topic. Obviously the quality and quantity of resources vary. A WH site in Europe can have an elaborate website with all the necessary information , and there are a lot of reviews on different touristic and scientific sites that help the wishful traveler where to go and what to do. Belovezhskaya Pushcha was a black hole. I have found only two types of materials: detailed botanical essays on the flora (absolutely uninteresting for a group of historians), and enthusiastic reviews (mainly in Russian) on the historical importance of the regions. No practical information at all about the opening hours, the visiting opportunities, the prices, what we can see and how can we get there. So we had to lean on our off-line guidebook – a Lonely Planet Russia and Belarus. Unfortunately I was unsuspecting when I read that the writer put the entire country “off the beaten track”, and 80% of the Belarus chapter is about the capital. About BP there ware cca 50 words, and an allegation (false by the way), that can only be visited with a guided tour from Brest. I called the local …