Choosing the first winner of our prestigious award has been no easy task…

When it comes to travel and holidays, there are those of us who consider ourselves tourists, and those who think of ourselves more as travellers. Whilst for some, the perfect holiday is returning to a favourite resort year after year, relaxing in the sunshine with everything around us immediately to hand and familiar, others are more intrepid in their taste for adventure and crave exploration a little more off the beaten track.

World Travel Blog has always been committed to discovering those roads less travelled, which can always be found even in the most popular of tourist spots, and our anecdotal advice and articles are aimed at providing some insight into how such endeavours are best undertaken. But sometimes, for some trips, a specialist is needed, and that’s what has led us to launch our Travel Company of the Year Award this year.

Choosing our first winner hasn’t been easy – there are many agents in the market today offering a wide range of trips to suit varying budgets. We’ve been rigorous in our selection, though, and scored each of our shortlisted operators on the areas which matter most, namely quality of the itineraries on offer, overall value of holidays, how well organised the trips are and, all importantly, how knowledgable the staff and representatives are about your chosen destination. Feedback has been gleaned from not only the World Travel Blog team, but also independent reports from individuals and groups who have used these companies first hand.

We are, therefore, very pleased to announce that after very careful consideration, the winner of the first World Travel Blog Travel Company of the Year Award is:

Regent Holidays have been chosen for their unquestionable product knowledge, their willingness to be of assistance both before and after booking, and during the holiday itself, the friendliness of their team of experts, the fantastic choice of locations available, the overall exceptional value and for having innovation in spades.

So, congratulations guys – this award is not given out easily, and you should be very proud. Long may you continue to provide the excellent service you do!

Regent Holidays
Colston Tower
Colston Street
Bristol
BS1 4XE

Visit www.regent-holidays.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)20 7666 1244

Email: regent@regentholidays.co.uk

Built as a model Soviet city after the Second World War, the Minsk of today is a stunning example of a grand Stalinist metropolis

As I stood at the top of the abandoned apartment block, ankle deep in the detritus of people’s lives, the brilliant afternoon sunshine cut like a laser into my line of sight. It almost obscured the towering, rusty ferris wheel, long forsaken bumper cars and – further into the distance – the crumbling, dormant monster of an omnipotent nuclear reactor.

It was September, 2008, and I was ‘lucky’ enough to find myself on a journalistic photo assignment to Pripyat, the long deserted graveyard of everyday life in this devastated area of northern Ukraine. Founded in 1970, this once thriving metropolis was home to the thousands of workers and their families who eked out their living at the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Then, in the early hours of one ordinary day in April, 1986, it all ended. An unnecessary ‘experiment’ breached the infrastructure of reactor number four, and the wrath of hell was released on an unsuspecting world, with none to suffer more than the innocent inhabitants of the immediate area of Ukraine and south-east Belarus, where most of the deadly radiation cloud decided to lay its hat.

And here was I, photographing the remains of human beings’ lives, some twenty-two and a bit years on. Suddenly, it didn’t seem altogether right; in many ways it was a great, if maybe a little foolhardy, undertaking. But under the excitement of challenge and opportunity, I couldn’t escape one grim fact: I was only able to do this because so many had suffered and died. I can detach myself enough to appreciate the importance of documenting the area and its notorious recent history, but somehow – call it a need for good karma – something had to be given back; at that stage, I just wasn’t sure what.

Fast forward to 2009, and my discovery of the Gomel Children’s Hospital just over the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, and their need for help to save the lives of desperately ill and dying children, many from the after effects of the 1986 disaster and the still hopelessly contaminated corner of the world they were forced to inhabit. The hospital, under the dedicated auspices of Dr Oleg Zimelihin, is woefully underfunded and so, to risk killing a long story with brutal brevity, my partner and I set up our own charity, Chernobyl Heart, in the hope of raising funds to buy equipment which will allow early diagnosis and, ultimately, life-saving treatment.

And it’s this twisty, convoluted path which led us to our first trip to Minsk, which we made our Belarusian base while we awaited our cross-country train trip to Gomel, and the hospital itself.

Hailed as a modern Soviet city, you could be forgiven for thinking Minsk would be full of grey tower blocks and concrete wasteland but, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Nestling around the banks of the Svislach river, this bustling conurbation still lingers in the vaguest grasp of communism, but the hold on its people is more like a lank limpet than an iron fist.

In the Second World War, Minsk was the centre of the German resistance to the Soviet advance, and saw huge military activity in the first half of 1944. The resulting devastation all but razed the city to the ground, and its population was annihilated to the brink of 50,000. The peacetime rebuilding was a brave new planogram of Stalinist architecture with bold, grand buildings, broad avenues and burgeoning boulevards. The inevitable industrial growth this brought about saw one of the most impressive regenerations of post-war Europe, with Minsk’s dwindling demographics mushrooming to a million by 1972, and then a further half million by the mid eighties.

Life in the Belarusian capital today is peaceful and reasonably contented, despite president Alexander Lukashenko’s pervasive rule. Minsk remains pleasingly tranquil, and with its favourable summer climate, an undiscovered little haven for a cultural city break. Few other destinations can offer such value, particularly to the British tourist, and oftentimes it feels as if the pound in your pocket is intoxicatingly high on speed, making it difficult to actually spend a fortune, no matter what your indulgence. Hotel standards are high, our choice being the externally austere tower block of the Hotel Belarus, a facade which belies the establishment’s blissfully charming interior. Bedecked with bars, cafes and a stunning panorama restaurant affording you breathtaking views of the city in all its glory, the Belarus beautifully fuses the quaint and quirky with the modern and magnificent. From its vantage point overlooking the majestic Svislach, it’s a short walk to the poignant Island of Tears, with its recently constructed memorial monument to the Belarusian soldiers who perished in the USSR’s disastrous nine year campaign in Afghanistan. The small chapel at the centre of the island is home to figures of grieving mothers, sisters and widows, while a nearby angel weeps at his failure to protect his charges.

Dotted around the riverside walk is a plethora of bars and eateries, making for a very agreeable summer evening stroll, during which one can avidly consume the victuals and the view whilst contemplating the soft, setting sun. The atmosphere is vibrant yet never vociferous; revellers in Minsk seem instinctively to know where to draw the line.

With many highlights achievable within a leisurely traipse, most of the city can be covered in a few days. Don’t miss the Maxim Bogdanovich Literary Museum on the outskirts of Traetskae Prodmestse (the much-photographed Old Town, representing an authentic suburb of pre-Soviet Belarus) or the beautiful Holy Spirit Cathedral. Other fine churches, well worth a look, include that of Saint Maria Magdalena, St Peter and Paul (Katherine) Church, the Saint Maria Arch-Cathedral, Saint Simeon and Saint Elena Church and the ghostly, decaying beauty of Saint Roche. Independence and Victory Squares are a must, as is the wonderfully preserved little green wooden house which forms the Museum of the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party – Russia’s original Marxist party – which held its illegal founding congress there in 1898.

A city of culture and change, modern day Minsk offers the traveller a rare taste of something that little bit extraordinary; a glimpse into a truly different world, yet one which – in many ways – is just another example of a fine European city. It’s that difference you can’t always put your finger on, but one that leaves you with the unmistakable feeling that you’re altogether richer for having experienced it. As far as former USSR destinations go, Minsk is without doubt one of the most rewarding to visit.