Lonely Planet Ukraine

Di Duca Marc

Description

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet's Ukraine is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Sip morning coffee in Lviv's cosy cafes, hike the flower-filled upland pastures and wide, snaking valleys of the Carpathian Mountains, and take a guided tour of Chernobyl - all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Ukraine and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet's Ukraine: Colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sightseeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights provide a richer, more rewarding travel experience - covering history, people, music, arts, landscapes, wildlife, cuisine, politics Covers Kyiv, Central Ukraine, Lviv & Western Ukraine, The Carpathians, Southern Ukraine, Crimea, Eastern Ukraine The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet's Ukraine is our most comprehensive guide to Ukraine, and is designed to immerse you in the culture and help you discover the best sights and get off the beaten track. About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more. 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)

Sujets

• Ucrania
• Ukraine

Informations

• Publié par: Lonely Planet
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781787019027
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 38 Mo

Extrait

Ukraine

Contents

PLAN YOUR TRIP

Welcome to Ukraine
Ukraine’s Top 15
Need to Know
First Time Ukraine
What’s New
If You Like
Month by Month
Itineraries
Visiting Chornobyl
Outdoor Activities
Travel with Children
Regions at a Glance

On The Road

Kyiv
Sights
Activities
Tours
Festivals & Events
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Around Kyiv
Bila Tserkva
Kaniv
Central Ukraine
Polissya
Zhytomyr
Berdychiv
Podillya
Uman
Vinnytsya
Kamyanets-Podilsky
Lviv & Western Ukraine
Lviv
Ternopil Region
Ternopil
Kremenets
Volyn & Rivne Regions
Lutsk
Dubno
The Carpathians
Ivano-Frankivsk
Carpathian National Nature Park & Around
Yaremche
Kolomyya
Kosiv
Rakhiv
Bukovyna
Chernivtsi
Transcarpathia
Uzhhorod
Mukacheve
Southern Ukraine
Odesa
Dnister Estuary
Vylkove
Crimea
Yalta
Bakhchysaray
Balaklava
Simferopol
Sevastopol
Feodosiya
Gurzuf
Kerch
Novy Svit
Sudak
Kara-Dah Nature Reserve
Yevpatoriya
Eastern Ukraine
Chernihiv
Myrhorod
Poltava
Kharkiv
Dnipro
Zaporizhzhya

Understand

Understand Ukraine
Ukraine Today
History
The People
The Ukrainian Table
Art & Architecture
Music & Literature

SURVIVAL GUIDE

Directory A-Z
Accommodation
Climate
Customs Regulations
Discount Cards
Electricity
Embassies & Consulates
Gay & Lesbian Travellers
Health
Insurance
Internet Access
Legal Matters
Maps
Money
Opening Hours
Post
Public Holidays
Safe Travel
Smoking
Taxes & Refunds
Telephone
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Travellers with Disabilities
Visas
Volunteering
Weights & Measures
Women Travellers
Work
Transport
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Language
Behind the Scenes
Our Writers
Welcome to Ukraine

Big, diverse and largely undiscovered, Ukraine is one of Europe’s last genuine travel frontiers, a nation rich in colourful tradition, warm-hearted people and off-the-map experiences.

Big & Diverse
Ukraine is big. In fact it’s Europe’s biggest country (not counting Russia, which isn’t entirely in Europe) and packs a lot of diversity into its borders. You can be clambering around the Carpathians in search of Hutsul festivities, sipping Eastern Europe’s best coffee in sophisticated Lviv and partying on the beach in Odesa all in a few days. Ukrainians are also a diverse crowd: from the wired sophisticates of Kyiv’s business quarters to the Gogolesque farmers in Poltava, the Hungarian-speaking bus drivers of Uzhhorod to the Crimean Tatar cafe owners just about everywhere.

Hospitable Hosts
Despite their often glum reticence and initial distrust of strangers, travellers to the country quickly find that Ukrainians are, when given the chance, one of Europe’s most open and hospitable people. Break down that reserve and you’ll soon be slurping borshch in someone’s Soviet-era kitchen, listening to a fellow train passenger’s life story or being taken on an impromptu tour of a town’s sights by the guy you asked for directions. Much social interaction takes place around Ukraine’s hearty food, always brought out in belt-stretching quantities. Learn a bit of Ukrainian and you double the effect.

Living History
As we have now all sadly realised, history didn’t end around 1989, and that’s doubly true in Ukraine. Having only appeared on the map in 1991, the country has managed two revolutions and a Russian invasion already, and fighting in the Donbas is ongoing. History ancient and recent is all around you in this vast land, whether it be among the Gothic churches of Lviv, the Stalinist facades of Kyiv, the remnants of the once-animated Jewish culture of west Ukraine or the ubiquitous Soviet high-rises.

Outdoor Fun
A diverse landscape obviously throws up a whole bunch of outdoorsy activities – from mountain biking and hill walking in the Carpathians to bird spotting in the Danube Delta, from cycling along the Dnipro in Kyiv to water sports in the Black Sea. But if the idea of burning calories on hill and wave has you fleeing for the sofa, rest assured that most Ukrainians have never tried any of the above, but love nothing more than wandering their country’s vast forests, foraging for berries and mushrooms or picnicking by a meandering river.

KOBBY DAGAN / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Why I Love Ukraine
by Marc Di Duca, Writer
Is it the feeling of being elsewhere but still in Europe, the bizarre Soviet legacy, the country’s raw history, the unexpected travel experiences, the locals’ openness or the stories tall and true of life under communism? Or is it the star-dusted nights in Myrhorod, the Nutcracker at the opera house in snow-bound Kyiv, empty churches on rainy autumn Wednesdays in Lviv or the endless train journeys across the steppe in the company of Gogol? I suppose it’s all the above and volumes more that have me returning to this magical Slavic hinterland time and again.
For more about our writers, see here
Ukraine’s Top 15

Andriyivsky Uzviz, Kyiv
The apostle Andrew is said to have climbed this steep ascent to erect a cross and prophesy the rise of Kyiv. Today it’s the haunt of artists, who install their canvases on this cobbled Montmartre-like street, which – in true decadent style – Kyivites call ‘Andrew’s Descent’. Packed with souvenir stands selling all sorts of junk, the uzviz has heaps of Bohemian charm and is great for people-watching. Here Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov wrote The White Guard, perhaps the best novel about Kyiv and its people; his house is now a museum.

ARTJAZZ / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Carpathian Landscapes
By and large, Ukraine is as flat as a topographically challenged blin (pancake), which makes its bumpy bits all the more special. Ukraine’s slice of the Carpathian arc barely reaches over 2000m, but its soothing wooded slopes, rough stony trails, flower-filled upland pastures and wide, snaking valleys make this prime hiking, biking and skiing territory. Needless to say, the Carpathians are home to Ukraine’s highest peak, Mt Hoverla (pictured below), a fairly easy trek from nearby villages, as well as the Hutsuls, the country’s most colourful ethnic group.

SYNERGYDESIGN / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Ivano-Frankivsk
This once off-limits city may not entirely live up to its nickname ‘Little Lviv’, but its historic centre is one of Ukraine’s most pleasant, especially in the summer when buskers entertain the evening corso (promenade) and cafe tables scatter across pretty squares. Like Lviv, I-F is centred around its ratusha, an unusual, star-shaped structure with a climbable tower. When you tire of the city’s architectural grandeur, its friendly locals and some of west Ukraine’s best food, this is also your northern gateway to the Carpathians.

RUSLAN LYTVYN / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve
This reserve is Europe’s largest wetland, located in a huge delta in Ukraine’s far southwest where the Danube dumps water and silt into the Black Sea. Few make it to this far-flung wedge of fertile Ukrainian territory (few Ukrainians have been there), but those who do are rewarded with some astoundingly beautiful scenery, colourful birdlife, memorable days out on the water and serene evenings in drowsy Vylkovo, fancifully nicknamed the ‘Ukrainian Venice’ thanks to its network of canals.

WATCHER FOX / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Colourful Markets
In the market for a 5L jar of gherkins, a Lada gearbox, a kilo of pig fat or a bottle of fake-brand perfume? You’ll probably find them all, plus almost everything else under the sun, at Ukraine’s amazing bazaars. They’re the best spots to source seasonal fruit and veg, and if you’re looking to pack a picnic, these are the places to get supplies. Towns large and small have sprawling markets, but the biggest and best can be found in Chernivtsi , Odesa and Kyiv .

Bessarabsky Rynok , Kyiv | GEORGE WRIGHT / GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Kamyanets-Podilsky
There are few more eye-pleasing spots in Ukraine than this Podillyan town , ringed by the dramatic gorge of the Smotrych River. A stroll from the new bridge takes you through the cobbled quarters of this once-divided community, past beautifully renovated churches, crumbling palaces and forgotten pieces of the once beefy defences, to the town’s impossibly picturesque fortress (pictured above), surely a highlight of any visit to Ukraine. And the best thing? Outside high season you may have the place entirely to yourself.

VERKHOVYNETS TARAS / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Lviv’s Historical Centre
Lviv is the beating cultural heart of Ukraine and the city most geared up to accept foreign visitors. Its bustling centre is the main square, pl Rynok, in the middle of which rises the huge ratusha (town hall). In the shadow of its tall tower mill, clutches of selfie-stick-toting tourists, quick-footed locals and rattling Soviet-era trams somehow squeeze through the crowds. Head in any direction and you will quickly stumble upon a magnificent, aromatic church: each one, it seems, belonging to a different denomination.

BRENIK / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Kyevo-Pecherska Lavra, Kyiv
Descend into catacombs to see mummies of much-revered saints on an excursion to the holy of holies for all eastern Slavs. Founded as a cave monastery in 1051, the lavra is packed with golden-domed churches, baroque edifices and orchards. Religious ceremonies take place in lavishly decorated, icon-filled interiors, accompanied by exquisite choir singing and attended by flocks of pilgrims and monks. Obscure museums in the grounds are dedicated to Scythian gold, micro-miniatures and decorative arts.

ROMAN MIKHAILIUK / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Kolomyya
With its traveller-friendly places to stay, two fascinating museums and effortless access to the surrounding forested hills, Kolomyya is one