Best day trips from Lviv and Kyiv

Cameron Hewitt, one of Rick Steve's cohort (who is responsible for most things Eastern European on this site) had a recent blog post on his trip to Lviv. It's definitely worth reading.

I will be in Lviv from May 1 to 5. Besides spending several days in town, we are getting out of town to visit Zhoskva, and a monastery and caves in its vicinity. Also seeing Madame Butterfly in the Opera house the night before we leave. I will likely be posting a trip report, although that might not happen until we get back to the States in June.

I really don't think you have any extra time in either of those cities. Kyiv, in particular, has a lot of sights. The Chernobyl Museum is very good, as are the Famine Museum and the WW II Museum, though the latter isn't quite as English-accessible as the others. Then there are the churches and the architecture in general.

Are you renting a car or using public transportation? Ground transportation in Ukraine is fairly slow. It is a large country without express trains of the type you'll find running between major cities in western Europe. Via Michelin estimates over 8 hours of driving time from K'yiv to Chernivtsi and 4:40 from L'viv to Chernivtsi. The direct route from L'viv to K'yiv is estimated at 8-1/2 hours driving, but I presume you'd opt either to fly or take the train for that leg. The train may well be a bit faster than the driving time between Kyiv and L'viv; I don't remember.

When you stop on the road between major cities, it may not be so easy to find a western-style toilet. I don't believe I encountered any on the say from Uzhgorod to Ivano-Frankivsk to Chernovtsi to L'viv.

Thanks for your replies!I have read Cameron Hewitt's blog posts which were informative. Looking forward to your trip report when you come back.

I will be using public transportation so I didn't want to waste too many days on trains, so I may just spend my time in Lviv and Kyiv. Was planning on taking the IC+ train as it is the quickest way to get between the two.

Katey, presuming you have the Lonely Planet guide? If there's a better one, someone let me know. Also, have you checked out the "In Your Pocket Guide to _______" website? You can download guides for L'viv and K'yiv from there that actually have a lot of useful info, not just ads. The website has some interactive features as well.

Matt, please do report back and let us know how it went. I am planning a trip there, and any info is good to have. Not holding my breath for a RS book.

The then-current Lonely Planet guide to Ukraine was being roundly panned online (mainly due to stale information, as I recall) at the time I was planning my trip, so I just found a cheap old version somewhere, downloaded the In Your Pocket guides (definitely helpful), checked this forum, and read some old articles I had clipped from travel magazines and the NYTimes. Things have changed a lot in Ukraine in the last five years, so anything in print should be treated with a bit of skepticism. Remaining flexible is a very good idea.

There is a very helpful tourist office in L'viv. I never found one in Kyiv, which was very surprising. In those major cities my hotels were able to supply a usable local map; in Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernovtsi, it appeared that such was not available. I didn't go looking for maps in bookstores, though. Kyiv is such a large city, and the sights can be pretty far apart. A decent map would be worth buying. I think there are maps at the back of the In Your Planet guide. I don't remember the scale; you might want to supplement them with something printed from Google Maps if you're a fan of paper maps (as I am).

Another point is that city buses/trams/subways are extremely inexpensive in Ukraine and thus very heavily used. Every trip I took was sardine-can-full for part of its route. I didn't want to attempt them when I had luggage with me, so I used taxis between bus/train stations and my hotels. Fortunately, taxis are generally very inexpensive.

There's a Ukrainian chain of cafeteria-style restaurants called Пузата хата (transliterated Puzata Hata). The L'viv location isn't too far from the historic center and is especially attractive, with huge windows. I was surprised that a lot of the employees (who trended young--maybe university students?) could understand basic English, so it usually worked to say "Chicken?" or something like that. You can see the food, which helps a lot. The soups were tasty. There are usually several kinds of salad available, and quite a wide variety of everything. It's all super-inexpensive, so it's a great opportunity to try things, knowing you can always go back for something else if something doesn't appeal. I particularly recommend the desserts--apple strudel, sour-cherry blintzes, little mini-cheesecakey things. I'm not sure about the hours, but they serve breakfast and work through the day into the evening. It's very popular with students, people out shopping, etc. The line moves really fast.

A nice day trip from Lviv could be the charming Polish town of Przemyśl, just over the border from Ukraine. There is a direct train between Lviv and Przemyśl that takes about 2:00 hrs.

Przemyśl is off the beaten path as far as international tourists are concerned, and has a long and rich history, it's also the second-oldest city in southern Poland (after Kraków).

Because of its layers of history, the town has plenty of architectural eye candy, especially in the baroque old center. If you are interested in WW1 history, Przemyśl fortress was the site of longest siege of the First World War. Przemyśl also has one of Poland's only surviving pre-WWII Jewish Synagogues (built in 1910). It was not destroyed by the Germans during WWII, as it was used as a stable by the German army during their occupation. The Synagogue's original art nouveau architecture is now preserved as a library.

Puzata Khata ( which means pot-bellied house) has some locations in Kyiv as well. If you're there in summer, make sure you try the varenyky (Ukrainian name for perogy) with cherries, topped with sour cream and sugar....sigh

Some other restaurants we liked in Lviv:

Baczewski (Ресторація Бачевських), vul Shevska, 8. (needs a reservation)

Atlas (Атляс) pl Rynok, 45

Veronika (Вероніка) pr Shevchenka, 21 - coffee/cake shop on ground floor and restaurant in the cellar

Rebernia pid Arsenalom (Реберня під Арсеналом) vul Pidvalna, 5 - grilled ribs and various sides

Borsch (Борщ) pl Katedralna, 3 - even if you don't eat there, you have to walk by and see the human varenyk walking around outside - quite amusing watching people stop to take pictures and selfies

If you get tired of Ukrainian food, there is a chain called Celentano which has not bad pizza and pasta, the one at pl Rynok, 21 is one of the better locations

Don't miss the Lvivska Maisternia Prianykiv (Львівська майстерня пряників) vul Krakivska, 14 - gingerbread shop with cookies in all shapes and sizes, including ones that look like embroidered shirts

We picked up the new edition of the Lonely Planet Ukraine guide last August before our trip and actually found it quite good. We were only in Lviv and Kyiv, but other than one restaurant listed in Lviv that turned out to be closed, we didn't find any errors. The museums in Ukraine are constantly changing their hours, to the extent that even the info on the sign in front of the Museum of Ethnography was wrong. The guide has lots of maps. I'm wondering if the In Your Pocket guide to Lviv is being updated - it seems to have vanished from their site?

Thanks for all the suggestions! I bought the new Lonely Planet so nice to hear that it helped you a lot. That day trip from Lviv looks exactly like something I am looking for too. I don't think I can ever tire of Ukrainian food, reminds me of my Grandmothers cooking (but no Pierogi will be as good as hers).

I've been to Lviv and Kyiv a few times. I particullarly love Kyiv; Lviv, only so-so. I am sitting here finalizing my tickets to Kyiv this evening. The trip is in about 10 days. Cant belive the rates I found this late. Anyway, If you have 2 more days in Lviv I would say take a couple of days to drive to Chernivtsi, and then fly to Kyiv from there. Stop along the way and do a little fishing, September is a great time of year to be in Eastern Europe; and in particular a place as wonderful as Ukraine.