I'm thinking of putting together a flash trip for this Fall and trying to fast track my planning. One week in Trastevere and 10 or 12 days split between Lviv and Kyiv. Curious where experienced Ukraine travellers stay in Lviv/Kyiv? For reference, we are two late 50's, fit, experienced European travellers.
Thanks, Peter
In Kyiv it has been three places.
Hyatt Regency Kyiv located near the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Monument and about midpoint between St. Sophia and St. Michaels. Location was great, but would I stay there again? No, did it because of some business while in town. Wouldnt do it again. Not my type of hotel.
Sentator Maidan located just a few feet from Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independenc Square or just called "Maidan" as in EuroMaidan), https://senator-apartments.com/ Stayed there twice and would do it again. Great hotel, great location; especially on a first trip.
Hotel Ukraine. Okay for this one you have to understand that I am an architect and a history nut. Dont do it. But it is pretty amazing for its history and it is an Icon of the city.
In Lviv
The Rudolfo: Excellent and will get my business again. Great location too. If not there, then get a place near. https://rudolfo.com.ua/
In Odesa
The Hotel Duke. Very good hotel in a convenient location, but I think next time I will try something different.
FYI
If you are going then there are two movies and a television show you have to see.
The movies are both documentaries and i believe all three are still available on Netflix
"Winter on Fire" the story of EuroMaidan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RibAQHeDia8
"Breaking Point - The War for Democracy in Ukraine" http://www.breakingpointfilm.com/
"Servant of the People". The guy played a school teacher that almost accidently became president. Then he ran for president and is their current president. Interesting for context https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6235122/
In Lviv last August we stayed at the Ibis Styles Lviv Center, Shukhevych st, 3. Quick walk to Ploscha Rynok, Prospekt Svobody, lots of cafes and restaurants around. Includes breakfast. Our room had a huge terrace overlooking old Lviv.
In Kyiv, second james' suggestion of Senator Maidan. Close to metro, Khreschatyk, can walk to St. Sophia's, Andriiyvsky Uzviz, etc.
James E and khrystia, thanks very much for your advice and recommendations. I usually enjoy in-depth planning over an extended time but in this case I don't have that luxury as my seasonal Summer business plus full time work doesn't allow for it. Your input really helps. I'm also following the other current Lviv/Kyiv thread and there's some good intel there as well.
Peter
Wow, Shukhevich st.? Decommunization gone wrong?
Perilofp...explanation please.
Just look up Shukhevich - the English Wikipedia is toned down a bit, but you will get the general picture.
I believe he is referring to the Volhynia massacre. Shukhevych was a Ukrainian nationalist who organized a genocide in Poland back in WWII.
Yup, revisionist history is always a threat:
It is ironic that a street named after a Russian who fought with the Nazis to kill Poles was renamed after a Ukranian who fought with the Nazis to .... kill poles.
Among the other traits of revisionist history is to eliminate all but a focused message ... and that leads to this sort of result:
The respected Levada Center polled Russians aged 18 and above in 137 towns and cities in March. The result: 51% respect, like or admire Stalin.
In the 1930s Stalin's communist terror engulfed the USSR, sending millions to labour camps or firing squads.
The Levada poll (in Russian) is the highest rating for Stalin in the past 20 years - a period that has seen his portrait reappear across Russia, often with official approval. New Stalin statues have gone up in various places.
One Russian newspaper carried the news with the headline: "Stalin the Superstar".
You can buy Stalin wall calendars, fridge magnets and other Generalissimo memorabilia in Russian shops, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow.
What exactly does it have to do with Stalin, or Russia for that matter?
Its a basic tenet of counter-terrorism training that "one person's terrorist is another person's freedom-fighter".
Yup, and that argument came up about the Nagy Statue in Budapest. But not having lived their history I try and learn rather than criticize
I will never understand that part of the human condition that engages in or supports those who engage in human extermination. I think by any standard, "freedom fighters" is one thing, mass slaughter of perfectly good humans is quite another. If Wikipedia is to be believed, in their quest for independence over the decades, Ukrainian citizens have endured a staggering amount of this. The term "Genocide" is writ large across their history.
When you are dealing with places with thousands of years of history you are going to find skeletons in the closet. The Ukranians suffered at the hands of the Russians death tolls not unlike the holocaust. Might help to understand why so many sided with the Germans when the Germans it was thought would run the Russians out. "Explain" but hard to say "justify". Antisemitism was rampant in Europe (and unfortunately still is). So hard to single them out there. Then the Polish issue. For 1000 years the border went north, then south and both sides killed many. Feelings ran strong and deep. Lets just hope we are becoming more civilized. If you make it to Lviv the Polish cemetary is interesting.
This is a very good article and worth reading if you are going to Ukraine, especially if you are going to Lviv.
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/the-paradoxes-polish-ukrainian-relations But read it all as there are some very odd paradoxes in the relationship between the two countries.
In the 1930s the Ukrainians suffered tremendously under Stalin...I suggest looking "Bloodlands" by T. Synder at Yale.
@ Peter...If you want to read up on Lviv prior to 1914 when the city was the 4th largest in Austria-Hungary and known as Lemberg, the province capital of Galicia, where various ethnic groups lived in relative harmony, Germans, Poles, Jews, Ruthenians, I heartily recommend P. Buttar's, "Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914." (2014), not only its operational military history but also for the horrors of war and its effects wreaked on local population.
In the West anglophone historiography is focused on the carnage and mutual slaughter in the Somme, Passchendaele, and Verdun, in the East this blood-letting was evident in the opening battles around Lemberg as the Russians invaded Galicia in August and Sept 1914.
I am from Lviv and as I know there are a lot of good hotels. But honestly, when someone ask me about nice place i'll say only about this: https://www.ramadalviv.com.ua/, It's hotel where you can relax after busy day. One word - beautiful place.
Sorry moronuta but this seems like a terrible location. Its 40 minutes west of Lviv old town by transit.
Our trip is over. We stayed at Apart-Hotel Horowitz just a 3 minute walk north of Rynok Square. We booked the Balcony Apartment at 14,200 UAH for 4 nights including a la carte breakfast and I would highly recommend that room at that property.
I'm sorry. This hotel is really far from the center, but this is its charm. There a noisy city does not stop you from sleeping. But I'm glad that everything went well with you!
